Meeraal Zaheer, a Year 13 student at St Christopher’s Senior School, has become the first student in the world to be presented with a United World School’s (UWS) Gold Global Citizenship Award.
The British-based organisation builds schools and supports communities by providing a free basic education for children who would otherwise go without.
Meeraal was inspired to create a portfolio for this award after hearing about the work carried out by St Christopher’s Junior School and UWS in raising funds to help build a UWS School in Cambodia, as reported in GulfWeekly.
In June 2015, after eight months of hard work, Meeraal had one more challenge to complete – raising funds for the senior school’s new initiative, namely the re-building of a school, flattened by the devastating earthquake in Gurase, Nepal.
She and her friend Yasmeen Jassim organised a non-uniform day, which raised BD300 towards building materials.
The UWS Gold Global Citizenship Award is a recognition for students who have demonstrated a significant commitment to active global citizenship. Meeraal said she was very ‘proud’ to have received the accolade.