After the tremendous success of the first schools' Envirothon, Azadea Foundation celebrated this year's Earth Day with the second edition of its inter-school competition, organized with the full support of the Lebanese Ministry of Education and in collaboration with Zero Waste Act. The project comes as part of the Foundation's objectives to enhance environmental education leading to a ripple effect that starts from children and grows to slowly affect the whole society.
As such the Envirothon was held at the René Mouawad, Sanayeh Garden on April 21st, gathering more than two hundred 10 to 11 year old students from 10 private and public schools from different regions in Lebanon.
Addressing Azadea Foundation's mission of turning environmentalawareness into actual impact, the competition encouraged participating students to take action in environmental issues. Under the theme of "Waste reducing, reusing, recycling and up cycling" - the hottest topic of the town - students spent an environmental day full of interactive educational activities that taught them about the life cycle of waste, from production till decomposing in nature.
In addition, the Envirothon included an art competition that focused on establishing the Zero Waste Act culture among students, in which they learnt to avoid creating waste by reusingit. Participating schools showcased artworks created solely from non-recyclable material in front of a selected jury of Azadea Group Chairman Wassim Daher, Head of Health Education and Environment Unit at the Ministry of Education Sonia Najem, creator of Bokja Furniture Huda Baroudi, and Founder of "Mums in Beirut" blog Dina Maktabi, who selected "Sagesse Jdeideh School" as a winner for their creative piece of art. As part of its award, the winning school was included in the national recycling campaign that Azadea Foundation launchedacross Lebanon. As such, the Zero Waste Act will be collecting their recycled waste for a whole year. The winnerswill also have the opportunity to join Azadea Group's 5th Plantation Day, next fall.
Commenting on the occasion, Marwan Moukarzel, President of Azadea Foundation, said: "All our initiatives this year are focused on moving from awareness to actual impact. As such we are educating students about the significance of reducing waste to better protect our environment through the Envirothon." He added that "The competition's theme comes also as an expansion to our national recycling campaign which started within Azadea Group's premises and shops, and will continue with the Envirothon's winning school with the support of our recycling partners Zero Waste Act."
Throughthis pioneer initiative and in cooperation with the government and schools from different parts of the country, Azadea Foundationcontinues its efforts towards protecting nature and spreading better environmental practices.
