The young eco-champs Hall of Fame
We highlight the profiles of other students and pupils who have made a difference
In the past few years, many of our Community Reporters have written about their efforts to conserve the environment and reduce their carbon footprint. We recognise some who have succeeded in making a difference.
For Kehkashan Basu, a 15-year-old student based in Dubai, the journey began when she was eight. She said: “I decided to start taking action, which initiated with me planting a tree, followed by a campaign for recycling and waste reduction in my neighbourhood.” Today, she is the Global Coordinator for the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Major Groups for Children and Youth — the youngest person to ever hold this position. She has also formed a youth group in the UAE, the Green Hope Foundation.
Simran Vedvyas, a 15-year-old based in Dubai, was inspired by her grandfather’s farm in India. When she would visit, at the age of seven, she would spend time with the children of the workers, teaching them English and in turn, learning about the environmental hazards and threats to children, while they planted saplings together.
She said: “Every project had its own set of challenges, but I continued leading students from various institutions through my youth group SynergY.”
Along with her group, she has successfully planted over 3,000 trees in landfills around the UAE and distributed food to thousands of workers during Ramadan. She was invited as a youth speaker to the Eye on Earth Summit in 2011 and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012.
Rohan Kapur, a 17-year-old student in Sharjah, took part in Earth Day activities in his school when he was seven and it was “love at first sight”.
He said: “My initiative, ‘Serve The Earth’, has made a huge difference, inspiring over 60 students and their families to work towards a greener tomorrow. The recycling initiatives have managed to collect over 12,000kg of paper, 3,500kg of plastic and 400kg of cans over a span of three events in 2015 and 2016. We have managed to save more than 204 trees, which is a relatively massive impact.” He was appointed the Ambassador of Tunza Eco-Generation to the Middle East and works closely with Bee’ah, Sharjah’s environmental company.
In 2014, Neola Castelino, a 12-year-old pupil in Dubai, started recycling. She has collected more than 8,000kg of newspapers and magazines. Her mission didn’t end there as she progressed to plastic bottles, which were collected and dropped at the Bee’ah reverse vend- ing machines in Sharjah. student