Christmas became even merrier this year when Azadea Foundation, an NGO managed, financed, and sponsored exclusively by Azadea board members and employees, transformed the René Mouawad Sanayeh Garden into a decorated Christmas haven for children facing social educational problem from the Lebanese Child Home Association (AFEL). The Christmas celebration took place on Monday, December 15th, 2014, as part of Azadea Foundation's mission to foster green awareness while encouraging environmental education.
With the help of the 'G Association', a local environmental non-governmental organization, the children participated in interactive green workshops led by two specialized artists. The activitiesstarted with a competition where they learned about recycling and sorting waste. They then used these recycled material to create arts and crafts to decorate the Garden's trees, with the help of Azadea employees. The best decorated tree was handpicked by a volunteer from Azadea dressed up as Santa Clause who distributed candy bags and clothes as gifts to the children, all of which were donated by Azadea employees.
The Foundation's plans to animate the garden were achieved while creating a fun, educational and environmental experience to the children by lighting the Sanayeh garden with recyclable handcrafted decoration. Commenting on the occasion, Marwan Moukarzel, President of Azadea Foundation said, "Through this initiative, previous and future ones, not only are we working on turning the René Mouawad, Sanayeh Garden into the next best educational and cultural platform in the city, but we are also working towards impacting young generations." "The generous presence of Azadea employees also helped create the true Christmas spirit that these children deserve to enjoy," he added.
AFEL's representative; Jocelyn Sakr, concluded, "Thanks to supporters such as Azadea, our children will have the opportunity to experience and enjoy the real Christmas spirit while learning new environmental information like any other child out there."
