Star International School Mirdif, Dubai’s community-oriented school, situated in the heart of Mirdif, recently announced the launch of its first-of-a-kind ‘Ocean Ambassadors’ programme, with the aim of educating students about the importance of ocean conservation from a young age. This initiative was inspired by the school’s recent ‘Dive for Debris’ drive, where staff took part in cleaning the Arabian Gulf from litter, which was further reinforced by Dubai 92’s ‘Underwater Garden’ competition.
Star International School Mirdif decided to sign up its student body to the ‘Dubai 92 Cares’ competition for coral reef conservation to start a community-wide movement focused on social responsibility and environmental sustainability. A passionate crew from the school’s certified divers accompanied by Ms Gill Roberts, Principle of Star International School Mirdif, who is also a certified PADI IDC Staff Instructor, took part in the ‘Dive for Debris’ clean-up drive at Jumeirah Beach a few weeks back.
A passionate crew from the school’s certified divers took part in the ‘Dive for Debris’ clean-up drive at Jumeirah Beach
The initiative received a lot of praise from the school’s community and its efforts to cleanse Dubai’s coral reefs and preserve marine life for future generations. At the conclusion of the dive, Star International Mirdif’s scuba diving team had discovered a wide variety of debris, with a number of items accounting for the majority of the ocean litter, such as water bottle caps, cigarette butts and covid masks. The participating staff also ensured that they shared their insights with students upon their return, where pupils were tasked with analysing these results against global data to determine any commonalities.
Furthermore, as part of Star International School Mirdif’s participation in Dubai’s 92’s ‘Underwater Garden’ competition, the school was challenged with designing an artificial coral reef that could be created and placed in the Indian Ocean off the Dibba coastline. As such, Dubai 92 joined forces with ‘Freestyle Divers’ in Dibba, where schools raised awareness about the preservation of marine life and maintained a healthy coral ecosystem.
The school was challenged with designing an artificial coral reef that could be created and placed in the Indian Ocean off the Dibba coastline
Talking about Star International School Mirdif’s active involvement in ocean conservation, Principal Gill Roberts commented: “I believe that children need to be educators, and in order to be an educator regarding the ocean, you need to understand how the ocean works. That is why we have launched our ‘Ocean Ambassadors’ programme where we aim to teach students from an early age about the hazards that human littering causes to marine life, and underline what they can do to help protect our oceans.”
The ‘Ocean Ambassadors’ initiative will educate students about the importance and methods of keeping oceans clean and preserving marine life through extensive classroom lessons and on-field exercises, which will be held at the school’s spacious swimming pool and the Arabian Gulf.