Green Cross Youth

Music is a positive force that unites people across all borders

Green Cross Youth is the youth branch of the organization. We want to spread knowledge about the environment, sustainable development and peace to the younger generation. We make the green more beautiful! If you are tired of all the mossy old environmental elves but still want to contribute to something important and current, then this is the organization for you. The environmental problems are relevant for us young people because the consequences affect us. If we think about the environment, it's really about everything. This means that the environment is also about you and me. Decision-makers who control and set in today's society have already lived half their lives. After all, it is the young people who will take over and lead society in the future. We can already make wise choices by being aware of our own lifestyle, what we choose to consume and how we choose to invest our time and commitment!

Get involved now!

Are you passionate about environmental issues, creative and want to use your talents to make the world a better place? Are you interested in culture, music and events? Then you should join us. We at Green Cross Youth run exciting, independent projects and are involved in events that combine culture with peace and environmental issues. Join and contribute to changing our world by spreading knowledge and inspiration. We are all different but each of us has something unique to give. We put the environment in a context where we can in good conscience arrange cultural events such as concerts, art exhibitions and other festive happenings.

Years after the reactor explodes or the poison is spread, the threat lingers on in communities, water sources and food chains. The Health for the Future project is designed to provide continuing medical servies for future generations of people exposed to such emergencies.

Green Cross maps the health profile of affected communities, providing a valuable picture of key intereventions needed. We provide breast screening and other health promotion and disease prevention services, educate on hygiene improvement and demonstrate how to reduce radiation in the human body and foods.

Green Cross also responds to major health needs, whether through mobile teams that provide routine and emergency medical care, or orthapedic and rehabilitation services for children in several countries in South-East Asia affected by Agent Orange or in the former Soviet Union that were impacted by the 1986 Chernobyl emergency.

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• Ukraine

Children are the innocent victims of manmade disasters and need special care to help recover. Green Cross conducts a series of “camps” every year that support hundreds of children with health services as well as advice and information on how to adapt to and live healthily in contaminated areas.

reen Cross provides children affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe with health and social care, clean environments and positive support through therapy, education and exchange camps, such as the European Union-sponsored Youth In Action initiative.

The Green Cross camps have been helping improve the physical and psychosocial health of children living in ecologically hazardous regions of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.Trained staff and medical practitioners carry out detailed clinical and laboratory examinations, along with psychological and psychometric studies, of children. They design individual rehabilitation plans for each child for the whole year. Conventional and non-conventional methods of therapy, including aromatherapy, are used within the camp programmes.

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• Therapy camps

Children are among the most vulnerable people in emergencies, and the harm they suffer can have lifelong impacts. Green Cross helps children overcome these physical scars through a wide range of medical and rehabilitative services.

Malformations and damage to limbs is one such area that Green Cross responds to. In South-East Asian nations and the countries affected by the Chernobyl disaster, Green Cross supports surgical procedures to help correct malformations, and fits children with prosthetic limbs to support them to play active roles in their communities.

In South-East Asia, Green Cross has enabled more than 2,000 Vietnamese children and young adults with disabilities undergo surgery and receive orthopedic treatment since 1998. And in neighbouring Laos, dozens of families, including school children and teenagers have received medical and social support since 2011, plus training on health care in Agent Orange-contaminated areas.

In Moldova, SOCMED has helped strengthen local programmes to provide rehabilitative care to children with disabilities. In Belarus, children who are blind or suffering from varying levels of sight impairment, and the local care givers who support them, receive Green Cross assistance in areas of health, education and integration.At the core of our work to help children overcome disabilities is to enable them to integrate effectively into their communities so they can undergo schooling, develop their characters and aspire to reaching their great potentials. We strive to break barriers that can exclude children, due to their disabilities, from various areas of their communities. Empathy, respect, love and dignity are core principles of our work.

