Want to be a part of Oman’s nature conservation drive?
If you answered yes, pledge your support to Nature Oman, a fundraising movement initiated by the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) to provide a platform for members of the public who want to get involved in raising awareness and funds for environmental causes within Oman, through a variety of activities.
One of its first initiatives is fundraising through sporting events, which is where activists like Kowarthanan Ganesha, aka Kobe, come into picture. An active campaigner of Nature Oman, Kowarthanan lives by the motivational Gandhian philosophy ‘You must be the change you want to see in the world.’ He has used his passion for sports as a leverage to focus attention on environmental issues and generate funds for Nature Oman, thereby becoming a spur for others to join in. As he puts it,
Athletes enjoy the connection with fitness and the outdoors and can show their appreciation for the Sultanate by pledging to raise funds through their races.
Talking about how he drew parallels between sports and environment, he says, “Initially, I challenged myself and signed up for all these races. But I always felt like there was not much value in achieving these goals! Of course doing a marathon isn’t just a walk in the park, but I still felt the need to add value to this journey. I wanted to start my own project, in order to fundraise for a noble cause.”
To turn this into a reality, he, along with his friend Majid, visited the Ministry of Social Development (MOSD) and Oman Charitable Organisation (OCO) to obtain the necessary approval. But he soon learnt that it is impossible for an individual to get a sanction for raising funds and also that these approvals are only provided to established organisations and institutions like ESO. “I was on the verge of giving up on the idea of fundraising, when ESO came along with their Nature Oman initiative, which allowed me to get involved,” he adds.
So, what is he going to do about it?
“I will climb, crawl, jump walls, do burpees, roll in mud and run for a cause (other than just for fun or a challenge this time). I have done the Tough Mudder Oman and the Spartan Beast Race already, and in January I will be running a 42km marathon for the Nature Oman initiative,” he states.
Pointing out that everyone can get involved, Kowarthanan explains: “The public could get involved by volunteering at ESO events, such as beach clean-ups and earth hour. People can also help ESO’s projects by reporting a sighting of any endangered species… Anyone could become a member of ESO; companies can also get involved by becoming corporate members… You can join our volunteers’ team or support us, let’s do this together!
“If you want to make a contribution you can pay cash at the ESO office or you can pay online – https://www.donate.om/DonationsPortal/Donate/Payment.aspx – or direct deposit with ‘9498’ as a 4 digit reference.”
