MoECC launches Sustainability Makers Programme

In co-operation with Qatar Charity and the Biology Education of Qatar University Alumni association, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) launched the first Sustainability Makers Programme under the slogan "2030 Challenge."The programme, which runs from January to April, aims to enhance the concept of sustainable development among government school female students and is organised in two phases. The first phase includes a series of introductory and training workshops to train students on ways to transform sustainable development goals into projects and practical tools to overcome existing local challenges, while the second phase includes holding a competition next April to display and evaluate project models submitted by students participating in the programme.In this context, environmental researcher Suzan Mohamed Essam from the MoECC stressed the importance of this programme in educating schoolgirls about the goals of sustainable development, and ways to preserve and sustain the country's natural resources, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.She pointed out that two workshops have been organised since the launch of the programme at the beginning of January, while several other workshops are to be organised during the coming period, qualifying the students to propose and implement sustainable development projects following the programme's regulations, which will be presented to the judging committee next April in preparation for announcing the winning projects.The environmental researcher indicated that the first workshop held at the university under the title "Sustainability in Qatar" dealt with the definition of sustainable development and its goals, and a presentation of the most important sustainable projects in Qatar, in the presence of 150 female students from the schools participating in the programme.The workshop also included the presentation of interactive exercises to enrich students' information and raise levels of creative thinking, in addition to training on teamwork within the groups that have been formed.She explained that the second workshop was organised at Qatar University under the title "take care of the earth... the earth will take care of you," in the presence of 100 female students from the schools participating in the programme, pointing out that the most important local environmental challenges were introduced, and ways to overcome them by developing a number of sustainable solutions.