Life on Land

MYP Service in Action - May 2022
<strong>Life</strong> on Land

Planting Future Leaders
Kofi Annan argued that young people need to be “active
architects” in building our future societies.
At SISQ, our young leaders are prepared to make a
difference and they are ready to inspire those around them.
This issue celebrates the creation of our Quranic medical
garden; an amazing partnership with the National Museums
and some wonderful displays of artistic talent.
In classes like MFL, Design and Tech, ISQH and Culture
Studies, young leaders are taking action to protect <strong>Life</strong> on
Land and <strong>Life</strong> Under Water.
More importantly, they have been joined by our youngest
students who have been planting, drawing and even sewing.
We are also delighted that so many parents have been
offering help and support.
And we are especially proud of the
support that we have received from HE
Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa
Al Thani who sent handwritten letters to
our young leaders to encourage them to
continue their hard work.
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Meet our partners
It takes a village to grow a leader
Quranic Gardens
(Qatar Foundation)
National Museums
Qatar
Qatar Animal Welfare
Society
Wa’hab Qatar
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Medical Treasures
Looking at these pictures, it is hard to imagine that
this tiny garden paradise was just lifeless sand.
The students used permaculture to create a haven for
biodiversity so you can imagine their delight when
they discovered their very own EARTHWORMS who
were living happily in the soil that they had been
carefully enriching.
Last year, we planted herbs and trees to attract
pollinators and this year, we received a very generous
sponsorship from Quranic Gardens in Qatar.
Medical Mysteries
The Quranic Gardens sponsored us to have a medical
garden!
Our students are now growing henna, sidra, olives,
figs, citron, We also have miswak trees and we will
soon be releasing an online textbook of all the uses
and benefits of these plants.
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Small Voices
Make a Big
Impact
On 31 March, our grade 7 GSL students
presented their service in action projects
to HE Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad bin
Khalifa Al Thani and HE Buthaina Bint Ali
Al Jabra al Nuaimi (the minister of
education for Qatar).
Imagine our delight when we received a
handwritten letter from Sheikha Mayassa
to praise us for our passion. In the
following article, the students discuss
their project in their own words…
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Last year, we spent 171 hours on our
Hummingbird Garden and we managed to
educate more than 6000 people about the
importance of biodiversity and ethical food
production (life on land).We were struggling
with Covid restrictions so imagine our shock
when, 6 months later, our little 10m by 5m
garden was being featured in The Gulf Times
and Marhaba Magazine (readership of 15000)
and we were being partnered and mentored by
the oldest organic farm in Qatar! This was
possible because of partnerships with
businesses so we decided to focus on
“Partnerships for the Goal'' so that we could
learn more and actively protect the biodiversity
in this desert nation.
In addition,we got to assist 5 classes of kindergarteners in
making their own garden. While they watched bees
pollinating their courgettes, it inspired them to feel
passionate about gardening and creating a good impact on
the planet. This activity will continue next year and the
school board has allocated 40,000 QAR (11,000 USD) for us
to develop the gardening education for next year
Over our second year of doing this GSL
project, most of the time, we were gardening.
When we came back to school after being
online, we busied ourselves with pulling out
weeds and planting more plants as we wanted
to have a Quranic garden. We even created a
list of the people who are open to volunteering
to water the garden.
.
Ayaan, Soundus and Ghanim addressing educational leaders.
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Prepared to Shine
The Quranic gardens donated a medical garden for us to
have an outdoor class. We are currently growing and
educating our community about the medical importance of
biodiverse plants such as: miswak, frankinscence, sidra,
henna, figs, olives and citron trees. These plants were used
for centuries by bedouins and are currently being
researched as a cure for drug resistant bacteria.The
Quranic gardens has agreed to sponsor every school in
Doha to have a garden similar to ours. This was one of the
biggest partnerships we’ve had so far through our journey.
They have promised us additional donations of
bougainvillea trees and we returned their generosity by
marketing their work to every school in Doha.
Last year, our projects were based in ISQH lessons and
published online with over 500 readers. This year, French
mother tongue continued the learning and expanded the
project to three grade levels.
