Partners renew MoU for Colleen Morel Environmental Award |27 June 2023

The signing ceremony: (l to r) Dr Purvis, Ms Perreau and Mr Woodcock

H Savy Insurance (HSI), Sustainability for Seychelles (S4S) and the University of Seychelles (UniSey) have renewed the memorandum of understanding to continue with the S4S Colleen Morel Environmental Award for another year.

The award, which was launched in 2017, recognises two BSc in Environmental Science students who excel in their studies each year. Each student receives a R10,000 award.

The renewal of the MoU took place at a research presentation last Friday organised for final year BSc (Hons) Environmental Sciences students.

It was the general manager of HIS, Lambert Woodcock, vice-chancellor of UniSey, Joëlle Perreau and S4S representative, Dr Marie-Thérèse Purvis, who signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations.

Following the renewal of the agreement, the winner of the first award for 2023 (Colleen Morel Scholarship Award), Monik Choppy, was also presented with her prize. Monik is a first-year student who’s passionate about environment and conservation. As an environment enthusiast, Monik is involved in various local groups and projects focusing on environment protection and restoration.

The second R10,000 award - S4S Colleen Morel Environmental Science Achievement Award - will be presented during UniSey’s graduation ceremony later this year.

Colleen Morel Award was established to honour the memory of Colleen Morel, a founding member of environmental NGO Sustainability for Seychelles (S4S) and who was a dedicated environmentalist and teacher who gave a lot of time to environment protection and sustainable development.

In her memory, her family has decided to set up a scholarship and award in her name for students studying environmental science at the University of Seychelles (UniSey).

So far since 2017, two awards were given annually thus a dozen of students have benefitted from the award. During the years 2017-2018 each student received R5000, so R10,000 annually.

And from 2019 to date, the amount increased to R10,000 for each student, hence R20,000 annually.

Vidya Gappy

Photo: contributed