For the second year the Friends of the Environment Club & Society (FES) of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) collaborated with the Bahrain Yacht Club (BYC) to raise awareness of safeguarding the marine environment. Under the clubs theme: The Earth Needs Love, various projects were launched and worked on during the last four months. These included an internal awareness campaign, survey about peoples knowledge of environmental issues and the sale of official merchandise to support a local charity. The event at the BYC was part of a larger project that saw business and local companies volunteer their time for one day to fill nine large skips with rubbish and debris collected from the shoreline, water and seabed. The event also included a clean up of Bird Island, and members of the BYC provided 8 boats to take volunteers out to clean the island.
A member of the Bahrain Yacht Club Executive Committee, Wendy Maddison, said, We thank the students of RCSI Bahrains Friends of the Environment Club who worked very hard to assist us in achieving our objective of raising awareness of our marine environment, and keeping it clean for all to enjoy. The students are a credit to RCSI Bahrain in their efforts to preserve Bahrains natural environment.
An electronic awareness campaign entitled GREEN was started to encourage both staff and students at the university to be aware of their environment. The opportunity was available for all to exchange their old, unneeded electronic devices (which will be disposed of correctly) for FES gifts like T-shirts, wristbands and coffee mugs. In addition a total of 220 BD was raised from the sale of merchandise.