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• Green Cross Switzerland
• Green Cross in Moldova

Sea-dumped Ammunition

It has long been known that, over the years, toxic substances have been leaking from old sea-dumped munitions (UW-UXO) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) along the coasts and lands of Vieques and Culebra islands, just east of Puerto Rico. The results of an assessment of sea-dumped chemicals in that region will be compared to the findings of a similar study in the Baltic Sea. Conclusions will be drawn about the situation in both places, including what types of ammunition and compounds had been dumped and fired. This is the second phase of the project, responding to the recommendations of phase 1 which proposed a Munitions Registry and the use of scientific computer modelling to assess the extent and nature of the legacy from past military activity along both Vieques and the Baltic Sea. Due to the risk and uncertainty involved, great care is being taken to understand exactly how to approach this problem.

A fact-finding mission in October 2013 was followed by visits to the National Archives in Washington DC to collect relevant information. By closing an important gap in understanding what military activities were carried out on the coasts of Vieques and the Baltic Sea, the project seeks to support the rights of local populations to know the potential health impacts of those activities and, subsequently, to help them get adequate protection measures put in place. There is heightened awareness amongst experts in Europe and the United States about the long-term environmental dangers of sea-dumped chemical weapons, and the ESS Programme has been instrumental in organizing two United Nations resolutions thereon in 2010 and 2013.

Cold War Legacies and Long-term Futures

Environmental Security & Sustainability is a new programme name for Green Cross Russia, but the former “Legacies of the Cold War” Programme has been operating in Russia since 1994.

In 2014, the GCR Severodvinsk Public Outreach and Information Offices (POIO) continued to track the dismantling of nuclear submarines at shipyards in the Arkhangelsk Region. The POIO educated the local population about safety issues related to nuclear submarine decommissioning, by connecting with groups including schoolteachers, public officials, and reporters.

Public outreach to the Izhevsk and Udmurt population included seminars, written materials (including a tutorial on how nuclear submarines are disarmed), summer camps for children from Kambarka and Kizner, and bi-monthly reports (in English and Russian).

Thirty local and regional events were organised, with a total attendance of some 2,383 people. Altogether some 7,800 informational packages (brochures, bulletins, internet postings) were distributed.

The local populations in the Arkhangelsk region are particularly interested in improving radiation monitoring, as a number of radiation-hazard facilities are located nearby – mainly at the Zvezdochka and Sevmash shipyards in Severodvinsk.

Meanwhile, the Izhevsk POIO also continued its activities related to chemical weapons destruction. Throughout the year, the POIO hosts informational meetings between local residents, officials and experts on various aspects of chemical weapons destruction.

Local communities now have a more positive outlook than in previous years. The transfer of social infrastructure facilities to the municipalities has contributed to this positive outlook. In Kambarka, however, residents are still concerned as the full decontamination and conversion of the facility near them has not yet been completed. Since completion of the Kizner facility in December 2013, civil organizations there are focusing on oversight of the ongoing operations.

Sustainable Farming, Pesticide-Free

Green Cross Belarus takes an active part in European Commission/FAO UN Projects, and supports the Project Secretariat for a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) international DDT project. Both projects are focused on the elimination of obsolete pesticides in the CIS region and the promotion of sustainable alternatives to pesticides in the agriculture and health sectors. In 2014 and 2015, five workshops were organised for specialists from 11 CIS countries under these frameworks.

Green Cross Belarus also helped develop a school garden demonstration ground at the GCB Education Centre, where sustainable farming technologies and alternatives to pesticides are presented.

Green Cross Belarus developed a methodical kit on obsolete pesticides for schools, titled “Pesticides: what are the alternatives?” This included a manual, nine presentations and supporting information documents.

Capacity Strengthening and Technical Assistance for the Implementation of Stockholm Convention National Implementation Plans (NIPs) in African LCDs of the ECOWAS sub-region

Least developed countries (LDCs) and small-island developing states (SIDS) in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are among the poorest in the world.

