The Vietnamese winners of The Earth Prize 2022 (from left): Luong Anh Khanh Huyen, Bui Tu Uyen and Tran Quynh Anh. (Source: sohuutritue.net.vn) The girls are 15-year-old Tran Quynh Anh from Ho ChiMinh City, and 17-year-old Bui Tu Uyen and 16-year-old Luong Anh Khanh Huyen,both from Hanoi.
The winning idea is the “Adorbsy” biodegradablemenstrual pad. As the students explained in their submission, due to a drop indragon fruit sales caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam was suddenly forcedto deal with considerable amounts of unsold fruits, with an initial plan ofsimply burning it.
The students had already been thinking of a projectlinked to making more eco-friendly menstrual pads - as they were virtuallynon-existent in the Vietnamese market - when Uyen learned about the absorbentproperties of dragon fruit peels. This planted the seed for their Earth Prizeproject submission.
“This was a very difficult choice for The EarthPrize Adjudicating Panel to make; but Team Adorbsies’ project is an idea turnedinto a solution that can make a genuine difference,” said RinaKupferschmid-Rojas, Chair of the Panel.
“It really gives us inspiration. We spent months andmonths on this idea, and it feels like it really is paying off. Theall-nighters, the sleepless nights, looking through dozens and dozens anddozens of research papers… it is worth it,” Huyen said.
“We are all really, really excited, because this isour first really big milestone. The Earth Prize is where we wanted to presentour idea first, but the actual implementation of our idea will be the next bigstep, and so, winning this gives us a lot of strength to see where we can takethis idea. This has been such a great learning experience”, Quynh Anh said.
Three runner-up teams were also announced andrewarded with a 25,000 USD prize each for their schools. These three teams areTeam Big GEMS, which designed a fungal enzyme-based filtering kit that degradesdye wastewater produced by the textile industry; Team CIECO, which created andimplemented a reusable cup circulation system that replaced disposable plastic cupsat their school cafeteria; and Team Viridis, which designed a mobile app tohelp fight food waste from supermarkets in Jamaica.
Launched by The Earth Foundation in September 2021,The Earth Prize is a global 200,000 USD environmental sustainabilitycompetition for students between the ages of 13 and 19, which rewards the teamswhose projects have the most potential to address environmental issues.
The Earth Foundation was founded in 2020 in Geneva,Switzerland, to inspire, educate, mentor, and empower students, schools,researchers, and young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to tackleenvironmental challenges.
Through its initiatives, The Earth Foundationstrives to foster a self-perpetuating ecosystem that accelerates positivechange towards environmental sustainability.
By the time registration closed at the end ofNovember 2021, 651 teams from 516 schools across 114 countries and territories hadsigned up for the competition, from some of the most elite boarding schools inthe United Kingdom and Switzerland to schools in refugee camps in the West Bankand Jordan.
To help participants develop their ideas, The EarthPrize provided students with access to 30 mentors from top universities, andwith bespoke learning videos and materials covering key environmental topicsfeaturing nine young environmental change-makers from around the world.
Speaking at a media briefing on April 22, Swiss Ambassadorto Vietnam Ivo Sieber commended the team’s great idea as well astheir commitment to put it into action, stressing that he was impressed bytheir vision and what they have done at their young ages.
The team has shown their cooperation and goodteamwork in the “impactful project”, with each of them covering differentareas, the diplomat said.
The girls said through the project, they want tosend a message of environmental protection that requires joint efforts andactions, and raise public awareness of hygiene and sanitation for women.
Environmental protection can be done not onlythrough macro projects but also simple actions, they said, urging young peopleto raise their ideas to contribute to these efforts./.
VNA
