Each year, the Terre de Femmes Award recognizes women involved in environmental conservation. For the past 16 years, 350 women have received assistance from the Yves Rocher Foundation to carry out their projects. This year, nearly a hundred files have reached the office of the Yves Rocher Foundation - Institut de France. Three recipients were rewarded for their commitment to the preservation of our land.
1st prize: Laure Botinelli and her solidarity firm in Haiti
Laure Botinelli has chosen to support women who live in difficult conditions. The 28-year-old has created a solidarity firm, Anacaona, which recycles used soap in Haiti . A means of preserving the environment but also preventing illnesses related to lack of hygiene . In addition, it provides work for the women of Haiti , one of the poorest countries in the world. A graduate of Sciences-Po Grenoble, Laure Botinelli has been involved for nearly 5 years in humanitarian projects in Madagascar, the Philippines and Bangladesh before creating her own project. Through an online fundraising campaign in 2016, she raised enough money to rent a workshop, buy a car and the ingredients needed to recycle soap. The amount collected was also used to pay the first months of wages of the employees. Today, Anacaona works with about thirty Haitian hotels which provide it with used soaps to recycle.
2nd prize: Coline Billon and restaurateurs bio-waste recycling company for compost
Coline Billon created La Tricyclerie in 2015 in Nantes. Twice a week, she goes to the downtown restaurateurs by bike to collect the organic waste to transform it into compost . This is then used in shared and urban gardens, for a greener city. Carried by about ten volunteers, the Tricyclerie collected 1.2 tons of waste in one year. Ultimately, Tricyclerie hopes to hire employees.
3rd prize: Joëlle de Weerdt preserves cetaceans in Nicaragua
Joëlle de Weerdt's fight is the preservation of threatened species . Passionate about cetaceans and underwater biodiversity, this 29-year-old scientist is studying whales and dolphins in Nicaragua to save them from extinction.
