Tunisian SarahToumi wins 2016 Rolex Award

Sarah Toumi, 29, France/Tunisia, President of the Dream in Tunisia Association and General Manager of Acacias for all, is one of the five Young Laureates that won the Rolex Enterprise Award for 2016.

She is spearheading a grass-roots initiative, Acacias for All, in Tunisia, to fight the country’s desertification caused by climate change and reduce poverty among farmers through reforestation and crops more suited to a lower rainfall.

She is also one of the 10 laureates of “France is committed to the South”, a presidential device that rewards the best social innovations in the world.

The 2016 Rolex Award was also granted to Nigerian Oscar Ekponimo, a software engineer, Christine Keung, 24, the United States and Junto Ohki, 29, Japan.

Each Young Laureate receives a grant to advance their project; all receive a Rolex chronometer as well as worldwide publicity for their projects.

Since 2016 Sarah Toumi, has been one of 30 young social entrepreneurs under 30 revealed by Forbes magazine in the famous Under-30 ranking.

This social entrepreneur is known in the social and solidarity economy for her vision of an inclusive and green Tunisia and has already received several awards (Ashoka, Echoing Green, Women for Change) for her social enterprise Acacias for all which aims to Combat desertification and establishing equitable and relocated production chains in the regions to create employment.

To this end, a network of regional ambassadors in 13 regions and a community of volunteers and partner associations have been established since February 2016. The Prize “France is committed to the South” to finance the creation of a Plant in Bir Salah (Sfax). The association intends to present its project to other donors for achieving its objective: to plant 1 million trees and create 1,200 jobs in 6 regions in 2018.

Sarah Toumi was elected President of Dream in Tunisia in 2015 and shares the office of the association with Amine Ismail (16 years), Anis Sghaier (19 years) and Myriam Toumi (27 years), a new generation of Tunisian Regions that want to prove that nothing is impossible with a strategy, passion, commitment, a lot of perseverance, and above all cooperation.

They call on the civil society stakeholders in the regions to be supportive and to set up joint projects that serve both the social and environmental and economic causes by sharing resources in time, means and network to achieve their dream and improve conditions of their communities.

Dream in Tunisia aims to transform the challenges of rural areas into sustainable opportunities. Among the programmes set up, the Knowledge Fortress of Bir Salah which has been experimenting for 2 years with innovative services for rural populations and methods of community organization for children, young people, women and unemployed graduates.

The Association also supports 12 youth associations in the south-west of Tunisia in partnership with the French Institute of Tunisia which finances the best projects.

TunisianMonitorOnline (MNHN – NAN, Dream in Tunisia)

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