The Al Falaah EnviroClub was formed in 2015 by a group of enthusiastic learners who felt that too much of recyclable material was ending up in our bins and eventually in landfill sites adding to the damage to our environment.

The club started off with just over 100 members and was initially restricted to the Secondary School. However, in 2018 our EnviroClubs (as they came to be known) began showing a lot of interest and the Primary School educators formed a group of learners and joined the Club.

Presently we recycle white paper, plastic and cardboard.

White paper is collected in each classroom and transferred to our recycling area close to the main car park.

The Club is serviced by Planet Care , a recycling company situated close to the school. They ensure that recyclables are picked up regularly from school.

Our learners are also encouraged to bring plastic bottles from home which are deposited in our recycling area. Plastic bottles are also collected from our tuck-shop area.

In 2019 the Club joined a project called “ Sea4Schools”, which was initiated by Grant Blakeway who had planned to sail singlehandedly across the Atlantic in order to raise awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution in our oceans. The project entailed the collection of plastic bottles. The club undertook this project with a great amount of enthusiasm.

Currently, we’ve joined another initiative called “One Planet Living”. We aim to undertake their projects as well.

The Club also joins “#CleanBlueLagoon” which goes on a monthly beach clean-up at the Beachwood mangroves in Blue Lagoon.

The enthusiasm of our learners in keeping our environment clean and being a part of saving our planet must be lauded. 

Debating is an excellent tool to equip the learner with essential skills to understand critical thinking and presentation. Furthermore, debating nurtures persuasive and public speaking. At Al Falaah College, debating workshops for Grades7-9 learners are held every Saturday mornings. Learners are taught by a highly skilled and professional teacher. In addition to developing poise, presence and confidence, our learners are also taught to develop analytical and research skills. In honing valuable debating skills, learners become au fait with thinking out of the box as well as acquiring a broadened world view. After a rigorous 9 week course, learners graduate with a course certificate.

Al Falaah College is privileged to be part of Toastmasters International. Toastmasters has helped our learners to fine tune their communicative skills and become better public speakers. It has helped learners to gain self-confidence and develop valuable leadership skills. The course has also proved valuable to our learners in the delivery of their oral component of the examinations. The Impromptu segment helps learners to think on their feet, whilst the Prepared Speech helps to solidify understanding of material researched.

Toastmasters is not just about public speaking, but for people at every level of proficiency to hone their communication skills. Learners participate at different levels-school, Interschool, District, Provincial and National levels.

The word “to interact” means to act in such a way as to have an effect on others. Here at the interact club at al falaah college that is exactly what we aim to do. All grades from 7 to 11 volunteer their time and energy to help others. I, myself remember traveling to an old age home with some of my classmates to gift care packages to the elderly of our community. I will never forget the smiles we put on their faces and the joy we felt to have made a difference in someone’s life.

Similarly there have been visits to orphanages and children’s hospitals.

Not only do we strive to help others, we protect and save our environment.

Informing students of the imminent problems of pollution, deforestation and global warming.

Placing recycling bins at different points all around the school and in every classroom, Volunteering beach and park cleanups, posters and assemblies, we make every student and teacher aware of their own carbon footprint and how they can reduce it.

Doing our best to launch projects that will save our planet and help others, our interact club is all about having humanity, saving our earth and helping others.

On Saturday 15 Feb 2020, the Leadership Academy welcomed 32 grade 10 learners from various schools in KZN to its Youth Leadership Development Programme at Al Falaah College.

The aims and objectives of the programme are:

• To develop 21st century leadership skills in our youth
• To create the desire in our youth to serve humanity
• To develop a sustainable model to train leaders                       

The programme is in its third year and these learners joined another 60 learners. The workshops were held on Saturday mornings at Al Falaah College.

The programme commenced on 1 February 2020 with a workshop for the matriculants, and the topic was Personal Resilience. Our guest was Mrs Tasmi Bodhanya who related her inspiring journey from a life-threatening accident to recovery. This was the only session planned for the matriculants to afford them time to concentrate on their studies.

The Orientation Session was held on 15 February 2020 where our guest speaker was Mr. Abdullah Verachia from the GIBS Business School. His topic was What is happening around us: The numbers that are changing our context. This was followed by teambuilding activities for all the learners and ended with a presentation by Dr. Shamim Bodhanya on Leadership as Poetry.

Due to Covid 19, all contact sessions were stopped. Dr Shamim conducted two virtual lessons with the learners, one in August and one in September 2020 and the topics were The World of Covid 19 and Futures Thinking and Foresight.

A highlight for the programme was when Adam Mohamed, a learner from DHS, scored 100 percent in the National Computer Programming Olympiad. He also excelled in his studies throughout the year and with his excellent matric results secured admission to Harvard University.

The coordinator of the programme was Adv. Mahomed Vahed.