20 years Green Footprints - Join in!: Results > Results 2023 > United Arab Emirates
This year, because COP28 is in Dubai, we had the opportunity to involve a local school in Dubai in the campaign. Thus, students from the Deutsche Internationale Schule Dubai participated in collecting green footprints this year and will take part in the handover at the COP. In total, 600 children participated in collecting 19,077 GrĂ¼ne Meilen / Green Footprints this year in Dubai!
Teacher Regina Jeckl, in charge of general studies, organized the Climate Voyage world journey with the third and fourth grades. Divided into groups, the children engaged with the 15 stations, creating informative posters.
On the last day of the project week, all around 350 elementary school students were given the opportunity to actively participate in the world journey. At different stations, they learned about the measures individual countries are taking for climate protection.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world," sang the fourth-grade students on the final day of the Climate Protection Week at DISD.
On symbolic "Green Footprints" made of cardboard, children wrote down their environmental wishes. Messages like "Turn off the lights in Dubai at night!", "Less ship and boat traffic on the seas! Protect the oceans!" and "Dear politicians, we should plant more trees!", "Reduce plastic products!" could be read there.
First-grade student Sophia, while coloring a red point for some action on climatefriendly food, shared, "I learned that fruits and vegetables from Dubai are also very tasty." Interestingly, starting from the second grade, the young environmentalists even opted to go paperless and digitally colored their collection booklets on tablets.
In the kindergarten, there was a lot of reading, explaining, drawing, and crafting on the topic of climate protection. The educators also encouraged all parents to participate in a recycling project, collecting beverage cartons that were then built into an impressive Burj Khalifa in the kindergarten foyer. This structure serves as a daily reminder for children and parents about the importance of environmentally conscious actions. Julia Badrakhan, deputy kindergarten director, emphasizes, "Through participation in the project, we have instilled in the children an understanding of environmentally conscious behavior." Even the youngest expressed environmental wishes for a better world by drawing them on small flags and sticking them into the finished tower.