On Monday, 25 April 2016, at the Big Tree Society Award 2016 Ceremony thirty schools received awards and special recognition for the outstanding work they have done under the Big Tree Society Programme in Kuwait in the academic year 2015-16.

The Kuwait Big Tree Society Award 2016 ceremony was celebrated in presence of Mr. Abdullah Al Najran Al Tuwaijri, Deputy CEO, Boubyan Bank, Mr. Waleed Al Yaqout, General Manager, Boubyan Bank, Undersecretary General of  the Ministry of Education of Kuwait on behalf of His Excellency Minister Dr. Bader Hamad Al Essa, Her Excellency Ms. Zineb Touimi-Benjelloun, United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kuwait, as well as Ms. Nadia Jassim Al-Wazan, Acting Secretary General of the Kuwait National Commission for UNESCO, was attended by more than 1000 participants.

Prior to attending to the final Big Tree Society Programme Award 2016 Ceremony, the Director of the UNESCO Doha Office, Dr. Anna Paolini, together with representatives of the Kuwait National Commission for UNESCO and Boubyan Bank, visited four schools participating to the Big Tree Society Programme.

The Mulla Suleiman Mohammed primary school for boys, presented their marine life conservation activity. A dedicated space at the school was created for the project to involve all students and teachers. The space comprises of an exhibition on the marine life in Kuwait, a lecture/activity room, as well as a fish farming room.

All spaces are powered by photovoltaic panels hosted outside the windows. The exhibition is made from recycling materials. The indoor fish farm is the most innovative and interesting part of the project: With the help of the Kuwait Scientific Centre, children and teachers were introduced to the marine environment of Kuwait including challenges faced to protect certain marine species.

After students visited the marine life centre, they decided to start a fish farm project at their own school. Specimens of fishes and shrimps were provided by the centre, while the system of different pools were built by the students and teachers, who are continuously maintaining the system. The school succeeded farming several species of fish and could sell the surplus of fish which helped towards financing the project into next year. The project won the first prize in the BTS Awards 2016 competition.

The Mishref middle school for girls opted to develop a recycling program creating art work using recycled espresso coffee capsules. The Iolwa Mulla Saleh al Rabeah primary school for girls and the Arwa bint Alhareth primary school for girls, which is also part of the UNESCO ASP-network, opted for a school gardening projects.

The Iolwa Mulla Saleh al Rabeah primary school developed the idea to produce compost from leftover food of student’s lunch packs as well as to use the compost to farm vegetables which can be used by the school. Similar was the project of the Arwa bint Alhareth primary school for girls, which established a large garden at the entrance of the school, and won the third prize in the BTS award.