Understand in order to be able to act: I have had this dream for long and therefore, along with Youssef Drissi (an engineer whom I met at IMEC), Julie Herinckx (and educational psychologist) and the late Frédéric Dross (solar scientist and engineer and passionate about education) we founded L’Héliople in 2012 in Belgium (we called it la place du village solaire: the solar village square, where we meet to talk!). It lasted only for a couple of years as I emigrated to Qatar in 2014. There, I decided to continue the challenge with the help and support of Frédéric and of people who were there and believed in these ideas, in particular Matt Barker (a fun and talented artist) and Maha Frangieh (then an educator, now a school principal and a PhD in education). We came up with the idea of Eedama in early 2015 and started offering volunteer activities in the summer. I then decided to leave pure scientific research and to dedicate my time to it (and ultimately to make a living from it).
Within the Gulf region where I was situated, it only made sense to found Eedama in Masdar City, the only real and advanced green neighborhood in the region at that time, and also an economic zone dedicated to sustainability. Eedama was founded legally in February 2016.
Before summer 2016 we already had: hosted more than 200 students in Masdar city, and started exclusive sustainability related field visits to The Sustainable City and The Change Initiative in Dubai. We were a small team, as I had hired individuals who were working as occasional freelancers mostly delivering sustainability related workshops and field trips for schools: There was Baptiste Fiteni (an enthusiastic friend), Mohammad Juma Mahmoud (a sustainable architect), Sacco Dermoussissian (an automotive consultant), at the very beginning, then joined by Rawan Saleh (then an young environmentalist) and Areti Tseliou (a biodiversity PhD).
In Lebanon, Angela Saadé started giving sessions in September 2016, and I took over the following year. We started building a small team there with Elie Kareh, Christelle Doumit, Stephanie Rizk, Layual Berberi, and other courageous sustainabilists! Salua Moussawel joined us and supported Angela and me in founding Jibal NGO, the sister organization of Eedama in Lebanon, that works on environmental justice, in the frame of not-for-)profit subsidized and long term projects.
Many people joined and left along the way, but a major milestone was crossed in September 2017 (although we didn’t know it then!) when Huda Masalmeh joined, she was still a Masters student at this time, but she’s now the talented and relentless manager of Eedama in the UAE. She’s the one who allowed Eedama to survive in the UAE during the COVID crisis, when she was almost completely alone in the UAE, and supported by the Lebanon team (nowadays of course the UAE team has grown orders of magnitudes larger than the Lebanon team).
This all brings us today, 10 years after the 1st activity Eedama delivered. A solid socially driven and impactful small enterprise delivering programs in 3 countries, hosting people from all over the world, with again this idea: We need to act, and for this we need to understand. So we want to bring as much scientifically backed information to develop in each of us critical thinking, and support people in deducing their own assessment of the situation, and further than this: their own plan of action.
During these 10 years, many organisations supported us, some are still doing it, and some went on their own way, but we are grateful for all the shared moments, and hope to cross paths regularly. Cheers to:
- Masdar City – Michelle Sabti- above all for hosting us and being this so amazing real size and advanced experimentation
- Stan
- The Emirates Biofarm: a pioneering project that hosted us many times
- The sustainable city for allowing us to be exclusive visits organisers during 1.5 year
- Philanthropic adventures, now relocated in Switzerland, and that we met thanks to
- GoumBook, pioneers of sustainability in the UAE and of great help when we started
- Companies for Good
- Ureka Education and other travel agencies
- Gracia Farms
- Ecyclex (met during COVID)
- Aventura Parks
Because there is NO one-size-fits-all, there is no way to scale this activity exponentially. We won’t become millionaires. We all know it and accept it as we now are able to make a living out of our passion. We develop linearly instead of growing exponentially. And we try to advocate for sustainability, knowing in our hearts and minds that it’s not enough, that we need radical change in order to regenerate what was destroyed. But we do our share, and we invite all of you: do yours at your level: from head of multinational to manager of a household, we have leverage on many things, let’s use it in the most impactful way.
We’ll be around to cheer you, and actively support you if needed.