Pinay student bags UN environment award

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipina was among four students who were awarded by the United Nations for environment innovation.

Mary Jade Gabanes received the 2011 Young Environmental Leader Award along with Indonesia’s Sara Rudianto, Ecuador’s Maria Rosa Reyes Acosta and Kenya’s Michael Muli for their projects, the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) announced in Leverkusen, Germany.

The Filipina was cited for setting up an environmental education program for children with special needs that include art therapy sessions, a musical variety show and photo exhibitions.

Other projects included a small bioreactor that can be used in household cooking and eco-friendly fuel briquettes made out of dried foliage and waste paper.

The quartet, who will each receive 3,000 euros and technical support in their home countries to make their projects sustainable, were chosen by a panel of judges from UNEP, a non-governmental organization (NGO), and the chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate Bayer.

They were selected on the final day of the Young Environmental Envoy Program, a weeklong program co-organized by UNEP which brought together 47 young leaders from developing countries for a study tour in Germany.

Rudianto developed a bioreactor that can process farm and household waste to make renewable energy that can be used not only for cooking in Indonesia’s West Java province, but also as an alternative source of fuel to the traditionally used firewood.

Acosta of Ecuador designed a process to treat water that has been contaminated by mercury, a toxic element that usually results from gold mining.

Muli is implementing a green energy project in his native Kenya that aims to lower carbon emissions by using clean fuel briquettes made of foliage and waste paper rather than traditional cooking fuels such as charcoal. The project should also create jobs and income for local residents in his community.