Environmental health student at AUB, Sara Moledor, won the Samir & Claude Abillama Eco-Entrepreneurship Award for her project entitled Vermicomposting which uses earthworms to transform organic waste such as vegetable and fruit peels and grass into natural compost to be used as fertilizers thus replacing the use of chemicals. Sarah expressed her appreciation of this award which is a sum of USD 20,000 and added that this money will allow her to implement her project which will in turn save farmers the cost of fertilizers and increase their benefits due to increase of eco-friendly agricultural yield. Sara had applied her idea in Batlun in Shouf when she was preparing her dissertation.
To be noted that Sara is a US citizen and has been living in Lebanon for three years and was one of the 57 contestants for this award which was launched in 2013 as a collaboration between the Nature Conservation Center (NCC) at AUB and the Samir & Claude Abillama Eco-Entrepreneurship Award. The award aims at encouraging eco-friendly businesses, raising environmental awareness, and increasing investment in bio-diversity. The award focuses on helping holders of small environmental projects and initiatives which have a local impact.
Source: L’Orient Le Jour 5 July 2014