Gaza teen sisters: Recycling rubble project scoops Earth Prize 2026 Middle East regional award

[cbabe]

https://www.iom3.org/resource/gazan-sisters-named-middle-east-winners-for-earth-prize-2026.html

Recycling rubble project scoops Earth Prize 2026 Middle East regional award

Gazan sisters Tala and Farah Mousa are recycling rubble into bricks for non-load-bearing applications.

The Earth Prize is an environmental competition for 13- to 19-year-olds, empowering young people with mentorship and funding across the seven regional winners. These represent the regions of North America, Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Oceania and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Each winning team receives US$12.5k to develop and implement their idea.

The Mousa sisters’ team ‘Build Hope – Palestine’ is turning rubble into reusable blocks and bringing young people together to rebuild their communities amid ongoing conflict.

They set out to develop a practical solution within the constraints around them. Using simple and locally available materials, their process crushes and sieves debris from damaged buildings, then mixes it with binders such as clay, ash, or glass powder before moulding and drying it into blocks.

The project is designed to be scaleable, and through hands-on workshops, the sisters aim to bring together 100 young people to produce at least 200 blocks, while giving them the skills to share the process with many others.

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