Recently, the Pakistan Association, Dubai held the beach clean up on the Pakistan day with great pomp and ceremony. This was a part of the ?Clean Up The World? campaign organized by the Dubai Municipality. This clean up was held on Jumeirah open beach, opp. to Umm Suquiem park and had the slogan, ?Our Eyes On Our Beaches?.

The crew over there was very hospitable and polite. They were very kind with the ladies and children present amidst the huge crowd. They were handing out T-shirts and caps to everybody with a huge smile on their faces. There were also a few people from the Dubai municipality who were lending a hand in putting up the banners, handing out the merchandise, etc. In no time, a huge crowd had gathered and the beach was buzzing with activity. Many schools, offices and other organizations had come to take part in this activity. People of many different nationalities participated with vigor in the event.

The Clean Up campaign started at 9:30 am after some instructions from the head of the campaign and the distribution of garbage bags and everybody set off to clean up the entire stretch of yellowish-brown sand strewn with garbage and other waste materials. I was dumbstruck and immediately started cleaning the beach effectively putting in a lot of hard work and not leaving even a single piece of scrap lying around. With a lot of help from my brother, Raunak, who was also a part of this initiative, we(along with the other people) cleaned the whole beach in no time.

This event raised the awareness among all about the very commonly heard catchphrase, ?Cleanliness is next to Godliness.? I think it was a great campaign and helped all of us to realize that we should all keep our Mother Earth clean and green. Whenever we use something, we should dispose off it immediately in assigned bins, plenty of which were available in Dubai so that there is no need to organize such clean up campaigns where we end up clearing up for someone else?s waste which, if would have been thrown immediately, would not have been rotting in this landfill or beach. That?s why I encourage all the Citizens and residents of the UAE to clean up instantly so that there is no procrastination of cleaning up. On this earth day, the 22^nd April 2013, lets us take a pledge that we will keep our Mother Earth clean and green as this is the best gift we can give to our Mother.