DUBAL drives environmental awareness at school level

The second season of the educational initiative driven by Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (DUBAL), known as the DUBAL Clubs of Excellence, drew to a successful close for the 2010/2011 academic year at an award ceremony held on Tuesday 7 June 2011 at Al Sufooh High School for Girls. Mohammed Yahya (Manager: Corporate Relations & International Affairs: DUBAL) attended the event, at which prizes to a total value of AED 50,000 were presented to as follows:

Al Sufooh Secondary Schools, First Place

Dubai High School, Second Place

The Islamic Education School, Third Place 

Shaikha Al Mehairi (Senior Corporate Relations & international Affairs Officer: DUBAL) advises that the DUBAL Clubs of Excellence entails the establishment of individual clubs of the same name at selected schools in Dubai. “The mission and purpose of the clubs is to create awareness among young students on specific themes that project DUBAL’s objectives, with the themes being identified on an annual basis,” says Ms Shaikha. “For the 2010/2011 academic year, the programme again focused on protecting the environment. The members of each club (all students) organized field trips to DUBAL; and hosted activities in which the environment was highlighted.”  

Accordingly, all of the projects implemented by the participating schools reflected the importance of the environment and spread awareness of how to protect the environment. “The winning schools went the extra mile to show how much they care for the environment,” Ms Shaikha adds. “Their genuine concern for the environment was demonstrated through excellent projects like minimizing energy and water consumption inside and outside the schools; planting trees in the school premises and the neighbourhood; and using organic pesticides produced internally in the school, the latter being a key element of the Al Sufooh High School for Girls’ projects.” 

Under the umbrella of DUBAL Clubs of Excellence, the schools also participated in numerous environmental drives during this year, namely: Emirates Environmental Group’s Can Collection Drive, Clean Up the World, and Earth Hour 2011. In addition, DUBAL’s Environment Health & Safety department supported the Clubs of Excellence mission by conducting several environmental lectures at the participating schools. Exhibitions were also held to project the “3-Rs” concept (recycle, reuse and reduce), whereby students devised innovative ideas to recycle/reuse used or unwanted materials like plastic bottles, aluminium cans, CDs, plastic bags, magazines and newspaper into useful items such as magazine holders, key chains, boxes and home decoration accessories. 

Ms Shaikha advises that an additional, special award was presented to Al Shoroq Private School (females) for the most innovative idea. The club members planted seeds in the water (to maximize nutrition) and their products are used domestically within the school community. “This project was judged by the evaluation committee as the best environmental project for this year,” she says. 

Commenting on the continued success of the DUBAL Clubs of Excellence initiative, Ms Shaikha said, “The positive outcomes of this project indicate that DUBAL is on the right track. Our main goal is to turn the students into environment ambassadors. Judging by the creative projects done by these young students, it is clear that we are heading towards achieving this goal.” 

DUBAL will continue the Clubs of Excellence project in the next academic year, and will be targeting more schools within the city of Dubai. Whereas the project has only targeted high school students until now, DUBAL and Dubai Educational Zone are considering including primary students in the upcoming year. 

“DUBAL is proud of the partnership-type relationship established with the Ministry of Education and Dubai Educational Zone over the years, which has grown from regular school visits over the years into bigger projects like the DUBAL Educational Award and the DUBAL Clubs of Excellence,” concludes Ms Shaikha. “I extend my gratitude to the dedicated committee from Dubai, headed by Noora Al Mutawa.”