Little kids with big hearts wash cars to help pet centre

Dubai: Age is definitely no bar to making a difference to your community. And four students of Dubai International Academy (DIA) have proven just that.

As part of their International Baccalaureate (IB) studies at DIA, Blake Ellevsen, Richa Rao-Pandit, Jenna Karoliina and Sofiya Mars raised money for Dubai Dogs Trust, a non-profit organization to help abandoned and stray dogs find homes.

Bracing the heat, these four third graders carried a mop, brush, a sponge and soap to clean cars and porches last week in the Emirates Living community.

I love dogs and I have always wanted to do something for the rescue efforts of stray and abandoned dogs in the UAE. Last year I sold my toys to collect money for the Dubai Dogs Trust. This year, my friends and I wanted to do something different and therefore decided to wash cars and porches around Meadows and The Lakes, said Australian Blake Ellevsen.

We initially started off by cleaning cars, but soon it started getting tough for us as the cars were too big for us. So we changed our strategy and asked people if we could clean their porches instead. It was real fun, said Blake.

The children charged Dh15 per wash and after working tirelessly for four hours from 3.30 to 7.30pm they managed to collect Dh675.

Indian expatriate Richa Rao-Pandit said the experience taught her some valuable lessons. I now know earning money does not come easy and cleaning is not an easy job at all. I love my mother even more now as I understand the hard work she does to keep our house in order, she said.

Finnish student Jenna Karoliina said the car-washing job was exhausting, but worth it. It was hard, but fun. I love pets and care for them and I was happy to do the job as it was for rescuing stray animals.

Other DIA students took up other initiatives. The IB primary programme incorporates an action component where students apply their learning to the real world.

Over the past six weeks, students have worked in groups to identify a local or global issue. They have done due research and identified areas in which they can make a positive impact on their community through direction action, said Julian Wilcock, primary principal of the school.

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Little kids with big hearts wash cars to help pet centre