Clear links have been established between poverty and increased risk of exposure to hazardous chemicals and waste. The poor routinely face unacceptably high risks because of their occupations, living situations and lack of knowledge about the detrimental impacts of exposure to these chemicals and wastes. But despite the direct relationship between sound management of chemicals, the protection of human health and the environment, and the prevention of poverty, these links are often overlooked in development planning and prioritisation.

Despite completing their National Implementation Plans (NIPs), the countries in the ECOWAS sub-region lack the administrative capacity to design activities to sustain their global role in the elimination and reduction of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Therefore a regional programmatic approach is needed to support collective action, build national capacity, and enhance mainstreaming of chemicals issues into the work of national governments.

Based on extensive regional and sub-regional consultations and review of countries’ NIPs, UNEP and UNIDO have identified six areas in which these countries require assistance. These are: legislative and regulatory reform; enforcement and administrative capacity; information exchange and dissemination; identification of contaminated land; reduction of exposure to POPs and Unintentionally-produced POPs (UPOPs) at workplaces and from open waste burning; and the introduction of Best Available Techniques/Best Environmental Practices in industrial production processes.

It is necessary to increase the capacity of key government agencies, provincial level government staff, agricultural workers, academia, research institutes and the private sector, as well as participating civil society stakeholders – specifically at the community level. Furthermore, awareness among judiciaries is required to increase understanding of environmental law and the chemicals and wastes Conventions. The Basel and Stockholm Convention Regional Centre in Dakar (BSCRC–FA) is the executing agency, while Green Cross Switzerland is the co-executing agency (assistance, financial and contractual management).

FAO and ECOWAS will jointly organize regional trainings on obsolete pesticides inventories and PSMS training, as well as undertaking national obsolete pesticides inventories.

Access to information and the capacity to exchange it among various countries and stakeholders play an important role in the implementation of various conventions such as the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. The Chemical Information Exchange Network (CIEN) is a way to enhance countries’ capacity to collect and share information and thus support national decision-making for the environmentally sound management of chemicals. CIEN provides a national platform for accessing chemical information and facilitating its exchange.

The limitation of pesticide contamination and introduction of sustainable agricultural practices in Burkina Faso

A project to expand information and awareness raising about the pesticide PRECOGRN-2 to two new communities in the Tanghin-Dassouri region brought the total number of villages involved to 53. Approximately 60,000 inhabitants are being taught about the risks of uninformed pesticide use in agriculture. This includes teaching producers about non-toxic, sustainable, and CO2-neutral farming methods which lead, at the same time, to reduced environmental pollution, improved population health, better food security and reduced negative impacts on the climate.

These sensitization and awareness raising programmes build understanding of chemical pesticides’ potentially adverse impacts on health and the environment. Training on how to introduce alternative, environmentally sound agricultural practices have been received with great interest, and follow-up missions to the communities show that those trained continue to improve their knowledge, adapt new composting techniques and spread practices to their neighbours.

The new techniques provide good compost after only two months, whereas old methods took up to six months. Thanks to these interventions, no pesticides need to be used at all in many of the areas affected and beneficiaries have asked for additional training. Furthermore, the initiative to support women’s groups turned out to be a great success, and there are clear opportunities for synergy and sharing experiences.

Repackaging of DDT and scaling up development of non-chemical alternatives to the use of DDT for malaria control in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia



This Project, aimed at identifying and repackaging DDT stocks and wastes, demonstrates the capability and cost-effectiveness of alternatives to DDT for “vector control” in selected demonstration sites. The project develops national capacity for planning and implementation of Integrated [Disease] Vector Management – a series of measures to naturally control the spread of pest species – and coordinates the sharing of experience among the countries and regions involved.

In 2013, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan decided to introduce IVM as a new principle for controlling vector-based diseases, in order to phase out the use of chemicals to control disease vectors. Tajikistan approved a new national IVM programme in November 2014, including a dedicated budget for 2015-2020. In Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, national IVM programmes are forthcoming.

