(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Doha Environmental Actions Project (DEAP), a group of volunteers cleaning beaches of Qatar for the last seven months, has launched its anti-littering campaign called 'More than Sand & Sea encouraging people to dispose of their trash responsibly for cleaner ocean, improving tourism, and better health.
DEAP was formed by a group of expatriates led by Canadian Jeanne Bédard Brown who started beach cleaning in May last year. After more than 35 clean-up operations and collection of more than 3,000 grocery size bags full of trash, the group has decided to address the source of trash littering.
DEAP, with volunteers from over 20 different nationalities, envisioned the anti-littering campaign from a desire to share love of Qatar's natural beauty, yet unexplored by most, with the aim of triggering emotions, national pride, and ultimately encouraging citizens and residents to be their better selves.
The group says it is keen to raise public awareness of the environmental damage caused by the littering, and aid in making the public aware of the new laws of the country on public hygiene, which prohibits littering in public spaces and lays down stringent penalties for offenders.
In support of this cause, Nabil Darwish, a Palestinian photographer and visual storyteller of international acclaim, has devoted his time and expertise to make the anti-littering campaign more effective. Using his skills of creative direction, photography, videography, and production, he has helped DEAP prepare a video both in Arabic and English to raise awareness among the residents of Qatar.
For Nabil, it all falls down to one thing and two words: creating change. He said, 'The passion for such change, especially the environmental cause of the DEAP, combining it with my visual storytelling is the reason which drives me to go ahead and explore creativity that can send out a direct message to bring light on the situation in Qatar and for sure the environmental care which we must enforce. I do what I do because I love making people think and take actions.
Actors in the video are Nathan Thadani and Bojana Ivanova. The video shows beautiful and clean beaches and sand dunes of Qatar with both Arabic and English subtitles.
Ahmed Abdalla was one of the first volunteers who joined DEAP. He has mainly been working as driver and logistics provider with the group. He said, 'Small things matter. Littering can appear to be a small thing, like cigarette butt, but in the end it makes a huge pile of trash. Ahmed has taken the crew to remote places to shoot the video.
Talking to Community, Jeanne, a dietician by profession, said, 'Keeping our areas clean is the first thing to do to show respect and care for Qatar. From my point of view, there is the missed conception that when people are in parks, streets or on the beach, someone else will pick up trash after them. There are 2.6 million of us and clearly there are no 2.6 million cleaners. Individual responsibility is extremely important. The Ministry of Municipality and Environment is putting great effort to put trash bins everywhere. We want to invite people to them, the bins. It takes only two seconds.
She said, 'We want to broaden our campaign work with more activities and awareness in the near future which will create, we hope, an even bigger impact and more engagement of the public as well. We want people to speak to their families and friends about not to litter around.
She added, 'I have attended many conferences arranged by different business companies that are interested in beach leaning and anti-littering campaigns. I have spoken at these conference about how littering can be controlled and how it can create environmental hazards. I have also gone to different schools raising awareness about littering and cleanliness. I have also been collaborating with Unesco. We, as a group, want people to know more about Qatar and how beautiful the country is. We want to inspire change among people about cleanliness. Through this video we wanted to trigger some interest of people in the anti-littering campaign through the artistic work. We are planning to have more videos and other activities to raise awareness.
Video link: https://youtu.be/neCMO8ZNGE8
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