World Culture Day at Doha College
Held every year on 21 May, the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development celebrates not only the richness of the world’s cultures, but also the essential role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development. The United Nations General Assembly first declared this World Day in 2002, following UNESCO’s adoption of the 2001 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, recognizing the need to “enhance the potential of culture as a means of achieving prosperity, sustainable development and global peaceful coexistence.” UNESCO lead the celebration.
On World Day of Culture (one of its many aliases), Doha College celebrated the amazing diversity that exists within our school. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore and learn about cultures around the world, and proudly share the things that make us all unique and special.
The Diversity, Equality and Inclusion committee, led by the inspirational Miss Thenneh Conteh, invited each class to create its own exhibition of a culture. Students researched language, music, art, traditions, dress, greetings, dances, and important dates pertaining to their chosen culture.
In honour of the day, students and staff wore traditional dress, national colours or flags as symbols of their cultures. Some costumes were very elaborate and creative, some were subtle and invited guesses, while others contained a mixture of symbols from multiple cultures.
Classrooms activities revolved around the theme, interspersed with quizzes that tested the students’ knowledge. Two Year 7 forms and two Year 9 forms scored 100% in the flags of the world quiz, and this is how we found out that Ernesto, in Year 9, knows every flag in the world!
In the words of Mrs Sanderson, Head of Secondary,
"it has been fabulous to see the national dress, national colours, and various other expressions of self and culture in our student and staff groups. It is an excellent reminder that we are fortunate to work with and teach so many people from such different backgrounds, yet we are all sharing this time and space in Doha College!"
Here is a video in which our students offer small nuggets of information about their cultural background. They talk about sports, food, flags and even hairstyles.
You can scroll through some of the highlights below, or you can head to our social media platforms for more.