A total of 17.15 tonnes of solid pesticide containing 10 per cent DDT was repacked in December 2013 in Kyrgyzstan. Several meetings were held in late 2013 with ministries, experts and stakeholders to coordinate efforts. This resulted in a plan where, with the combined effort of four partners, all these pesticides could be safeguarded and partially disposed of across the three countries. Through this combined effort, in 2014 the project repacked the last known unprotected site in Georgia (Karelia, in the Kakheti region – 100 tonnes of DDT and contaminated soil in an underground bunker), two DDT stores in Tajikistan (about 50 tonnes), and two sites in Kyrgyzstan (50-150 tonnes).

Another project now underway improves countries’ capacity to eliminate and prevent the release of obsolete pesticides, using that as a model for tackling disused stores of hazardous chemicals across the former Soviet Union.

In 2014, five countries tendered contracts for repacking obsolete pesticides, and nine produced concept notes for improved pesticide use. Awareness raising campaigns on the risks from pesticides were carried out in six countries. A roadmap for waste management in the region has been drafted, and is to be endorsed by all of these countries. The impact of this work should start to materialise in 2015.

This Project, aimed at identifying and repackaging DDT stocks and wastes, demonstrates the capability and cost-effectiveness of alternatives to DDT for “vector control” in selected demonstration sites. The project develops national capacity for planning and implementation of Integrated [Disease] Vector Management – a series of measures to naturally control the spread of pest species – and coordinates the sharing of experience among the countries and regions involved.

In 2013, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan decided to introduce IVM as a new principle for controlling vector-based diseases, in order to phase out the use of chemicals to control disease vectors. Tajikistan approved a new national IVM programme in November 2014, including a dedicated budget for 2015-2020. In Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, national IVM programmes are forthcoming.

A total of 17.15 tonnes of solid pesticide containing 10 per cent DDT was repacked in December 2013 in Kyrgyzstan. Several meetings were held in late 2013 with ministries, experts and stakeholders to coordinate efforts. This resulted in a plan where, with the combined effort of four partners, all these pesticides could be safeguarded and partially disposed of across the three countries. Through this combined effort, in 2014 the project repacked the last known unprotected site in Georgia (Karelia, in the Kakheti region – 100 tonnes of DDT and contaminated soil in an underground bunker), two DDT stores in Tajikistan (about 50 tonnes), and two sites in Kyrgyzstan (50-150 tonnes).

Another project now underway improves countries’ capacity to eliminate and prevent the release of obsolete pesticides, using that as a model for tackling disused stores of hazardous chemicals across the former Soviet Union.

In 2014, five countries tendered contracts for repacking obsolete pesticides, and nine produced concept notes for improved pesticide use. Awareness raising campaigns on the risks from pesticides were carried out in six countries. A roadmap for waste management in the region has been drafted, and is to be endorsed by all of these countries. The impact of this work should start to materialise in 2015.

Improving medical waste management in Kyrgyzstan

Improper management of waste generated in health care facilities directly impacts the health of nearby communities and also threatens the environment. In Kyrgyzstan, there are a large number of health care and research facilities as well as laboratories that handle and produce hazardous wastes with different health and proliferation risks (injuries, infections, exposure to radiation and mercury). This waste is a direct risk to hospital employees, people living near communal waste dumps, and scavengers. In conjunction with a poor healthcare system, there is also an increased epidemic risk, making the problem a global one.

Through innovative financial replication mechanisms, Green Cross funding can introduce major improvements to the country’s medical waste management system. The City Women’s Hospital in Bishkek has made a formal commitment to use savings from its substitution of traditional sterilisation methods by autoclaving to fund an autoclave at another Kyrgyz healthcare institution.

Water protection and radioactivity mitigation in Mailuu-Suu and other Kyrgyz regions

There are 23 tailing dumps and 13 waste rock dumps scattered throughout Mailuu-Suu, home to a former Soviet-era uranium plant. From 1946 to 1968 the plant produced and processed more than 10’000 tonnes of uranium ore. This has left behind 1,96 million cubic metres of radioactive mining waste. The combination of unsecured radioactive waste and the region’s high seismic activity threatens to contaminate the drinking water supply of the entire Ferghana Valley.

