The founders of the first Arabic website, dedicated solely to environment affairs, the Environment Electronic Friends@ Bahrain Group, will soon launch phase two of their Internet-based awareness programme.
A founding member of the group, Khawla Al Muhannadi, said yesterday during a meeting held at the Environmental Affairs office that the second version of the existing website will be introduced in the near future.
“Work has commenced on the second phase which comes as part of our celebrations marking the Arab Environment Day,” she said.
The group started with only three members, specialising in information technology. At present it has some 20 active members from all walks of life, including IT and environment specialists,” she said.
The group started operating on the ‘World Environment Day’ with an objective to spread awareness amongst the community and, “remind them of their duties to work for a better and safer environment.”
“We started learning the environment and its beauty, the various issues and problems involved and then ways to educate others,” said Al Muhannadi. “Our target were all, from young to old and from literate to illiterate, highlighting how everyone can play a significant role in bringing about a change.”
“Doors have always been open to those who know and those who are uneducated. Anyone with more knowledge than us is welcome to guide us and those interested to know more about the environment can make use of the expertise available with us,” she added.
Their struggle has always been to try change the general behaviour of the public regarding nature.
Al Muhannadi continued: “The first thing that came to our mind was awareness via the Internet, which not only is the best way to reach out to the masses in today’s world, but also is more environment-friendly than any other source of media. Use of paper is reduced to a great extent, which directly supports our aim.”
The group, therefore, designed the first bilingual website, www.eef.org.bh specialising in issues concerning the environment, containing 150 pages. The site is registered with Batelco and sponsored by the Environmental Affairs.
The first phase of the website was launched on July 12 and has been updated regularly.
The site allows Internet surfers to gain access to all different types of topics, participate in discussions and even have live chat with the Environment Group.
Also included in the site is a UNEP-sponsored contest and links to other related sites.
Among senior members of the group are Zakariya Khonji from Environmental Affairs, Halal Abdulrahman, environment specialist, and Ahmed Al Balushi, technical designer.