By Raynald C Rivera
DOHA: Ezdan Mall has stepped up efforts to help achieve a greener environment for Qatar by re-launching the Green Dream Academy under its Green Dream 2022 campaign aimed at planting 22 million trees across the country by 2022.
Thousands of trees have been planted across Qatar and thousands of people from various schools and communities have been involved since the campaign was launched. Ezdan Mall’s outdoor gardens have also been converted into green spaces where organic vegetables and fruits are being grown.
“It’s a green dream we sowed years ago and we are trying to replicate that dream into our mall environment,” General Manager Malik Qaiser Awan told this daily at the re-launch event on Sunday.
Various communities have joined hands with the mall in the project which have made it possible to plant trees whose number has now reached thousands, according to Awan.
“Thousands of saplings were planted across the country so far and we have communities and green ambassadors to promote the mission. We provide them a platform so any individual or community in Qatar can come and work with us,” he said.
The Green Dream Academy, which is the mall’s latest initiative under the programme, has already seen success just months after it began. “We started the Green Dream Academy in February and in a few months’ time thousands of people have come to us to learn how to cultivate plants. Our main objective is to educate children and create awareness on the importance of planting,” he said.
Currently, this latest project is indoor but there will be school visits when the schools open and the weather permits.
“Today after a month’s break and on the National Day of Pakistan, the Pakistan Bikers Association, the Pakistan Welfare Forum and Pakistan-Qatar Business Council requested us to re-launch the academy,” said Awan, adding a tree planting programme is in the works “which we will probably do with the Pakistan Bikers Association.”
The mall’s basement level, where the event was held, turned green in design and also with activities for children to promote green.
It also provided an overview of the other innovative initiatives of the mall under the campaign such as recycling and energy conservation.
Visitors at the event had a taste of watermelons directly harvested from Ezdan Mall’s organic garden.
“We currently have three outdoor gardens and the watermelons being distributed here came from our organic garden. We are also in talks with communities and schools so we can go and create gardens with them,” he explained.
A variety of crops are cultivated in the gardens including cucumber, cabbage, coriander watermelon and different fruits, according to the general manager.
“And now we have experts on board. This Friday some members of the Indian community are coming in to advise us what kind of vegetables we can grow. They have already experimented on this.”
He said they have also started an initiative to spread the culture of gardening in schools.
“We want also to come up with learning gardens in schools. We have already done it with three schools and our objective next year is to do it in 50 schools,” he said.
The re-launch event, which coincided with Pakistan National Day, was attended by hundreds of members of the Pakistani community including Imran Mughal, president of Pakistan Bikers Association and Ahmed Hussain, president of Pakistan-Qatar Business Council.
A number of restaurants and shops in the mall offered discounts and promotions on the occasion of Pakistan National Day.
The Peninsula
