2009

The Veolia Foundation is intensifying its support for outreach initiatives implemented by students. After having rewarded the prizewinning associations of the "HEC Solidarity Campus" on May 14^th, it has announced the official launch of the Student Solidarity Prize, which will be open from the 2009 school reopening to the associations of several schools and universities.

Since its launch five years ago, the Veolia Environnement Foundation is regularly approached by students to help them complete their outreach cooperation projects. The Foundation team, concerned to accompany this initiative, has decided to provide the best projects with financial support and the skills of Veolia Environnement employees by creating a Student Solidarity Prize.

To be eligible, the projects must fall into one of the major areas of action of the Foundation: aid to development, aid to vulnerable persons, workforce development, and environment and biodiversity conservation. The professionalism of the proposed approach, the knowledge and understanding of local needs, the relevance of the institutional setup, its permanence, the means employed to assess the project throughout its lifetime, and the general legibility of the actions, are all points for ultimate selection.

The projects are submitted to a jury of members of the Foundation, of the Veolia Environment Campus and representative schools and universities.

At the first prize award session, which took place last May 14^th, in partnership with the "HEC Solidarity Campus", seven initiatives were selected and three shared a grant of 10 000 €.

As of the 2009 academic reopening, the associations of many school and university campuses can apply as candidates for the Student Solidarity Prize, extended beyond the HEC student body.

Evasion Roumanie aims to sustainably improve the living conditions of disadvantaged youths and families in Romania. It was distinguished for its project for aid to children and families in distress in Satu Mare (Northern Romania): holiday camp, hostel, rambling, etc. Evasion Roumanie works alongside several partners: the local association Stea (street youths) and Samtoul (sponsorship of deserving youths), the international social Samu and the National Federation of Firemen of France. Evasion Roumanie received 5 000 €.

Mission Quechua, created in 2001, is the runner-up of the Student Solidarity Prize. It provides financial and technical aid to the poor and isolated Andean communities of Peru. In partnership with Groupe Développement, an association of women of Chambarra (microfinance) and the NGO San Javier del Peru, Mission Quechua promotes a dual project: fight against soil impoverishment and desertification on an area of 50 hectares, and generating new income. It received a grant of 3 500 €.

Action pour le Bénin was in third place on the podium, earning a grant of 1 500 €. Since its launch in 2001, the association has promoted a wide range of educational projects to facilitate the local economic development of a region of Benin (school support, library). Alongside the local NGOs and associations, it has dubbed the project presented to the jury "education, why not me?". It consists in supporting six young teachers of Benin to pursue their advance studies and local projects in favor of education.

The other projects examined by the jury were supported by the associations Cheer up, Solidarité France-Népal, Mission Cambodge and Rethink.

In France, Institut Télémaque accompanies and supports brilliant and motivated youths from extremely disadvantaged circles, with the aid of partner companies. From secondary school to high school, the selected students benefit from a dual tutorship (a company tutor and a referent from their school) as well as financial support. The Veolia Environnement Campus and the Veolia Environnement Foundation have decided to accompany ten youths for five years, who will be tracked by two volunteer tutors, employees of the group.

In the United States, the Foundation is launching a major environmental program with Sky Island Alliance (SIA) for the remediation and protection of the Madrean Archipelago, a transborder region in the southwest United States and northwestern Mexico. This zone is recognized as a priority area for the conservation of the world biodiversity, because among 34 extremely vulnerable sites defined as "Hotspots", it has one of the planet's most complex and diversified ecosystems.

The program is organized around three guidelines: to investigate the biodiversity of the Madrean Archipelago by optimizing the methods thanks to new technologies, to act in favor of the remediation of the ecological habitats (aquatic resources) by mobilizing the skills of experts and volunteers, and to convince the public institutions and the public at large by involving them in order to foster an awareness of the need to act in favor of biodiversity.

The project relies on many partners, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Turner Foundation, and an international network of universities. The Foundation will provide a financial grant of $450,000 over three years and wants to enlist the volunteers of its "Veoliaforce" network present on the American continent.