Now you can report dumped trolleys. Here’s how
NEW WHATSAPP SERVICE BY AN INDIAN SCHOOL GROUP AIMS TO HELP IN THEIR RETRIEVAL
An Ajman-based Indian school group has launched a WhatsApp service to put an end to the menace of abandoned trolleys that poses safety hazards and causes losses running into tens of thousands of dirhams for retailers in the UAE.
The “Spot and Report” service launched by the Habitat School Group encourages students and their families as well as the wider community to report trolleys they find within the community.
People can send a photo and location of the trolleys they find in public places to the WhatsApp number +971 56 14 15 166.
Speaking to Gulf News, Shamsu Zaman C.T, managing director of Habitat Schools, said the management has tied up with various retail groups to inform them about the initiative.
“Now, anyone can report abandoned trolleys lying around in public places due to carelessness of some people while others struggle looking for these at the retail outlets,” he said.
“When a school takes up such a project through its students, it reaches several families and that can make a huge difference.”
Social responsibility
The primary intention, he said, is to connect students to social responsibility tasks.
“It helps in changing student attitude towards the surroundings and instills civic sense and responsibility in them. Staff of supermarkets, hypermarkets and malls have to spend enormous amounts of time and energy going around spotting these trolleys and taking them back.”
Though the group has schools in Ajman and Sharjah, it has tied up with major retailers with branches across the UAE.
“We have received very supportive feedback from the retailers. They have shared dedicated numbers to report trolleys belonging to their groups when we get notifications about them.”
Retail groups such as Carrefour, Lulu, Nesto, Xpressions Style-Safeer, Safari Mall, Ajman Cooperative Society, Kenz and Grand Mall have already partnered with the project.
Since the launch of the project on February 7, the service has received reports of abandoned trolleys belonging to these groups and others too.
“As and when we get reports of trolleys belonging to groups that are not yet our partners, we will contact them and make them a beneficiary of the project,” said Shamsu.
Habitat for tomorrow
The trolley recovery project entails a participatory programme in which teachers, students, parents and consultants of the Habitat Schools will join a social responsibility project titled “Habitat for Tomorrow”.
The project which encourages giving back to the society will include environmental projects for forestation, waste management and pollution control, community service including visits to old age homes, mental asylums, hospitals for the poor and bringing people together through conversations across cultures and social categories.
“Tomorrow has to be a tomorrow for every single one (person); together we grow. Habitat Schools are committed to that idea and Habitat for Tomorrow is our latest step for such a vision”, Shaikh Sultan Al Nuaimi, chairman of the group, said in a media statement.
The school already has a charity arm, “Habitat for Hope” and a unique summer assignment project “Let’s Grow this Summer”, through which 15,531 trees were planted, 15,439 hospitals/poor homes were visited and 53,946 new interactions took place with elders, the statement added.