Dubai: The winners of the just-concluded Annual Inter-School Environmental Public Speaking Competition conducted by Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) have been announced.
The bilingual (Arabic/English) competition witnessed participation from more than 500 students and 90 teams. This educational programme that was initiated in 2001, aims to bring together youth from both private and public schools in the UAE and encourages them to share their views, concerns, and suggested solutions on pressing environmental issues that plague the planet.
The Philippine School Dubai emerged as the winners in two competitions covering the topics “The Omnipresent Micro-plastics: The Unseen Pandemic” and “Reaching Earth’s Threshold: Our Response to the Tipping Point”. Dubai International Academy, Emirates Hills, Dubai, were announced as the winner in the session on “Dwindling Lakes, Diminishing Rivers: Addressing Fresh Water Depletion” while Our Own High School Al Warqa’a, Dubai,
emerged the winner in the session on “Reviving Indigenous Secrets: Unlocking Locally Driven Sustainable Change”.
The competition is held annually in April to coincide with the Global Earth Day and brings together students from all the seven emirates who are provided with a platform to address four different environmental topics that require vital discussions on a local, regional and international level and bring about practical solutions for these issues.
The 23rd Cycle of the competition was co-sponsored by United Parcel Services (UPS). Sharjah National Oil Corporation also came on board as the support sponsor. Supporting entities of the competition included Dubai International Academic City, Studenthub, and Abela & Co.
EEG Co-Founder and Chairperson Habiba Al Mar’ashi said, “Environmental awareness and sustainability have become a pressing issue in today’s world. With climate change, pollution, and depletion of natural resources, it has become imperative to take action towards a sustainable future. EEG firmly believes that youth are our most valuable resource and in order to achieve an environmentally conscious and sustainability centric nation, we readily catalyse our actions at the grass root level. In order to ensure that the sustainable approach is ingrained into the minds of the youth, we began this pivotal journey 23 years ago.”