Qatar National Museums invited teachers to create lesson
plans to teach other schools about an important aspect of
Qatar. We were the only children to volunteer and we
worked with museum staff to create a “week without walls”
biodiversity project where children throughout Qatar could
create a fully sponsored biodiversity garden and learn more
about bedouin medical traditions and the importance of
preserving our green heritage. By creating their own soap
products, they would also reduce 1,2 billion items of waste
from cosmetic use. We could really make a difference!
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A proud moment
Our project was so successful that we got to tell our story to
over 200 heads of school in Qatar and the minister of
education (HE Buthaina Bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi). We were
able to share our lesson plans and inform them that every
school in Doha had sponsorship for a medical garden. We
also presented to the director of museums Sheikha Mayassa
Al Thani who features regularly on the list of top 100 people
for Forbes and Times Magazine. She is also the sister of our
country’s ruler. Sheikha Mayassa retweeted our story on her
personal Twitter and Facebook where she has a following of
over 500 000. We were also delighted to receive handwritten
letters to let us know that our “passion for sustainability was
truly inspiring”. She also mentioned that she is “looking
forward to hearing more about our botanical projects”.
Congratulations to Soundus , Ghanim, Ayaan,
Nathalie, Adwita, Jana and Sonam for bringing the
hummingbirds to life.
A special thank you to Miss Roweida Bawab and
Dr Jelena Trkulja from Qatar National Museums for
supporting our young speakers.
We asked Sheikha Mayassa if we could use the museums
as a platform to create a biodiversity research magazine for
children by children and she invited us to join a newly
formed teenage action group from all over Qatar where we
can launch our project nationwide under the patronage of
Qatar Foundation and Qatar National Museums.
The hard work will continue next year and we are excited to
no longer have covid restrictions.
If you are interested in supporting the gardening activities at
SISQ through donations or skills contributions, please contact
Claire Olivier at colivier@sisq.qa
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Changing Lives
“Whoever is kind to the
creatures of God is kind to
himself”
Hadith Bukhari
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There are many reasons why people
abandon animals. Firstly, a pet can
have behavioral issues such as
biting and barking. It is a lot of
responsibility to train the pet, clean
it, feed it, etc. Apart from this,
humans have lifestyle changes such
as a new child’s birth, a change of
residence, or a job offer in another
country. This can also include
holidays and traveling. How will you
take the pet somewhere else?
Having a pet is expensive and
requires a lot of hard work! 90% of
Qatar’s residents are expats and
this would explain why so many
animals are abandoned. These
animals are so traumatised that they
might never be adopted again.
The penalty for abuse is only two
weeks in jail or a fine of two
thousand QR. Compared to many
other countries, Qatar’s laws for
animal cruelty are not enough.! In
Greece the government has said
that whoever abuses an animal will
be sent to prison for 10 years and
pay a fine of 5,000 - 15,000 Euros. In
Germany you pay €25,000 or
imprisonment of 3 years and in
countries like Georgia, it is against
the law to abandon a domestic
animal. The shocking thing is that
animal abuse is a grave sin in Islam
but many muslims don’t know this.
This is why we made a display on
animal rights in Islam.we talked
about what the rules are and why
they are there to keep us and
animals safe. The Quran protects all
living creatures.But still this does
not stop people from abandoning
them on the
street to die
or injuring
them because
people don’t
know the
rules. We also
decided, as a
group, to
make posters
for the stray
cats and dogs
in QAWS. We
knew and
understood
that the problem was big and
therefore, we had passion to take
action. Kyan and Enrique went to
the Qaws website and searched for
info on the dogs and cats that
needed to be adopted.Isabella and
Sabine made posters of the animals
they rescued. We were delighted
when the kindergarten did lessons
using our display and drew pictures
of the animals to make their own
display.
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Hands on Help
Toy making was the most important part of our action
as we had to listen to the problem and use our critical
thinking with the information we already knew. We
would not want to hurt the animals with good
intentions without knowing the facts. One of our
teammates, Arianna, visited the shelter and
interviewed them on how we could help them and the
animals. It turns out, many of the cats at the shelter
were dealing with unhealthy emotional damage
because of abandonment and cruelty. Janet Berry, the
owner of QAWS, kindly requested soft and cuddly
toys for the cats to help them deal with their
emotional health and a doggy playground so families
could bond with future animals and see how they
interact with young children. The very first step was
creating a moodboard to help spark our ideas. Most
of our supplies were from ‘old, orphaned’ socks and
old shirts. Each kid in our class produced at least one
cat toy, keeping in mind about the durability of the
toys and the safety as abandoned cats tend to chew
on everything. We tested our toys on street cats or
our cats at home, by this we could see if the stitches
needed to be stronger or the fabric was too soft and
was able to be ripped. If the toys failed their test, we
would have to redo them or make a new one as we
did not want to harm or even kill them.
