Tribune News Network
Doha
STUDENTS at GEMS Wellington School, Qatar celebrated 'Kindness Week' which included five days of diverse activities and community events.
'Kindness Week' was aimed at engaging students in environmental and social activities, educating them through practice on best attitude towards their community, peers, animals, family and environment. It also served as an opportunity for the participants to leave the world a better place than they found it and inspire others to do the same.
Speaking on the initiatives, Caz Jude, vice-principal, said:"GEMS Wellington truly believes in instilling the core values of global citizenship, and 'Kindness Week' is a good opportunity to showcase these values. We believe experiences like these will help our students grow and be more responsible towards their community, animals and environment."
Some of the key activities undertaken by the school during the week included: students showing kindness to the earth by a beach clean-up campaign, kindness to community where year two students wrote 'thank you' letters to the school's cleaners and security staff, thanking them for all their hard work in keeping the school clean and safe.
Students learnt about the importance of showing kindness towards each other and how important empathy and tolerance are. Students in year four visited Qatar Animal Welfare Society and learnt how to take care of the animals like cats and dogs. Students also thought about their behaviour at home and how to value and show respect to their families. They wrote 'thank you' notes to their families to show their appreciation and gratitude for everything they do for them.
A group of key stage 3 students embarked on their first overseas community project expedition to Kenya. The students spent their time working within the local community on projects established by Camps International. They worked with local land owners, de-worming their livestock to keep them free from disease. The students also worked on a valuable conservation project making an elephant deterrent fence to protect local farmers' land from the elephants. Finally, there was a community based project at Murungu Hills Primary School. The students repaired the school corridors and built a ramp for one of the classrooms and they even had time to teach some English lessons and play some games with the local children. The students worked incredible hard and will treasure the memories they made for a lifetime.
'Kindness Week' is one of the many activities that take place at GEMS Wellington School. These activities are a major part of enhancing the students' personalities and opens up their horizons to the real world.