Stray Cats and Sartorial Surveys: Our Own Eco Club

Brief on initiatives:

'Protect The Paws' was an animal oriented initiative. It focused on bringing awareness about the miserable conditions of our furry friends in the UAE.

'Fun with Fabric' was an initiative taken up to educate and involve students with recycling and reusing fabrics.

'Protect The Paws' Survey:

The first step to propagating awareness about stray animals is getting to know how much students are informed about the stray cats in their vicinity.

Students were asked about how many cats they have in their locality. To that, the responses were varied. In fact, many responded that they were not aware of the number of stray cats in their locality. Some of them answered that there were around 5 to 7 cats in their residential area.

When asked about whether they helped the stray cats in any manner, they responded positively and added that their help was provided through food. One of them said she was allergic to cat fur and hence pulled back from helping the animals. Many of them said that the residents in their area pooled in money to buy cat feed. Some of them even fed the cats individually.

To the question of stray cats being a nuisance, all the students answered that they surely weren't and that these animals too are occupants of the earth and need a place to reside.

A set of questions were also asked to a few teachers to validate their eco consciousness. Our headmistress was asked about whether she has ever helped an injured animal. She exclaimed that her home was usually filled with guinea pigs or hamsters because her sons would leave her with no choice other than to help them.

One of our senior English teachers was asked whether she has ever fed stray animals. She replied that she was part of her resident association where the members pooled in money and fed the stray animals at 4 in the evening every day.

'Sartorial' Survey:

The students of our school were questioned about their choices in fabrics and fashion. Through this our aim was to measure the amount of eco consciousness they had when choosing clothes.

The girls were asked about whether they were frequently turned to for fashion advice. We had quite a few of them saying no and some who said yes.

They were then asked whether they passed on their clothes to relatives, friends or charities. Many of them said that they regularly donated their clothes to charities through the charity bins at various locations in Sharjah. Some of them said that they pass their clothes on to their lesser siblings.

The girls were questioned as to whether they were concerned about the price and comfort of the cloth or the design. There were a few of them who said that the design of the outfit was more important to them than the price or material of the cloth.  Many of them agreed that the price, durability and comfort of the outfit was of concern to them.

Upon being questioned whether they preferred synthetics or natural fibre clothes, they all seemed be lost for answers. After a few minutes, they answered in unison that they weren't exactly aware of the materials used in any of their outfits.

Our supervisor was asked whether she looked at the design or comfort of clothes. She replied that she was more into designer clothes than the comfort factor. She added that the design of the cloth added to her confidence whereas comfort wasn't too important for her.

We asked out computer teacher whether she would be interested to buy clothes that were from our 'Recycle Runwaay' initiative. She hesitated to answer that she wasn't too keen on buying clothes made of recycled materials!

These initiatives are being implemented in a full fledged manner and soon our school will take it to the global level.