This project aims to improve environmental conditions in the three most polluted areas in the region and address the population’s health situation. Mailuu-Suu and Sumsar-Shekaftar are regions heavily exposed to uranium mine tailings; Kaydarken is, additionally, heavily contaminated with mercury.

Homes, workplaces, and sources of food and water throughout the Mailuu-Suu region were systematically inspected, and installed with protective technologies such as radon detectors and water filters. Before-and-after comparative examinations of radiation levels and health levels were made, alongside raising awareness of the threat and making available relatively simple and affordable protective techniques. These enable local communities to reduce their exposure to radiation and heavy metals without severely disrupting their cultures and daily lives.

These monitoring activities have provided a better understanding of the radiation and health situation in the region. Uranium content in water from the Mailuu-Suu River exceeds public health limits by 2.5 times, and in tap water by 1.5 times. River water sampled in June and October exceeded maximum safe levels for iron concentration by up to 70 per cent. Manganese concentrations were up to 25 per cent above, and molybdenum up to 36 per cent. Elevated average levels of radon were detected in 14 homes.

Blood tests on school children before filters were installed or reactivated showed depressed neutrophil white blood cell counts in 35 per cent of adolescents. Additionally, 18 per cent showed thrombocytopenia – a platelet count below 50,000 per microlitre. Local health officials attributed these abnormalities to radiation exposure. Average rates of cancer in town are twice of average in the oblast and in the country.

Sampling and analysis showed uranium levels in soil to be 50 times higher than background levels. There were also high concentrations of uranium in milk and beef, the skin, horns and hooves of lambs, and the teeth of children and elderly people. Complete therapeutic examination (twice) of 48 adolescents and 56 adults (obtaining three blood test trials, instead of the two planned, meant the number of samples and analyses were 60 per cent greater than expected) showed that the problems identified in adolescent blood tests improved significantly 40 days after the installation of filters.

Samsara, Shekaftar, Kaidarken

From 1947 to 1978, mining activities by the former Soviet Union filled tailing dumps and disposal sites around these communities with 2,65 million cubic metres of contaminated waste. During rainstorms runoff from the dumpsite filters into the soil, and residents of Sumsar and Shekaftar suffer from toxic dust exposure and water pollution. Meanwhile, at Kaidarken, a still-operating mercury plant and its dust tailings are located just 300 metres from neighbouring villages.

Environmental monitoring activities successfully collected detailed data on water pollution in all three of these areas, which was the main pathway for uranium exposure to local residents in Mailuu-Suu. The project also revealed additional significant exposure through contaminated meat and dairy products, from cattle that had grazed in contaminated areas. Health monitoring activities confirmed the health impacts on children from exposure to uranium and other heavy metals, and would also show significant improvements the health conditions of children following the installation of filters for drinking water in schools and kindergartens. The levels of uranium and other metal content in the drinking water tested at schools and hospitals decreased 48–65 per cent. In-room exposure of residents of all ages (mostly through radioactive material embedded in walls and penetration by radon gas) decreased 38–55 per cent.

Awareness programmes for children and parents were effective in reducing uranium exposure. These not only transferred the desired knowledge regarding risk-reducing behaviours, but also greatly entertained the local children and stimulated their thinking and creativity.

Despite all the encouraging results, the installation of water filters is not a final solution to communities’ environmental health problems. Decades of unregulated radioactive pollution resulted in local residents living near an area of tremendous historic contamination. Protective technology and basic hygiene precautions can reduce exposures and improve health, but larger, more permanent solutions are required to ensure the long-term health of the population.

Remediation of uranium tailings site at Chkalovsk (Tajikistan)

A multi-donor effort to remediate legacy Uranium tailings sites in Central Asia, especially in the Fergana valley, includes addressing the priority sites identified by a joint UNDP/IAEA study in 2009, including Chkalovsk in Tajikistan. The affected area has been identified and blocked off from the public so that remediation efforts can begin.

