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Dubai students' special reason for going green

Dubai - A long-term youth campaign, which champions a sustainable future, Green Hope has one aim - eco responsibility.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has made a point of telling governments to "leave no one behind", and this is exactly the motto Dubai-based Kehkashan Basu stands by.
The 16-year-old Deira International School student is the founder of youth sustainability organisation, Green Hope.
A long-term youth campaign, which champions a sustainable future, Basu said Green Hope has one aim - eco responsibility.
But most importantly, it wants to hear the views of everyone in society, including those who are marginalised.
"I really support Ban's attitudes towards inclusion. At Green Hope, we want to turn this into reality because for us, full engagement is very important."
This week, seven ambassadors from Green Hope, including Basu, conducted an engagement workshop at Senses Dubai, a residential care home for children with special needs.
Interacting with 40 children aged 10-12-years-old, Basu said the experience taught her a lot.
"These children had a huge passion for protecting their environment. Our aim was to go their and spread awareness to them, but as well as that they taught us new things."
Participating in a host of enviro-games, Basu said the activities gave the students a chance to express their views on sustainability issues.
"They painted a picture of their ideal planet on tee-shirts, and participated in a game of friendly darts where they threw targets at the sustainability issues which they felt needed more focus."
And according to the Senses Dubai, food and water waste are the biggest culprits of eco-wrongdoing.
"When they highlighted this issue to us, we discussed ways to reduce food waste. Then the students, of their own accord, said they wanted to make awareness posters to educate kids who aren't aware about such issues."
She said the passion they had for doing right was humbling. Besides giving suggestions about awareness posters, many of the students promised to start their own kitchen gardens in a bid to curb food wastage.
Following Green Hope's successful debut workshop at Senses, Basu said the future plan is to revisit once every one or two months to keep the discussion alive among the children.
"We are encouraging them to come up with their own ideas, so when we come back, it'll be interesting to see what they have to say."
But for Basu, the experience reiterated one thing.
"These children have a voice and they want to use it, so let's encourage them to do so."
kelly@khaleejtimes.com