Dubai Electricity and Water Authority Celebrates Earth Day in Kidzania

Children of all ages to participate in entertaining and educational role-play scenarios and for the first time creative recycling and an eco-fashion show Dubai: In accordance with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA) relentless efforts for the cause of sustaining our living environment, DEWA commemorated Earth Day 2011, by engaging young members of the community in fun activities and environmentally-conscious role-play during a family open day for DEWA employees, their children and participating schools at Kidzania, in The Dubai Mall. Held on Sunday 24th April from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., the DEWA event encouraged children of all ages to participate in entertaining and educational role-play scenarios which had been tailored to the Earth Day mandate just like in a modern city. Activities included arts & crafts workshops, painting, collective pledging, songs, plant-a-seed activity, environment reporting & broadcasting, creative recycling and an eco-fashion show in which the young models wore designs made from recycled products. On this occasion, His Excellency Saeed Mohamed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA said, “The young play an important part in DEWA’s environmental strategy and we lay special attention to building conservation initiatives and campaigns that raise awareness and educate youth and children on the importance of energy conservation. It is through educating in an entertaining and memorable way that we will secure a sustainable and healthy world for generations to come. ” “The DEWA event in Kidzania plays a critical role in reaching out to the young audience in the Emirate and is one of many drives aimed at instilling a ‘conservation habit’ in the minds of children to ensure that future generations live their lives with conservation as a core value,” His Excellency Al Tayer further added. To this effect DEWA has established an on-line edutainment club called the ‘Splashy and Sparky Club’ www.snsclub.ae filled with fun activities and purposeful ‘green’ content, represented by colourful Dubai Electricity and Water mascots Splashy and Sparky. Talking on DEWA’s environmental initiatives for children, Amal Koshak Senior Manager Demand & Tariff Manager said; “If children grow up learning about the importance of protecting our environment against the increasing threat of carbon emissions and global warming then they are more likely to live their daily lives with conservation in mind. The DEWA Earth Day event in Kidzania was the perfect platform to reach out to the young audience with a variety of fun activities and disseminate our conservation tips and practical advice on how they can save electricity and water and safeguard the environment.” Each year Earth Day, celebrated on April 22nd, marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Today, Earth Day is the largest environmental service campaign in the world, attracting more than 40 million environmental service actions made by people across the globe. For 2011, the Earth Day network has taken the theme ‘A Billion Acts of Green’ to build commitments by individuals, organisations, corporations and governments in honour of Earth Day. It is intended to inspire an appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment and to encourage people to demonstrate their commitment, or act of green in whatever way they can to reducing carbon emissions and building a sustainable Planet Earth. The goal is to register one billion actions in advance of the global Earth Summit in Rio in 2012.