Evaluation of heavy contamination around Buenos Aires City

A Shanty Town called “Villa 20” and “Pope Francisco” was subject to clean up work by Green Cross in Argentina. The area is heavily contaminated due to the presence of a 7,000-square-metre car cemetery. Leakage of fuel and oil, as well as cadmium, lead and heavy metals in general, has been extensive. Local children suffer particularly from lead contamination and the ground water is undrinkable due to these toxic elements. Green Cross Argentina determined the levels of contamination and the size of the most affected area using georadar, geoelectric devices, Georesistance determination, electromagnetometers and other specific devices, and proposed a remediation plan to the Government of the City of Buenos Aires as well as the Ombudsman. Laboratory sampling of land and water was also taken in several places and at different depths.

Green Cross is part of the group of NGOs pushing more states to ratify this convention, which achieved a major breakthrough in 2014 when the number of member countries reached 35 (the number required to bring it into force). The UN Watercourses Convention establishes a framework for the utilization, development, conservation, management, and protection of international watercourses; whilst promoting optimal and sustainable utilization thereof for present and future generations, and accounting for the special situation and needs of developing countries. See here for more details on this Convention

The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) aims to protect and ensure the quantity, quality and sustainable use of transboundary water resources by facilitating cooperation. It provides an intergovernmental platform for the day-to-day development and advancement of transboundary cooperation. Initially negotiated as a regional instrument, it turned into a universally available legal framework for transboundary water cooperation, following the entry into force of amendments in February 2013, opening it to all UN Member States. It now makes an effective complement to the UN Watercourses Convention, providing an additional avenue to achieve the same goals.

Working with major partners such as WWF (World Wildlife Fund), IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and Dundee University’s IHP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, Green Cross is engaged in numerous awareness-raising initiatives and collaborations with governments to promote legal frameworks, cooperation and better management of international watercourses. About twenty countries joined the Convention between 2006 and 2015, with Vietnam becoming the 35th country to ratify – thereby triggering the Convention’s entry into force, in 2014. The Green Cross network and its partners played an essential role in that. The Water programme continues to promote sound legal governance of shared waters and is now getting involved in next steps, such as implementation and joint promotion with the UNECE Water Convention (a formerly regional legal instrument which has now opened to global accession).

There are about 280 watercourses around the world which are shared between two or more countries – including the Nile, Amazon and Mekong basins – and about as many cross-borders aquifers (those geological formations containing groundwater from which humanity extracts most of the freshwater used for agriculture, industry and domestic purposes). The management, sharing and protection of those waters is crucial for 60 per cent of all freshwater flows in transboundary basins.

Considering the rising demand for water, demographic growth, and the pressure under which aquatic ecosystems are already placed, better water management will be absolutely necessary for a sustainable future. Having to coordinate water management between neighbouring countries adds a level of complexity to the challenge, but it also creates opportunities.

There exists an important gap in governance regarding transboundary waters. Only 40 per cent of them are subject to a cooperative agreement between governments, and 80 per cent of the existing agreements either do not address sustainability, are obsolete, or do not include all of the countries that share the watercourse.

Much needs to be done to improve the governing frameworks of transboundary basins and for those frameworks to translate into sustainable management, protection, and use of the watersheds. Green Cross undertook, almost two decades ago, the job of promoting global legal governance through ratification of the UN Watercourses Convention. The Convention was negotiated over three decades at the United Nations, and was adopted by over 100 countries at the UN General Assembly in 1997. It established basic principles of sustainable and equitable use, management, and protection of international watercourses. This historic global water governance agreement did not see quick ratification by many state parties, however, for a variety of reasons.

Green Cross and Giorgio Armani continued to raise awareness about water poverty in developed and water-rich countries throughout 2015, while carrying out concrete on-the-ground projects to supply deprived communities with secure, safe and sustainable water access. New projects were deployed in Ghana, Ivory 

Coast, Senegal, China, Bolivia, Mexico and – for the first time – Argentina.

