[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Dar Al-Hekma girls win rewards for innovations in sustainability" ids="106310,106311,106312"] DAR Al-Hekma University's student development department organized a recycling competition for the students and alumnae on campus. The competition is part of a series of sustainability activities designed to help students understand the meaning and concept of sustainability. Maysoon Alsowayigh had come up with the idea of a recycling competition, which was in line with Dar Al-Hekma University's theme of the year 2016-2017 "Sustainability". The competition motivated students to creatively think about innovative ways on how to recycle materials into useful things. Over 20 students and alumnae participated in the competition and could choose to recycle from three different categories: home/personal accessory piece, children educational toy and a product that serves the environment. Dar Al-Hekma introduced sustainability activities because it currently is a global issue and aligned with the Saudi Vision 2030. The recycling competition is a social responsibility initiative that is just one of many initiatives that encourage creativity while minimizing waste. Each participating student received one community service hour for partaking in the competition. "We conducted a survey to find out whether our students understood the meaning of sustainability. The survey results showed the majority of students did not know what it meant and hence, we decided to conduct several events every week to help our students understand sustainability better," said Dr. Suhair H. Al Qurashi, president of Dar Al-Hekma. The winners of the competition were a group of students from the DAH Green Club. All the participants had only one hour to come up and design their ideas. Mona Othman, one of the participants, commented, "When I was a student at Dar Al-Hekma, I wanted to help save the environment which is why I was a member at the DAH Green Club and now I work in a field that helps support the environment." "The youth at Dar Al-Hekma University and throughout the world need to understand what we do today creates tomorrow. Communicating sustainability activities such as the recycling competition will help the youth understand that," said Dr. Sanaa Askool, students dean. "Quilting Bees of Jeddah", a group of ladies interested in quilting and the concept of recycling fabrics, provided three workshops (Paper Piecing, Lamps Shades and Fabric Tassels) on both Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition, other companies that support recycling and sustainability participated in the event such as Alnabta. The winners of the competition was announced at a function held on the campus on Tuesday.
