Sahtak Awalan announces winners of ‘Project: Greenhouse’

DOHA: The winning schools in this year’s “Project: Greenhouse” competition, an initiative of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s (WCM-Q) Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First campaign, have been announced.

This year, the school judged to have 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 of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, visited the winning schools to present students with trophies recognizing their success.

Nesreen Al Rifai, Chief Communications Officer at WCM-Q, said, “We are very happy to recognize the hard work and success of all of the children taking part in Project: Greenhouse – they have made us 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, Audio Education Complex for Girls. Amina said, “We learned a lot about growing plants and it was really fun seeing them sprout and the taller plants like the tomatoes begin climbing up the walls of the greenhouse.”