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During our time of prototyping, we experienced: failure, acceptance, ethical
thinking and most of all pleasure with our work and pride in the difference
we had made in this world
At the same time, the grade 10s created a puppy playground and cat
exercise centre for us. They spent an entire term researching the animals’
needs and building the equipment from recycled wood as many abandoned
animals are under stimulated and depressed. The playground allows
traumatised animals to rebond with humans and their future animal
siblings.
When we went, we took the dogs to the puppy playground and let them test
it out whilst bribing them with treats. On the other hand, when we gave the
cats their little plush toys they didn't need to be bribed - they just went
straight into the bag and grabbed some toys themselves
Our deepest gratitude to Dr Sophie Peralba
for the excellent work she does to rescue
cats.
We also thank all the moms and dads.
This project would not have been possible
without the passion and expertise of the
Design and Technology department. It gives
us great pleasure to showcase some of the
exceptional grade 10 projects in the next
few pages…
We were delighted to receive an official thank you from QAWS who
published this statement on their official page: “ From cat scratch posts to
bird houses to dog bridges, a truck full of fun play equipment arrived at the
shelter much to the delight of our animals! Along with all the cat hidey holes
and climbers, our Kitties also got stacks of the cutest handmade toys too!!
We are so impressed with the pieces donated and so very grateful we were
made their project for the term! Our dogs have already been testing out
their new activity pieces in the off-lead run and they were a huge success.
Our school leadership has approved a budget for us to continue next year
to create more toys, exercise equipment and wooden signs and the project
is now part of the curriculum for DT, Art and Culture Studies so we truly
transform the lives of over 300 animals. We already engaged over 300
students and we spent nearly 3000 hours on this project.
Our youngest member was just 4 years old.
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Well done to the grade 6 GSL
team and the grade 6 Culture
Studies class. We also
congratulate the following
grade 10s on excellent
projects:
Claire
Aya
Vasil
Emma
Ali
Ghalia
Jhanae
Mariam
Mohamad
Lalique
Taha
Yessine

If any members of our community
would like to help create furniture and
play equipment for abused animals (or
if you would like to donate supplies)
please contact Claire on
colivier@sisq.qa.
We are especially grateful for wood,
sisal rope and animal friendly paints
and varnish.
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Turtle Hatching
On the 12 May, our
school will be allowed to
send 3 delegates to the
turtle nesting program in
Fuwairit. Only 12
members of the public
are allowed to attend.
Furthermore, our
talented Hailey in grade
9 will be having an
exclusive interview with
the staff at the facility
due to her amazing
research project to
preserve marine life in
Qatar.
A beautiful turtle created by Hailey Tynes in grade 9.
If you wish to support Hailey in her project to
support marine life, please come to our spring fair
and purchase her amazing clay animals.
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Composting
A massive thank you to Mr
Wilson and 7B for helping to get
the composting going!
The composting initiative was
started by the “Fume Buster”
team and we are currently
composting food waste in grade
7 and grade 6.
If you are interested in
composting your own food
waste then please contact
www.wahab.qa for the best
compost bins for home use.
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Watering the next
generation
Our GSL teams were very privileged
to assist the early years children to
develop their own biodiversity
gardens.
The Creepy Critters went the extra
mile and helped create the gnome
belts so that each child could be an
eco guardian and protect bees,
worms and other important creatures.
We can all learn a lot from the love
and diligence shown by our youngest
members of the SISQ family.
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Final Words of
Gratitude
It take a village to raise a child
Mrs Susanna Goncalves for financial
guidance and logistical support
Mr Sam Gathoni for transporting plants
and furniture
Mr Giuseppe Paolillo for all the practical
arrangements
Our amazing cleaning and support staff
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