At the end of each Amideast session, I lead a group of 40 scholarship students on an activity to promote civic awareness and responsible citizenship. Last Thursday, along with 3 other groups of 40, we cleaned up a beach along the causeway between Khormaksar and the mainland, Cheikh Othman. This area is actually a protected bird preserve, but suffers from pollution because many of those who drive along there, merely jettison their plastic bags and bottles out the window. There was all kinds of consumer trash: plastic..plastic bags, potato chip bags, bottles, plastic pipes, plastic cups, broken glass bottles and tires too. It was very dirty and stinky, as you can imagine. A TV crew showed up and filmed us, but nobody told me that we came out on TV, so I dont think we made the final cut. It was a workout picking up so much trash in the hot Arabian sun. It wasnt that bad, but it was dehydrating. Afterwards, we debriefed the activity and reflected on the experience over sandwiches and soda back at Amideast. These kinds of volunteer activities are great for promoting awareness. I noticed that the students were impacted by the "unusual" nature of this activity and wanted to share it with their community and perhaps create more clean-ups on a regular basis involving their schools.
As Margaret Mead once said, "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
