Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) signed a memorandum of understanding with KidzMondo to establish a sustainability-themed edutainment zone in the Mall of Qatar on October 18, 2016. The MoU was co-signed by Dr.Yousef Alhorr (GORD’s Founding Chairman) and Mr Ali Kazama (Chairman Kidz Holding) in the presence of Mr Nabil Barakat (General Manager KidzMondo-Doha) and managers from both sides.

GORD leading the sustainability drive in the MENA region, has joined hands with KidzMondo to promote a noble cause which is to educate the young generation by infusing the principles of sustainability into their souls and hearts.

The indoor theme park’s GORD activity tackles yet another pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030, while further enriching children’s learning experience and the value they receive when visiting KidzMondo Doha, which is due to open its doors to kids and families in Qatar in the near future.

GORD Junior at KidzMondo aims to educate children about sustainability and responsible use of resources through fun-filled, interactive activities and games. The fascinating interactive activities will enable them to learn about concepts such as energy or water preservation, making sustainable structures, and protecting the environment.

Explaining the details of the initiative, Dr. Yousef Alhorr commented:

Sustainable development is a common goal and can never be achieved by one segment of the society working in isolation. We have to ensure that our future generations are well aware and determined to practice and promote principles that restore our environment, foster economic prosperity and build vibrant and healthy communities. Green living and responsible use of resources is the need of the hour and we must make our children aware of the importance of their individual actions and attitudes towards this cause and I believe KidzMondo is a fantastic platform to impart this knowledge by directly engaging them in numerous activities that they can learn and adopt at every level in their lives.

On the collaboration, Mr. Nabil R. Barakat commented:

At KidzMondo Doha, we are immensely grateful to the wonderful people at GORD, who saw an opportunity to draw out even more value out of their cutting-edge research & development efforts and recognized our edutainment city as the perfect platform to share their message and spread environmental awareness among Qatar’s younger generation.

With the common goal of building a better, brighter future for present and coming generations, KidzMondo Doha is pleased to be shaking hands with GORD – an eminent organization that is faithfully committed to contribute to the sustainable development of Qatar and the MENA region – and we look forward to working together on imparting invaluable nuggets of knowledge to children and youngsters, towards collectively developing a greener, cleaner and safer world.

GORD Junior at KidzMondo Doha

KidzMondo features a self-sufficient city built for and managed by children aged 2-14 who can assume the roles of over 80 professions and public services in a real life setting. These controlled settings provide visiting children various roles and concepts that they can experience and understand how they can work together to form a community of responsible Kidizens. The constitution of KidzMondo Doha also reinforces the civic and social responsibility that lies with the future generations in order to protect nature and the environment. And what better way to ingrain these concepts and responsible habits in young minds than by the experts in the field. The new edutainment activity promotes GORD’s ever-important mission of spreading environmental awareness among youngsters by helping children at KidzMondo Doha understand the risk of environmental degradation, resource depletion and carbon emissions.

Through this partnership, KidzMondo Doha will develop with GORD one of the most vital and indispensable activities of the indoor theme park, through which ‘kidizens’ will learn about carbon dioxide emissions, the kind of industries that produce these emissions and ways to offset them, understand the basics of waste management, as well as learn about the measures that must be taken to ensure a rapid, yet environmentally-friendly economic development and urbanization growth

At the GORD Junior station in Kidzmondo Doha, a number of exciting and competitive edutainment activities will be featured:

Introductory video: At arrival, children will be introduced to GORD with a short video that talks about the harmful effects of CO2 emissions on the overall environment and how they can (along with GORD) help in reducing these to save the environment in the long term.

Green Qatar 2030 challenge: This game will make kids walk/run around KidzMondo theme park trying to save Qatar and make it more clean and healthy through looking for sources of emissions and opportunities for carbon off-settings. The concept follows the idea of searching for the (Green) treasure and collecting Carbo dollars. It will involve installing several renewable energy concepts in different places with demo panels for CO2 emissions and electricity generated. This concept then can be expanded to create challenges among KidzMondo branches in different countries where each branch visitors will try to beat other country on its carbon footprint.

Waste management: In this activity, kids will collect scrap paper from around the city, mix it in a mixer machine, and add it to a recycling machine for paper to be made out of it. They will receive a real recycled paper which they will then use to write a letter to their parents. The kids will understand the fundamentals of waste management and the process of creating recycled paper and using the same as it is eco-friendly.

Green home: Kids will be provided with a regular and an energy saving bulb that they will connect to a circuit to learn about the amount of energy used by each of them. Kids will understand which bulbs are more environmentally friendly and will remember to try and adapt it at home. They will also learn about the elements that make up a green home such as LED lights and solar panels.

Greeno: A GORD mascot named “Greeno" will also join the KidzMondo characters Kozmo, Ëena, Dogzilla and Leeloo to educate children about sustainability and environment protection through his stories. By completing the edutainment activities at GORD Junior, children will be able to earn a Green Advocate Certificate for themselves and will be trained to reinforce green living practices at their homes and spread the messages to their families and friends too.

Greeno – Freindo club: As a loyalty program to keep kids connected to KidzMondo and create a long relationship with them through social media.

Hydroponic farming: Using LED to grow vegetables and to have internal greening through use of LEDs.

In addition to these activities, GORD will also promote sustainability best practices throughout the KidzMondo through certification plaques, for example a food outlet can be certified for recycling packaging, another office can earn certification of being sustainable by saving energy through installing LED lights. Use of iPads and touch screens will be used to interact with kids while performing the games to make it more appealing to new generation.