On Wednesday 2 June, the San Lawrenz Ekoskola committee in collaboration with
the San Lawrenz Local Council organised an Eco activity at Dwejra. This
activity celebrated two important dates - World Environment Day on June 4 and
the Local Council's celebration of its 10th Anniversary. The activity was done
in Dwejra to highlight the site's importance to the village identity and also
because caring for Dwejra forms part of the Ekoskola action plan.
After various committee meetings it was decided that the theme would be
Discovering our Treasures and also helping others become aware of them. With
this in mind the committee formulated a set of eco-guidelines which help the
visitors of Dwejra to enjoy themselves without harming the environment. They
also asked for the help of the teacher in charge to find some information on
plants which can be found on site. The result was a bookmark sponsored and
printed by the local council, one side of which contained the guidelines which
the others side showed photos and some information about two endemic rare
plants found at Dwejra.
The committee also wanted to ask the tourists what they thought of Dwejra. So
a questionnaire was formulated, asking for opinions on good points and
suggestions for improvements. Each turist who answered the questionnaire was
given a bookmark as a souvenir of their visit to Dwejra.
Another activity held was the Treasure Hunt. The aim of this activity was to
familiarise the students with the local flora and to help them appreciate it
for what it is, a treasure. This was done in the form of a game where the
students had a designated time span in which to identify as many different
types of plants as possible. To help them look for them they had photos of the
plants, their names and some information about them. Later they were asked
about the information they had read and we found out that some of them even
remembered difficult botanical names!
It was impossible to take all the school to partecipate in this activity so
the two older classes were taken. All partecipants were given a printed t-shirt
with a design made especially for the day, again sponsored and printed by the
local council. They were also given a plant sponsored by the department of
agriculture as a sign, that they were all winners if they cared for the
environment. The partecipants were also taken for a surprise boat ride around
the Azure Window and in some caves to see the spectacular coral courtesy of the
mayor Noel Formosa.
This activity required a lot of preparation and work by various people. Thanks
goes to the local council especially the mayor and secretary for their
invaluable help, the departmant of agriculture for the plants, Etienne Micallef
and Marita Sultana for the photos and research material, the head master and
staff for their support and last but not least the Ekoskola committee whose
dedication initiated all this and who show a lot of promise for the future.
