While attending  the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro , Brazil  I became a Climate Justice Ambassador for the global organization , Plant-for-the-Planet , and we planted two saplings right in the middle of RIOCENTRO while the Earth Summit was in progress.

Thereafter , I was appointed as the ACADEMY  COORDINATOR for the UAE . It was also then , in June , that I  started working on a plan to bring the Plant-for-the-Planet initiative to the UAE. Over the next several weeks , plans were made , invitations sent out , meetings held with several schools and finally I was ready to roll out.

We finalized 22^nd September as the day of the event. The magnificent ballroom of the Hotel Intercontinental,  located in the picturesque Dubai Festival City, was the venue of the academy. I was also able to make arrangements for planting several saplings which was basically at the core of our academy. In all , we planted 64 saplings.

I composed and performed a song with a green message and the entire audience joined in the chorus.

Our academy was full of energetic and enthusiastic discussions and received an overwhelming response and we had a full house of  students, some of them even drove down from different cities, such as Abu Dhabi ( 2 hours drive ) , Ajman and Sharjah.

I concluded the academy by quoting Mark Twain, who said ?Don?t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.? All of us agreed that this academy was just the first step and together we could and should work towards a more sustainable future.

So , STOP TALKING , START PLANTING for a better tomorrow!

 The academy was a huge success and drew media attention as well.

Report in Gulf News :

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/uae-s-first-plant-for-the-planet-academy-takes-flight-1.1080185

UAE?s first Plant-for-the-Planet Academy takes flight

Students from Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Abu Dhabi take part

• Staff Report
• Published: 17:48 September 23, 2012

Dubai: Scores of UAE students pledged support to the battle against climate change in the UAE?s first Plant-for-the-Planet Academy held at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City on Saturday.

Plant-for-the-Planet is a global children?s initiative where children will take on the role to empower other children in Plant-for-the-Planet Academies. It aims to train over one million children in up to 20,000 Academies worldwide by 2020.

Dubai resident Kehkashan Basu, 12, who represented the UAE youth at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil in June, organised the event as the Academy Coordinator.

She passed on the Academy?s stong message ?Stop talking. Start planting.? to students from Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Abu Dhabi.

Report in the ?7 DAYS? newspaper :

http://www.7daysindubai.com/Meet-UAE-s-green-girl-spreading-eco-message/story-17021475-detail/story.html

Meet the UAE's green girl spreading eco message

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Young student is encouraging other children to spread the eco message and get planting trees,