In 2014, Acqua for Life also supported an important project in a remote village of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. 

“With Acqua for Life, I wanted to focus on a key asset: water, the origin of life itself, an indispensable element of daily life. I wanted to create a long-term program that provided a real benefit to those who are the most needy.”

– Giorgio Armani

The Water for Life and Peace programme has been aiming to deploy SWGS projects in five major transboundary basins – the Mekong, the Volta, the Plata, the Jordan and Lake Victoria. This is to allow SWGS to become a better platform for promoting access to water and sanitation alongside the peaceful sharing and sustainable use of water resources.

Green Cross is also building connections between water, livelihoods and clean energy, notably in Senegal. The Freddas project, carried out with support from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and ENEA as a technical and scientific partner, saw the installation of new photovoltaic systems and high-efficiency pumps to supply drip-irrigation systems on two cultivation areas (20 hectares in Bokhol and 40 hectares in Gouriki Samba Djom villages) between 2012 and 2015.

The project objective was to ensure the livelihoods and autonomy of the local population through sustainable farming. Indeed, crops have more than tripled, water consumption decreased by 70 per cent and cost of electric power halved thanks to the new systems.

Green Cross Italy introduced applications of renewable energy (particularly solar PV) and provided specialized technical training for farmers living in the area. A group of experts provided technical support to the project, designing and installing the two photovoltaic plants of 100 kWp and 50 kWp. These feed drip irrigation systems, using the water of the Senegal River and some local wells.

The electric power generated by the PV modules is steady over the year, which means that when it is not needed for water pumping it can be used to refrigerate stored food.

The project has created more than 900 permanent jobs (544 have been assigned to women in the two villages), in order to facilitate the settlement of populations in an area that, among other things, is crossed by significant flows of migrants looking for a better future.

The Freddas project in Senegal was designed to give women, in particular, more opportunities. They form a majority on the management committee and have positions of responsibility within the village. They are also involved in the marketing of agricultural products, travelling regularly to regional markets.

The essence of the Green Cross method is the use of a number of agreed technologies that make it possible to fully use the carbon of bio-waste without emitting into the atmosphere and generating greenhouse gases. At the same time, most of the carbon is used to obtain the energy carrier - methane, and the residual carbon is deposited in the form of soil humus, including that produced by micro- and macro-organisms.

Processing plants according to this method can be of various capacities from tens of kilograms to tens of tons of raw materials per day. That is, this method can be applied to the recycling of waste from restaurants and colleges, as well as from cattle farms.

Methane, which is obtained during processing, is a good energy carrier; it can be used both as a motor fuel and for generating electricity.

Presentation of the Method to members of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"And yes, we do other things too."

We do more things than all the projects within the different programs, like the "Green Star Awards", we do events, publish reports, have a daily administration with board meetings, we actively scout for potential partners, donations and collaborations, we try to adjust a lot of our work to United Nations "Sustainable Development Goals" and yes, we have dinners once in a while as well.

In the ‘Prevention & Preparedness’ category

Maestros Leadership Co. was recognised for their outstanding work through their MaGREEN project, which was launched in response to torrential rains in Malawi in 2015. Through the project, over 5,000 trees were planted in Malawi’s flood-prone areas covering 20,000 square meters, and over 500 youth were trained to campaign for climate action. Accepting the award on behalf of Maestros Leadership Co., CEO Charles Lipenga remarked, “Effective leaders are in short supply and empowering the youth is the surest way to increase it for an inevitable future transformation.”

In the ‘Response’ category

Wim Zwijnenburg, PAX Project Leader – The organisation was recognised for its professionalism and leadership in the protection of civilians during war and armed conflicts, and its commitment to building peace with justice.

 “PAX is humbled by winning the Green Star Award and we aim to contribute further to demonstrating the link between conflict, environmental impact and pollution”, said Zwijnenburg. The organisation promotes local peace initiatives in 15 countries, building better humanitarian responses to those communities affected by toxic remnants of war.