Awards

Who can enter?

School groups, college groups, university groups, community groups, family groups and youth groups in the UAE can all join Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots UAE and submit an entry for the awards.

When, where, who and what?

Each year we invite 12 groups to the awards ceremony to display their work and meet Dr Jane Goodall herself. The next awards ceremony will be held on 25 January 2018 at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Abu Dhabi. As well as meeting Dr Jane; award winners receive certificates, trophies and signed books.

How can my group enter?

First, if you haven’t done so already, your group needs to join Roots & Shoots by filling in this form online. Once your group is a member you need to write up all the good work that you are doing in the form of a ‘Mission Update’ for this website (instructions on how to do this are provided when you sign up). You can find lots of great examples of mission updates here to help you see what you need to do. Mission updates can be about anything that shows how you have been helping people, animals and the environment – this can be something you have already done this year, a currently running project, a great idea of your own that you have undertaken successfully, or you can carry out and write up one of our specially written learning resources and activities.

Once you have added your mission updates to the website you can apply to attend the awards by sending an email to rootsnshoots@ead.ae. The email needs to provide the following information and we need to receive it no later than 1pm on Wednesday 15th November 2017:

Name of school/group, age group of students/members.
When you joined Roots & Shoots.
Why you would like to attend the awards.
Have you attended before (if so, which years).
What activities you have implemented so far (this school year only).
What activities you commit to implementing (for the rest of the school year).
What you can do for UAE’s people, animals and the environment.

Please keep your email brief! (equivalent to no more than 1 sheet of A4 paper).

Is there a theme?

Every year we have an overarching theme for the Awards day. This year’s theme is the launch of our partnership with Climate Force Challenge (CFC). Sir Robert Swan, an official ambassador of the Roots & Shoots programme, has given his personal permission for his Climate Force Challenge, for the FIRST time, to be tested and rolled out in the UAE through the R&S programme.

This is exciting news as schools across the UAE will soon be able to enter into the Climate Force Challenge and contribute to the global goal of cleaning up 326 million tonnes of CO2 emissions before the year 2025. Robert Swan and his son Barney will be embarking on these four listed expeditions as a platform to achieve this mission.

CF: South Pole Energy Challenge: Nov 12th, 2017 – Jan 15th, 2018
CF: Last Degree: January 1st – 15th 2018
CF: IAE Antarctica ’18: Feb 27th – March 12th, 2018
CF: Trans America Cycle: May 1st – October 1st, 2019

This will enable all schools across the UAE to be involved and encourage a common goal to work towards, as well as inspiring our youth, parents and teachers in the UAE. The flexibility of this challenge encompasses all three pillars of the R&S programme where projects can be related to and interconnected with climate change activity. More information coming soon!

Any other tips?

Your mission updates need to demonstrate how you have made a practical, positive difference to either people, or animals, or the environment. If you can show in your mission update how you have helped to make the world a better place for any one, or all, of these then you will be eligible for entry. To improve your chances of success you should demonstrate that you have made a positive difference to all three aspects (people, animals and the environment) either in a single mission update or over the course of a number of mission updates for your group.