Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah showed her support for the “Recycling for Education” initiative in her visit to Russeifa where she met young social entrepreneurs.
Founded in 2013, this initiative was initially funded by KAFD (King Abdullah Fund for Development). Recycling for Education aims to reduce food waste by collecting leftover bread from schools, hotels and restaurants. The bread is then dried and turned into animal feed. This feed is sold to raise educational funds, such as scholarships and financial aid, for underprivileged students and refugees in Jordan.
Queen Rania was joined by the co-founders of Recycling for Education, Abdul Rahman Zghoul and Ahmad Thneibat. They discussed initiative’s progress, accomplishments, services and future plans in Jordan.
While talking about the initiative's success, Zghoul and Thneibat discussed how this recently registered non-profit organization created job opportunities and is now looking to expand.
Apart from exporting its scholarship model program to Morocco, Palestine and Kuwait, Recycling for Education now consists of 4 main initiatives: Technology for education, Paper for education, Plastic for education and Bread for education. Each initiative uses a different material for recycling and covers a wide area of recyclables.
During her visit to the organization, Her Majesty visited the greenhouse made of recycled plastic bottles which uses solar power to produce electricity. She was also impressed by the bread recycling and plastic recycling demonstration.
The Queen displayed immense pride for the Jordanian youth and their resilience towards overcoming challenges. She stressed upon the importance of teaching recycling in schools and the positive impact that this activity can have on students' lives.
Her Majesty also visited social activists, volunteers and civil society representatives who have worked in Zarqa through initiatives and programs that promote creativity, creative expression, healthy dialogue, tourism, anti-bullying campaigns, entrepreneurs, cottage and small-scale industry/businesses and even 3D printing.
She later posted an image of her, with the young minds on her instagram and captioned it “From my meeting today with a group of special young men and women behind successful initiatives like Recycling for Education, which provides scholarships and school supplies to Jordanian students in need!”.
In 2017, King Abdullah awarded Recycling for Education King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein Order for Distinction of the Third Degree. This organization is now not only recognized on local level, but also in countries like Algeria, UAE and Kuwait.