S4S Colleen Morel Scholarship |27 February 2018

Rajelle Barbé lucky recipient for 2018

Rajelle Barbé, promising year one student enrolled on the University of Seychelles Bsc Environmental Science course, has been awarded the Sustainability For Seychelles (S4S) Colleen Morel Scholarship for this year.

The scholarship is supported by the S4S Colleen Morel Fund established by S4S, H. Savy Insurance Limited (HSI) and the University of Seychelles (UniSey).

Each year, the fund gives two awards, each worth SR5,000. The Fund supports sustainable living projects and scholarships for UniSey BSc students in Environmental Science.

The two scholarships are covered by an annual donation of SR10,000 by HSI to the S4S Colleen Morel Fund. 

The partner of the late Colleen Morel, Nigel Pillay and HSI general manager (GM) Lambert Woodcock presented the award to Ms Barbé during a short ceremony held yesterday at the UniSey.

Ms Barbé has worked over a number of years as a primary school teacher, where she was also a very active Wildlife Club leader in her school. She integrated wildlife club activities within her curriculum as a science teacher, as a way to ensure that her students connected to the environment.

She later went on to become a journalist with the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), where she led the programme ‘Lanvironnman’ on the radio, helping people to appreciate the environment through sound.

She has always wanted to do a degree in Environment Science but found it difficult especially with her children, family and workload.

She is currently working with the programme coordination unit of the GOS-UNDP-GEF on an Ecosystem Based Adaptation Project, and is finally undertaking her degree on a part-time basis, in spite of challenges mentioned.

Ms Barbé said she was surprised but happy to know her efforts have been recognised.

“I always loved the environment and the nature and I’m one who’s always keen on finding ways to help protect the environment while sensitising others on the value of the environment with the aim for us to better be able to protect our natural resources. This comes to show that hard work pays off,” she said.

She said being a parent, working and studying is not easy but this award serves as encouragement for her to keep persevering.

The HSI corporate affairs and compliance manager Marie-Paul Lesperance said, “Like education, environment is one of the courses that we support greatly as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and part of the vision of the company that we support mainly education, environment and other causes as well.”

She said the Colleen Morel award served as opportunity to not only support the youth of Seychelles who are striving to protect the environment in the country but to also give back to the community.

“This year I feel they’ve chosen a good recipient. Rajelle is very active in terms of the environment as well as education, so we feel that the award will greatly benefit her and help her move forward with her studies,” she said.