Youth for environment conference 7th annual conference

On the 7^th of march 2014, 20 girls from our school travelled to el Gouna- Hurghada in order to attend the 7^th annual conference for let’s take care of the planet United Nations project under the name of youth the environment, on the 7^th of march we arrived at el Gouna and then headed towards Berlin university campus for registration, the registration process was well organized and we were given our conference t shirt, name tag and a bag with all the things we needed. We were then acquainted with our conference schedule and all the information we needed so everything was perfectly organized and there were lots of organizers to answer all the questions we had. At the end of the day we attended the opening ceremony and listened to the speeches of the officials, the beautiful miss earth and Dr Amal Rezk the project coordinator whose speech was very encouraging and motivated the participants to do their best in that conference and to make the most of that experience. One of the organizers (Nihal) presented a song; she is a very talented person with an amazing singing voice.

      The next day (8^th of March) we attended a lecture about marine biodiversity which was a very useful one by Dr Mohamed Ismail, we had learnt a lot about marine life in Egypt, how it is one of the most important resources we have and lots of things about marine life in general. The lecture was interesting and we never got bored of it but were eager to know more about the subject and made the attendees have many questions in mind which made me think that if our subjects at school were made to be useful and interesting at the same time and were also presented in an interesting way as this , students would never get bored and would like exploring and learning more, then me and some other saint Joseph girls  went snorkeling with the group , it was and amazing trip that made us love the sea even more and get to see with our eyes some of the things we were told about. We were also given the chance to take photos under water.

        Day3 ( 9^th of March ), as fixed in our schedule we went to the campus to start the day activities , first by listening to what others had to present and it was good to hear what others want to say , not only hear but also present and share our school experiences and ideas with the people there so we shared our presentation with others and were happy to participate and we were more happy about the feedbacks that we received after our presentation, people found it interesting  and we were able to grab their attention and some people wanted to really try to do the ideas we presented. We were proud of our school that gave us the opportunity and support to work on ideas to help our environment. We then attended a workshop in which we worked together as a group to try to make a windmill model of simple materials, we tried hard to make one and we learnt how to cooperate with each other and classify tasks. Next, we began another workshop and it was about creating ideas and solutions, also sharing them with one another, there were many tables each one had a paper with a certain question about an environmental issue and every one would write an idea to answer this question. Then, we would switch tables and join another group with another question to answer. So at the end every question would have different questions answered by different people with different points of view. Then, we were supposed to create a project about a certain environmental problem that could be applied in real life and be applied at first in my own school and we were given an hour to do so. It was amazing to work together and hear others’ presentation of their own project and ideas. We then attended another lecture for Dr Mohamed Ismail which was as interesting as the first one, we learnt about global warming, how people harm their own environment and some information about sharks (which appeared to be more peaceful creatures than I thought they would be) and also sea turtles.

In that day we were supposed to make a farm visit and a trip to Vodafone recycling factory but unfortunately it was raining heavily so all the activities had to be indoors.

        The last day (10^th of march) , I first went on a lagoon trip in a boat to see some parts in elgouna , it was a beautiful one , then we went to the aqua park for entertainment and we had so much fun. The last thing we did was attend the talent show and the closing ceremony, it was a great one and I enjoyed all the talents presented, some of our school students also participated and they gave an amazing performance, it was an enjoyable night but we were sad it was the last one. We returned back on the morning of the 11^th of March.

         In general it was an amazing experience and we met new people and I even got to know some students from Bangladesh, we had learnt lots of new information and had an unforgettable life experience, I was also happy that sister Samiha was there with us to give us support, I also appreciate the effort of the teachers that accompanied us, Mrs. Magda Zaki and Mrs. Narges.                  

                                                By: Ghadir Yahya Kamal

                                                 Class: 2^nd secondary A

                         Saint Joseph’s Language School/ Zamalek/Cairo/Egypt