Beirut, October 2016: As part of its fifth anniversary’s activities, Azadea Foundation carried on its plantation campaigns on October 29th, in Kfardebian, to reach now a total of 12,000 trees with over 350 Azadea employees and their families, along with Jouzour Loubnan team’s support. The day kick-started with Jouzour Loubnan honoring Azadea as one of the biggest local corporate contributors in reforesting Lebanon since 2011, in the presence of Ricardo Santos, representative of Ambassador of Spain to Lebanon and Bassam Salame, head of the Kfardebian Municipality.
Salame welcomed the attendees showing appreciation to Azadea Foundation’s committed efforts and sustainability in its environmental activities in Lebanon, among which is the annual plantation day in Kfardebian.
Commenting on the occasion, Azadea Foundation’s president Marwan Moukarzel said: “Assuming a proactive role in spreading awareness and nurturing education around environmental causes has been our main mission since 2011. Five years later, we are still pursuing our goals, raising the bar from awareness to engaged action driven by our employees, their families and the Lebanese community at large. We are proud to lead by example and make a positive difference by committing year on year to environmentally sustainable projects such as reforestation campaigns in Lebanon.”
On the same note, Raoul Nehme, president of Jouzour Loubnan, highlighted Azadea Foundation’s commitment to supporting reforestation and research in implementing a long-term plan that tests the best techniques for successful and sustainable planting results.
Nehme announced: “Our partnership with Azadea Foundation for the past five years has allowed us to create together, a sustainable difference for Lebanon. And today, we praise their continuous determination to support Jouzour Loubnan’s reforestation mission by declaring them as one of the biggest local contributors.” He added: “In fact, our joint efforts go beyond the 12,000 trees planted together, and into more sustainable planting techniques we’ve adopted — such as the individual fencing, to ensure higher survival rates of trees and the direct replacement of unhealthy seedlings on annual basis”.
Azadea Foundation was honored by the presence of Ricardo Santos, the representative of Ambassador of Spain to Lebanon, HE. Milagros Hernando Echevarría, who participated in this year’s plantation day to support this green initiative and highlight the importance of such activities in Lebanon.
The event comes to serve one of Azadea Foundation’s core missions which is to spread environmental education, first to its workforce and their families, and second to the Lebanese community and more particularly the younger generations. Acting on that, the Foundation invited to its plantation day, the winners of its second School’s Envirothon, to learn on ground plantation. To award the winning school, 30 students from Sagesse School – Jdeideh joined the Azadeans on this day.
Moreover, the Foundation took the plantation campaign to the public when it organized an interactive activity with the Lebanese shoppers in malls, two weeks prior the plantation day. People were then asked to draw a virtual tree on an interactive graffiti screen in return for Azadea Foundation to plant a real one afterwards. The activation resulted in having over 600 trees drawn within 4 days reflecting on the public’s willingness to contribute to this reforestation mission.