Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) announces the winning schools in this year’s Project: Greenhouse Competition, an initiative of Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First campaign.
This year, the school who produced the most impressive crop of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs was Audio Education Complex for Girls. Second place was awarded to Seoud Bin AbdulRehman Elementary School for Boys, while Um Salal Mohammed Elementary School for Girls came third.
Project: Greenhouse has provided greenhouses, soil, seeds and plant pots to more than 130 schools across Qatar to help students learn about the environment, sustainability, food security, agriculture and the benefits of eating a healthy diet. Students have responded with enthusiasm, planting seeds and tending their crops diligently to produce bumper yields of cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines, zucchini, capsicum, cilantro, parsley and more.
That hard work was rewarded when WCM-Q representatives, joined by Fatima Al Obaidly from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, visited the winning schools to present students with trophies recognising their success.
Nesreen Al Rifai, Chief Communications Officer at WCM-Q, said they are very happy to recognise the hard work and success of all of the children taking part in Project: Greenhouse – she said that the schools made them so proud.
Their enthusiasm is what has made Project: Greenhouse such a success and has given us the opportunity to expand the scheme with the launch of the Khayr Qatarna brand that not only promotes healthy eating but also raises awareness of the importance of self-sufficiency and food security.’
Project: Greenhouse is supported by Sahtak Awalan’s strategic partners: Qatar Foundation, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry of Environment and Municipality, Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, and the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
Grade 5 students Amina Ayman, Shaheeda Muhammad and Aisha Khalid were chosen to receive the trophy on behalf of their school. Amina said they learned a lot about growing plants.
It was really fun seeing them sprout and the taller plants like the tomatoes begin climbing up the walls of the greenhouse.’
The girls were also very enthusiastic about taking care of their plants. Shaheeda said they know now that they need to plan carefully and plant seeds evenly. Aisha added that they did not use any chemicals to their plants.
Under Khayr Qatarna, three large-scale, hi-tech climate-controlled greenhouses were installed in selected schools. These greenhouses are now being used to grow fruit and vegetables that the Ministry of Agriculture will then distribute through local supermarkets under the Khayr Qatarna brand. Students will continue to be involved and will be able to visit the greenhouses, learning more about food production and economics. Proceeds from the sale of the produce will be reinvested to expand the scheme.
For more information about Project: Greenhouse and Khayr Qatarna, visit sahtakawalan.com.
