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The Philippines’ Reese Fernandez
Among the 5 Winners of the Young Laureates
Programme of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise
The prestigious Rolex Award is given to Ms. Fernandez in strong
recognition of her social involvement that is
transforming the lives of many impoverished women in the
Philippines.
Ms. Fernandez co-founded the Rags2Riches social enterprise which
assists women who recycle scrap material to make rugs for
sale. The Rags2Riches started in the Payatas waste dump and
is helping women convert rugs into “eco-ethical, elegant”
products and sell these products directly to retailers. The
project not only provides decent wages to these women, but also
provides them with training in personal finance, health and
nutrition.
The Young Laureates Programme of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise was
launched in 2009, with the aim of fostering innovation in the next
generation. It supports visionary young men and women in
implementing their inventive ideas that tackle pressing concerns and
issues in 5 areas: science and health, applied technology,
exploration, the environment and cultural preservation.
The Award to Reese Fernandez is under the category of
Environment. The 4 other awardees are from America, Nigeria,
Ethiopia and India. They were chosen from among the 189
applicants from 60 countries around the world.
The awardees were chosen by the Young Laureates jury made up of 10
international luminaries with expertise in the fields of exploration,
environment, science and health, applied technology, and cultural
preservation. They met in Geneva in early 2010 for the selection
process.
Ms. Fernandez and the other awardees will be formally presented at the
Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Philippine
Ambassador to Switzerland, H.E. Maria Theresa P. Lazaro has been
invited to and will be attending this event.
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