Being a member of this NGO I just want to give some Introduction and some idea of the sort of work the NGO has been doing. Hope this gives a clear picture of ECOCARE MALDIVES in general.
ECOCARE Maldives was registered under the Ministry of Home Affairs in 15 Nov. 1994. This is an independent non-profit-making non-governmental organization, which works for the protection and sustainable development of the environment. The main current issues undertaken are environmental awareness issues.
The co-founders of ECOCARE Maldives Mohamed Zahir and Ibrahim Waheed “Ogaru”, two young persons from very different backgrounds were thrown together frequently not in their professional areas of work but in area where certain personal interests coverage- that of writing on issues of social concern. While Mohamed Zahir was a professional photographer who worked for a legal newspaper, Ibrahim Waheed “Ogaru” worked in the area of education. An almost continuous threat that ran in their contribution to local dailies and periodicals, first unwittingly and later with purpose, was the protection of the fragile environment of the Maldives in its delightful entirety. Formally untrained, and certainly lacking formal education in the area of environmental protection, these two young persons utilized their courage, determination and inventiveness to develop into the complex world of environment protection. Their writings and other efforts supplemented and augmented official efforts made at a national level to increase environmental awareness in the nation. Their efforts were so rewarding and successful that they decided to commit themselves to the environment of the Maldives by formally registering ECOCARE Maldives.
Today, ECOCARE Maldives remains small and humble. The two co-founders and a very dedicated General Secretary Mr Moosa Manik, also self-taught professional, make up the permanent individual membership of ECOCARE Maldives. This helps the organization remain focused and committed to its highly practical approach to promoting environmental awareness in an active manner in the Maldives. However, whenever the need arises in the carrying out of an active exercise, ECOCARE Maldives has the unique privilege of calling upon a formidable reserve of volunteer partners from all profession walks of life. It is a matter of organizational pride that most who work with the organization for the first time on a given assignment choose to remain on call for a second opportunity. ECOCARE Maldives is much in their debt. ECOCARE Maldives also owes a great debt to a selected group of gracious and valued sponsors that have bolstered the organization in its practical undertakings.
Programs & Projects
Posters were distributed to create awareness in government offices, schools and the general public in the use of paper. More than 50,000 posters were distributed this way.
On days like the World Environment Day and World Cleanup Day ECOCARE Maldives had actively participated in programs organized by the government and schools.
Under the Two Million Tree-planting program and Independent Maldives, Clean Maldives ECOCARE Maldives had participated actively and prepared awareness materials such as posters to create awareness among the public.
Members of ECOCARE Maldives give advice on running environmental programs and lecture on environmental issues in both schools and tourist resorts to create awareness.
ECOCARE Maldives provides photographs, gives guidance to government authorities, private organizations and foreign parties in publishing books, printing calendars and reports on the environment of the Maldives.
International environmental organizations such as Environment Investigation Agency (London), CIDAM International (USA) have visited the Maldives and have run joint environment awareness programs with ECOCARE Maldives.
ECOCARE Maldives runs a small library on general environmental aspects. This library is extensively used by school children. Foreign experts use the library for their reference in writing their thesis and reports on their studies.
Reprints were made of the 50,000 booklets printed initially on turtle awareness in 1994 and are being distributed presently. The reprint was made on request from some concerned authorities.
Similar campaign to that of the Save the Turtle was started to SAVE THE SHARK in the year 2000. The awareness booklets on Save the Shark are being distributed.
Beginning of the year 2000 an ongoing environmental awareness program was launched to create awareness among the school children of Malé and Baa Atoll. Baa Atoll lies about 96 miles to the north of Malé. Hence, arranging transportation for 50 participants including school children and teachers to the atoll is organized in each of these trips. School children from Malé and islands in Baa atoll work as colleagues to study the environmental issues such as mangrove ecosystem, coral reefs, beach erosion, biodiversity, natural vegetation, waste, etc. in the atoll. Two such programs, of five days each, are run every year during the school holidays. This is done to use the school holidays effectively and in a useful manner.
ECOCARE Maldives organizes sessions for school children and public through the help of international expertise on some highly pressing environmental issues such as climate change.
Scented flowering plants common in Malé in the past, but are no longer seen, are re-introduced with the help of devoted parties and are distributed in Malé once or twice a year.
Work has been started to collect and compile a complete inventory of all the plants that are grown and found in the Maldives. These plants include indigenous and exotic varieties. This led to another piece of work that is of great interest, which is to take a complete inventory of the medicinal plants and parts of the plants found in the Maldives. Once this work has been completed in full, it will be presented in the form of a database that would accessible to any parties who are interested.
ECOCARE Maldives envisages compiling a database of Insects and Birds of Maldives.
Since plastic containers and bags are an environmental hazard to coral reefs and its life alike, ECOCARE Maldives has carried out special awareness programs to school children and general public through media and visiting schools in person. Paper bags of different sizes and varieties are brought to Maldives and are distributed to schools and other NGO’s as samples to promote the use of paper bags to replace the use of plastic bags.
Environmental videos and slides are made available in ECOCARE Maldives for the use of environmental awareness programs run by both Malé and atoll schools and government authorities alike.
A series of lectures was given to primary schools in Malé from 1998 to 2000 under a program called Awareness 2000. Resident and expatriate resource personnel gave these lectures. In addition, these lectures were facilitated by videos and slides.
ECOCARE Maldives hosted numerous events as a part of climate action on the distributed day of events (October 24, 2009) coordinated by 350.org.
Mentioned above are the major activities run by ECOCARE Maldives to enhance environmental awareness. All of these services provided to whoever has the need is free of charge and its users are not required to be members of ECOCARE Maldives. Sonevafushi Tourist Resort have provided funding for most of these programs and activities. For the awareness 2000 program Canadian Embassy provided financial assistance to purchase some audiovisual equipments. In addition, some local business parties also provide financial assistance to some programs run by ECOCARE Maldives.
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