Looking back at their childhood memories, they had one in common: the Karachi zoo. This was one area where neither the government nor the nonprofit organisations were concentrating.
It was the student councils of the college campus (A’ Level and O’ Level) and the north campus (O’ Level) that decided to try and improve the conditions of the zoo for their academic year 2010-2011.
They decided to renovate the zoo and start an awareness and cleanliness campaign for the safety of animals. “This happened last November and since then there has been no looking back,” said Omer Rizwan, head boy at FPS’s college campus.
The project, “Save Our Zoo” (SOZ), aims to spread awareness on animal rights and plans to promote animal welfare for the next five years. The project would be passed on to the next batches. “It focuses on the belief that all living creatures deserve a safe and healthy environment,” said Omer. As things started to fall into place, a plan was made to visit the zoo so that the students could see the conditions and pinpoint the problems so they could find the solutions.
Both campus councils met at the zoo, where they quickly divided into groups. Armed with notepads, pens and cameras, they walked around and recorded down every possible area of concern they discovered. A list of problem areas was compiled and after researching, they returned to their respective campuses.
In the following days, the councils came up with a number of proposals.
The zoo administration was more than happy to accommodate the students and it even assigned a project coordinator to help them.
Omer’s latest visit to the zoo was this Saturday, February 12. He went with around 80 other volunteers from FPS and said that he learnt that when you take an initiative, people always come forward to help you. “I was amazed at the response I got from the people and children, they all listened and wanted to help make the zoo a better place.”
He said that he met some students from a public school, who were bunking their classes and whiling away time at the zoo. After listening to him, they not only offered suggestions to improve the project but even offered their services to help.
Sadia Saleem, another volunteer, said that she was really happy to see a young boy, who was part of the audience listening to their awareness talk, throw an empty juice pack in a dustbin after the session. “It showed that people were willing to understand,” she said. “We are trying to get people more interested in talking about it and to make it not just about the zoo but about Karachi and the country as a whole. It’s about taking responsibility for the things we love.”
There were two main goals on Saturday’s agenda: to spread awareness and to make the zoo more attractive. For the first part, the students decided to put up boards with useful information about the animals on every cage. They put up posters with information in Urdu and English and pictures outside each cage.
Meanwhile, some of the students spoke to children of different schools, including Sara Montessori School, Little Angels Foundation and Lyceum Grammar School, visiting the zoo. They spoke about the importance of keeping the zoo and their city clean and made them promise that they would take care to keep their environment clean.
Later, with the help of volunteers from FPS including teachers, the students painted the walls and the trees.
The FPS students have also talked to NGOs for advice and have tried to get sponsors such as paint companies for funds and some money they have managed to collect through their own efforts.
They arranged the FPSMUN 2011, sold T-shirts, organised the North Campus Carnival and have planned more fundraising activities for the upcoming months, which includes an interschool battle of the bands on February 18.
They will continue going to the zoo till their aim is achieved, Omer promised.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2011.
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