Kudafari provides free bicycles in ‘green transport’ initiative

A new environmental NGO based on Kudafari in Noonu Atoll was officially inaugurated on Thursday the former Youth Minister Hassan Latheef.

The organisation, Kaanu Green Peace, was created by a team of young volunteers in June this year, out of a desire to do something to help their local environment.

A number of environmental initiatives were launched as part of the event, the culmination of weeks of work by the committee and volunteers. Dozens of banners around the island displayed environmental and civic slogans in both English and Dhivehi, from “Be proud of my island” to “Freshwater aquifer depletion threatens water supplies”.

The island’s street lamps were switched off for the evening and all roads lined with coconut-shell lamps. A procession with bodu-beru drumming conducted the guest of honour to a new public square opened earlier in the day, in remembrance of the late mother of Ali Mauroof, one of Kaanu Green Peace’s founding patrons.