Mayor of Gandia, José Manuel Prieto Part, and Councilor for Education, Carmen Fuster Mollà, received Clara Martínez, Anna Part and Alba Sabater, students from Colegio Abecé who have won the »Finnova Challenges» with their COMEN 2.0 project
Mayor of Gandia, José Manuel Prieto Part, accompanied by the Councilor for Educational Policies, Carmen Fuster Mollà, hosted the visit made by the 4th ESO students from the Abecé School in Gandia: Rebeca Esteve, Clara Martínez, Anna Part and Alba Sabater, who, under the direction of the center’s professor and head of the Science department, Cristina García, became the winners of the »Finnova Challenges», organized by the Technovation Girls program, a global initiative that aims to develop mobile applications by girls of 10 and 18 who help solve social problems in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); specifically 1, 2, 7 and 13.
The award-winning project that has been developed by the 15 and 16-year-old girls of Abecé is the »App COMEN 2.0», a digital program that encourages the reuse of waste and the reduction of environmental impact, based on the EU project LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0. It relies on GEO location, different user roles, bulletin board and chat, among other features, as well as different fields that allow traceability to be preserved through the entire process.
This is the continuation of the first project (COMEN), also based on a circular economy model, which the team, with the participation of Alba Mínguez and Carla Carretero, created to establish a communication channel between social entities such as Cáritas, Cruz Roja, soup kitchens, restaurants, supermarkets, small businesses and the food industry in Gandia, to safely facilitate and speed up the donation of food in good condition. A project that was very well received by companies.
During the meeting, the young girls explained to the highest representative of the city the operation of an intuitive, fast and effective App that puts emitters of organic waste in contact with WWTPs that can process them, transforming them into energy and thus reducing the CO2 footprint, a dynamic that is aligned with European and national plans, such as those promoted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
For his part, the mayor congratulated them and highlighted their effort and perseverance, which added to the constant support of both the teacher and her vision as a chemical engineer and professionals from the technology sector, has made these two functional tools possible with sustainable perspective.
This edition, in which this year 1,700 digital applications have been presented from all over the world with a representation of 150 young people from the Valencian Community, has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the Finnova Foundation, which, in line with the purposes of Technovation Girls, seeks to promote inclusion and greater gender equality in the professional sector of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
The young girls have been invited by Finnova to travel to Brussels and attend the Eco Digestion Program seminary. During the trip they will also visit the European Parliament.
