My school, the DPS Sharjah holds an annual fundraiser event, the Carnival for the students of Grades 6-8 and this event offers fun, food, games and prizes. The essence of this event is to bring about a sense of responsibility among the students to handle their own stalls and also acts as a day out for the children to break the monotony. This year, it was held recently on 11^th December and was the typical fun day.

I being in Grade 9 participated in the carnival as an Eco-Committee member of my school and handled the Eco-Booth that was one of the stalls, allotted to the Eco-Committee to spread awareness about the environment, hold eco-friendly games, conduct quizzes, etc. Early in the morning, I set out as a littering fine collector, which was a very innovative idea to accommodate the vision of our school i.e. to be completely litter free. This was a very innovative idea by our traliblazer of sustainability, our dear environment coordinator, who formed the supporting backbone of the event, Mrs. Anjum Hasan.

An AED 5/- fine was charged to the litterers if caught red handed. This was done to reprimand the parents and the students who did not care about the cleanliness of the school and teach them about not littering by imposing a monetary fine on them. We collected a big amount within one hour, and rest assured, after that the Green Field and the Food Court Area was spotlessly clean!

In the evening, I actually went to the Eco-Booth, dressed it up, and got a few games, the winners of which were awarded with hand-made, Eco-Friendly products such as Art from Waste Models, Eco-Friendly Cups, handmade coasters, etc. One of the games was ?Aim and Win? in which the participants had to throw a dart on a dartboard, but it has to land on one of the pictures which were really disturbing, showing the disastrous situation of the environment. Each picture was given a certain number of points, and after a particular threshold, a prize was allotted.

I also held a quiz on 'Drinking Water and Sanitation' in front of the whole carnival from the request stall, which was like a DJ stall from where I could speak on a Mic and conduct the quiz. The questions were quite challenging but I was happy to know that many children gave correct responses to the questions in the due course of the same.

There were questions like:

Q1. How many people in the world lack access to clean drinking water?

a.      1 in 8

b.     1 in 15

c.      1 in 20

d.     1 in 50

Q2. How many people die every day from lack of access to clean drinking water?

a.      1,200

b.     4,800

c.      4,000

d.     3,600

Such Questions were asked in the quiz and needless to say, the environmentally aware students of our school were able to answer them efficiently.

Not only the students, but even the bus drivers of our school were asked questions on how do they conserve water at home. We received a variety of responses from the various drivers ranging from, washing their buses using rags instead of hose pipes to reduce the amount of water used tremendously to washing their clothes only when needed and not on a redundant regular basis. We were extremely elated to note that the bus drivers of our school were well aware of out Mother Earth's situation and were able to bring up some solutions to the forefront about the problem of the elixir of life: Water, particularly on efficient use of drinking water, its conservation and knowledge regarding its sanitation

In a nutshell, the Carnival 2014, with a touch of sustainability and a hint of environmental awareness was an event that one could not forget. Ranging from littering fines, to the mind-boggling quiz, everyone, even our principal was indeed glad to come and explore the event that taught the general public about the significant steps that we can take which will lead us to a greener tomorrow.