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If we love our environment and take care of it, the benefits too will come to us. This is what a group of Kenyans believe in. They have been trying to raise environmental awareness while doing their bit to help the cause of the environment. The group has been carrying out several initiatives to preserve the environment.
Recently, the group met and discussed about this year's World Environmental Day which was themed 'Connecting People to Nature', and how they, as a group, could conserve the environment. They participated in activities that demonstrated, how, if they practised as a team, they could do a lot to protect the environment.
Talking to Qatar Tribune, Benjamin Gathua, a member of the group, said,"We discussed and demonstrated how we could work together to protect the environment."
Gathua said that during the meeting, it was made amply clear how preserving the environment was the obligation of each one of them, and that they should not wait for others to do the job.
"It is the responsibility of each one of us. We shouldn't wait for someone else to do it," he noted.
During the gathering, they had a session where they drew an object that represented the environment in any form, like trees, mountains, fish, water, among others."Through this we discussed how we could talk about environment through art, so that we are able to teach others about how to take care of these resources," he explained.
They also discussed how to save water and energy."In Qatar, we have enough water and energy but we have to conserve them. We shouldn't misuse water and we should switch off light bulbs and electrical gadgets when we are not using them. We should also use energy-saving bulbs," he pointed out.
Another group member, Francis Muturi said they did a lot of 'green' activities during their gathering."All types of green activities also improve self-esteem and negative mood subscales, such as tension, anger and depression. Interestingly, the first five minutes of a green exercise appears to have the biggest impact on mood and self-esteem, suggesting an immediate psychological health benefit," he said.
The group members also discussed many recycling projects that they have already undertaken and some that are in the pipeline.
"We discussed about reusing items such as donating clothes that we no longer use. We also discussed about how to make murals using bottle caps, as well as using polyethylene bags to make recycled balls," he said.
Muturi added that they also talked about how to prevent soil erosion and the various ways of stopping global warming. Recently, they also carried out a beach-cleaning exercise at Mesaeeid.
Margaret Kabue, another member, said,"We believe that Qatar benefits from our green activities by achieving its environmental development as part of the Qatar National Vision 2030."
