Hundreds of high schoolers took part in the competition, which required them to present initiatives that will meet one of the 17 goals set by the U.N. for sustainable development. On Wednesday, June 29, after many COVID-19-related delays, seven groups of students who made it to the final stage of the program presented their initiatives to U.N. representatives in Rome!
Girls from the AMIT-Kama Midrasha School chose Ethiopia as their goal-state, where they propose the production of flour from locust. With assistance from the Ethiopian Embassy and Israeli contacts, a pilot with the local youth is now being developed in the Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia.
A group of students from the Branco Weiss School in Beit Hashmonai decided to check how death cases related to bacterial and germ infection can be reduced, and came up with the original idea of producing disinfection material from Ethanol in Sugarcanes on the roof of a hospital in Zambia.
A group of students from the Eshkol School for Arts and Sciences, along with students from Ohel Shem School, chose to examine the channeling of organic waste for the creation of food using Hermetia Illucens. The initiative won an award from the Innovation Foundation in Macedonia and gathered interest from a local company in Northern Macedonia.
A group of students from the Ein Gedi Six-Year School for Environmental Education presented a model for planting Moringa trees in open areas in Kenya. The tree leaves contain many minerals, vitamins and anti-oxygenation materials that can help the struggle against high rate of illness and death in the country.
The young entrepreneurs from the agricultural farm of Ein Shemer also chose Kenya as their goal-state, and offered a solution for the growing hunger problem in the country based on the reproduction of a plant called "Water Lentil". The reproduction system, developed by Israeli researchers and Kenyan entrepreneurs, does not require the use of water or electricity, and it is based on a sustainable development process based on organic waste.
The girls from Mekif A Be'er-Sheva High School chose to focus on the air pollution problem in India. They propose turning the custom of burning crop remains into an environmental process in which paper will be produced from unused crops. Profits from the project will be used to purchase new containers and turning them into paper-recycling spots all over India and in other states.
At the Mekif Ein Mahel School, the students chose to aid Sudan in the development of Agriculture. Due to massive wandering of sands in the country, a great difficulty arose in developing stable agriculture and solving the hunger problem. A special Cyanobacteria seaweed is proposed to help with the stabilization of the soil.
According to Dr. Doron Markel, KKL-JNF Chief Scientist who led the project, "We live in complex times of the climate crisis, and we must find creative solutions to deal with it. The talented young people who participated in the plan are the generation that will deal with the true climate challenges, and there is great importance in encouraging them to act on the issue. I am glad for the chance to take part in this important project!"