Today's Edition
KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (Abu Dhabi)
On Monday, the 12th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) kicked off at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, where keynote speakers called for increased efforts to educate younger generations on the environmental concerns affecting their future. Just next door, these words were put into practice, as the Youth Environmental Education Congress (YEEC), a parallel event run by and for the youth, invited those very young people to participate.
Delivered in four languages, the event introduced school students to the conference, complete with interactive displays ranging from a native bird enclosure to a variety of stalls run by nature conservations, educational institutions, and international and local organisations.
Young people from a variety of different nationalities were invited to bond over their love of nature as part of an ice breaker activity, where they were asked to stand in two lines and converse using conversation prompts given by the hosts. A Moroccan teen standing at the front told his Emirati peer about the glories of the hiking in the mountains; a love that they both shared. They invited one other to hike and enjoy the mountains of their home countries.
Elsewhere, an Omani boy who introduced himself as Falak went on to share his love of music and conservation with a Canadian peer, who listened intently to his theory on how music could unite us in our bid to save the planet.
The session was a short introduction to the big week ahead for the Youth Congress, which will invite young people from across the world to come together to learn and demand action for the planet that they will all one day inherit.
