Cairo: The Egyptian Environmental Education and Outreach Program (EEOP), funded by USAID, announced the beginning of an environmental competition program covering four different governorates; Cairo, Beni Sweif, Fayoum and Alexandria, in an attempt to draw attention on environmental issues. The competition - known as the Environmental Awards Program - despite being open for anyone interested in any environmental project or idea, focuses on school children. The EEOP has been working on training teachers on different environmental aspects in 160 schools for the past year, said Dalia Abdel Salam, EEOP s spokeswoman, we try to teach them things that they can easily teach their students. Heba El-Meligy, senior communication officer, who is responsible for the awards program, said that the purpose of the awards is to encourage young people to think about their environment and finding ways to enhance it. Participants do not have to come up with a big project. Sometimes an idea is more than enough, she said, some students decided to make use of old papers and books; they sold them and used the money for establishing environmental activities in their schools. Four committees consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment, the media and civil societies have been established in the four governorates. We tried to form a balanced panel of judges, said El-Meligy. The awards have not been assigned yet, but the EEOP has one rule, we do not encourage monetary awards. We want the awards to meet the needs of the contestant; if he is into paper recycling for example, we ll get him a mixer, explained El-Meligy. The awards will also be mostly donated by philanthropists and businessmen. In El-Marg, a district in Cairo, a business man decided to donate 50 percent of the awards regardless of what they are, said Abdel Salam. The results of the competition are to be announced the coming October and for those who cannot make it this time, another round is to begin in April 2008.
