Going green should never be a task, rather it should be done naturally and habitually, integrated in our daily lives. Going green should also, not only be practised by certain group or organisation of people who vowed that they will go green no matter what, rather, its ways and methods should be taught to everyone. It should be like a culture, followed and practised by everyone on earth. Hence, when a collaboration between clubs was proposed, Eco Friends Club pounced on the opportunity. This, was a platform where awareness and messages could be spread to wider crowd! With this, Green Culture was born spanning a total of three days, from 22 – 24 August 2016. It was organised, partly, by the IMU Eco Friends Club, in collaboration with the IMU Huaxia Chinese Cultural Society, IMU Japanese Club and IMU Malay Culture Society.
With the use of education as well as artistic programmes and activities, this event, dedicated to the ecological and environmental issues, aimed to enhance the culture of living in accordance with green values. Weeks before the event, Eco Friends Club had already stationed several “recyclebots” at several places in IMU. These “recyclebots” fed on plastics bottles and aluminium cans which would be used for decorative purposes during the three days event.
In those three days, an exhibition was held in the atrium with all the clubs displaying their beautifully decorated booths. Eco Friends Club had also prepared our exhibition booth with the topic “Green Living”. This topic was carefully chosen to raise awareness and hopefully educate people on ways to go green in their daily lives and how to maintain the sustainability of every green action done. Examples and benefits of practising the 3R concept (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) were also part of the information displayed. In order to increase participation, questionnaires were distributed and anyone who are able to answer the questions correctly will be given small potted plants as a gift. These plants were planted in the plastic bottles which were collected and previously considered as trash!
Besides preparing an exhibition booth, Eco Friends Club was also responsible for decorating the photo booth. Using the collected recycle items, a pair of wings was made using bottle caps of different colours. On those three days, several traditional costumes-“han fu”, yukata as well as “baju kebaya” were prepared for students who came to have their pictures taken.
Booths selling a variety of food had also been set up in the atrium and some could be seen selling traditional food. IMU Eco Friends Club too had set up a booth selling food to raise funds for future events of the club. Last but not least, an eco-friendly fashion design competition was carried on the first day of the event itself. Given a period of two weeks, participants were required to design costumes using only recyclable items. A total of five costumes were designed and the models paraded the creations proudly! Voting was carried out until the last day of the event and during the closing ceremony, prizes were given to the winners! It was a great opportunity to be able to collaborate with the many clubs in IMU and we were all glad that the event ended successfully.
