We are delighted to share a blog written by team EcoVille, from Our Own English High School, Sharjah – Girls, delivering a Global Goals project for the 2020-21 GSL Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
A thrilling and valuable experience which helped us become productive & considerate environmentalists.
Project Summary
We are EcoVille [pronounced eco-will], a team of budding innovators hailing from Our Own English High School Sharjah, UAE. Our team consists of Humairah, Afsheen, Shreya, Alisha and Suchi. We came together as a team for the GSL Global Goals competition. We work towards a sustainable future and strive to make our products eco-friendly.
As the quantity of plastic increases in this world, the natural decomposition of this non-biodegradable material does not take place. We have come up with a plan to reduce the use of plastic and simultaneously elevate the number of plants on this Earth. Utilizing storage products made from date palm would prove healthier than plastic products as date palm fibres can decompose and would provide fertility to the soil. During the making of these products, we will incorporate plant seeds into them. Once the products are out of use, they will be discarded into junk. When the products are discarded into the soil, they will decay whilst providing fertility to the soil and after a while, will result in plants growing due to the seeds inherent in them. Decrease of plastic and increase of greenery with only the implementation of our product!
Global warming is a persistent complication which worries the innovators, researchers and scientists of the world. Our project was also inspired by this constant worry as many people still have the nonsensical belief that global warming is not an issue to worry about. Our ambition is to tackle one of the leading causes of global warming. Although our product itself will address this global issue on a small scale, with more of our upcoming projects, we aim to improve the situation around us. If we manage to build an international community, our projects will be executed by people globally which may be deciphered as an insufficient move to tackle this issue but we believe that even one person’s actions matter. And if one person manages vigilance over their actions, it might just prove to be a progress towards handling global warming.
The Journey
EcoVille has had an intricately resistant journey throughout this competition. However, we still don’t believe that we have achieved as much as our intended goals. Together we have grown to be mindful of all our actions and we have developed a sense of estimation of our actions, and whether our actions affect the world negatively or positively. We think about the earth and our goals, and act with deep compassion towards nature. We have learned that change comes from within; in order to change the world around you, you must first change yourself. Our determination to change the world has taught us that we must, firstly, change ourselves. We have definitely reformed our activities to adapt to our initiative; using cloth bags over plastic, metal bottles over plastic and more. Additionally, we now feel comfortable to advise others to do the same as these habits have become routine for us. Our biggest challenge though, is the desire of our product to be used worldwide. Our target is the four corners of the world, however, we can’t even manage to manufacture enough products for the one around us. Although this stands as our biggest obstacle, we are filled with motivation to turn our small competition group into an intercontinental enterprise.
The Next Chapter
Like we said before, EcoVille has big dreams and high ambitions. We want to come up with more products other than just Date Palm Dynamix. We have a couple of plans for upcoming initiatives and future projects. We also wish to campaign more, an activity we weren’t able to explore previously due to the pandemic. Collaborating with other teams who share similar ideas as us and organizations with objectives alike ours is also on our agenda. Creating new and innovative ideas to get our friends, and especially the ones of our age group, to participate in our initiatives and be interested in activism for climate action is one of our intentions for the coming year. Growing our community and attracting more people to join is one of our main objectives so that we, EcoVille, as a group and enterprise, can be successful and influential.
