In an unusual scene at schools in Doha, greenhouses have become a prominent feature at some Independent schools recently. Students as young as seven years and eleven years grow vegetables as part of learning to eat balanced diet and live a healthy life.
They managed to get good harvet of parsley, coriander and arugula as well as good helpings of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.
The greenhouse initiative, designed to teach children about the benefits of growing and eating healthy food, has been launched by the Sahtak Awalan — Your Health First campaign, which was introduced by Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) and the Supreme Council of Health to encourage people to think about adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Successfully growing fruits and vegetables requires you to follow certain guidelines, the compost needs to be prepared correctly, the temperature and humidity need to be watched, and the seedlings need to be cared for and watered regularly.
But WCMC-Q’s greenhouse project is a lot more than that. For WCMC-Q, it is an educational programme that will teach children about the importance of nutritious, healthy food and balanced diet. It also provides the opportunity to initiate discussions inside classrooms about how food is produced and whether farming and other food production methods are sustainable and environmental friendly.
Elementary Independent schools from across Qatar were selected by the Supreme Education Council to be part of the scheme and all these schools receive a greenhouse from the Sahtak Awalan campaign. In addition they are presented with gardening equipment and a variety of vegetable and herb seeds. Students are given advice on how to grow the seeds and they can then watch the plants from germination through to when the vegetables develop.
The students can take the produce home and eat the freshest, healthiest food and a competition is held at the end of the growing season to determine which greenhouse had the best crop.
Initially, greenhouses, plant pots, seeds and compost were given to 15 primary schools across Doha. Now the number of schools has increased to more than 30. Students at the schools are then challenged to grow the best produce they could. The aim is to teach children about fresh, healthy food and to encourage them to eat more fruit and vegetables.
Students at Nosaiba Bint Kaab Girls Primary were found to have grown the best crops in 2014.
Haya Juma Bunassoum (11) and grade five students at Nosaiba Bint Kaab Girls Primary was among those who contributed to get a healthy harvest.
“This is something very new for us; the experience of growing vegetables was exciting. Week after week we saw the plants growing,” she said.
Her experience growing vegetable didn’t end at school, now Haya is growing tomatoes and cucumber at home.
Her classmate Lyla Bassem too shared a similar experience, “When we grow vegetables we are also taught the importance of eating healthy and taking care for ourselves. It was a great experience to see the plants and vegetables grow.”
Although students learn to grow vegetables at school some even experiment to grow different plants at home.
Aya Wageh Refaat, who grew tomatoes at school, is now growing flowers at home. “I wanted to try something different at home, so I am growing flowers. I want to have my own small farmhouse soon to grow all the vegetables that I like,” she said.
This winter younger children at their school have taken the task of growing vegetables to learn about healthy living.
“I’m growing cucumber, I water it every week and measure it to see how it grows. This is the first time I am seeing vegetable grow, I want to grow many vegetables, especially carrots at home as well,” said seven-year-old Fatima Mohamed Suwaidan, a grade two student.
A health survey in 2012 showed that more than 90 per cent of people in Qatar do not eat the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. The Your Health First campaign, along with the Greenhouse Initiative, aims to change that.
“We wanted to teach young children the importance of eating fresh and healthy food. By learning good habits at an young age, they are more likely to continue with them as they grow older,” said Dr Sharad Taheri, Professor of Medicine at WCMC-Q.
Unhealthy eating habits has exacerbated health problems and has led to chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, as well as cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer, occurring at an early age. Obesity is 30 percent in Qatar, which is very high, and among them about 70 percent are kids.
“Look at the diabetes population in Qatar, the majority are younger than 45 years, there is a whole lot of young people developing various complications including cardiovascular problems,” said Dr Taheri. By introducing healthy eating habits and lifestyle at a younger age to students Sahtak Awalan believes that a long term solution could be found.
“This is a start, we have to start somewhere to educate the children about healthy eating, and it would take time until everything changes. There are big advertising prmoting unhealthy food, but unless we have the same appetite for healthy food, it’s going to be difficult,” said Dr Taheri.
The Peninsula
