Ford Middle East has announced that it will increase its 'Conservation & Environmental Grants' money for 2008-2009 to $100,000, the highest-ever to be given by Ford Motor Company in the region.

The company had recently recognised the 14 winners of the 2007-2008 Ford Motor Company Conservation & Environmental Grants with a total of $90,000 in grants money donated during a special ceremony in Dubai, which was attended by numerous environmentalists. 

"Time and again, we honour the efforts of all the individuals and groups that have made it their calling to protect their local environment, in their own way," said Waldo Galan, Ford Middle East's managing director.

"Giving the necessary grants to such worthwhile projects has been our expression of support for these initiatives and a way to give them the recognition they deserve," Galan noted.

Hussein Murad, sales and marketing director of Ford Middle East said: "We are pleased to see that the GCC and Levant Ford Grants have had positive response and encouragement since their inception, as we received acknowledgment and support from leading environmental institutions and news media, regionally as well as globally.

"But the biggest achievement is probably the way the grants have been received as a credible initiative, committed to helping organizations and individuals focused on the preservation of the natural environment," Murad added.

The Ford Motor Company Conservation & Environmental Grants has seen endorsement and support from the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Emirates Wildlife Society and most recently, the Arab Forum for Environment & Development (AFED), a regional independent regional organization promoting prudent environmental policies and programmes across the Arab region.

Speaking at the Ford Grants ceremony, Najib Saab, Afed's secretary general promised full support to a pioneering initiative such as the Ford Environmental Grants.

"For eight years, Ford has been helping environmentalists in the Gulf and Levant region to convert some creative ideas into facts," he noted.

"Beyond its financial value, Ford’s program has been instrumental in creating region-wide environmental awareness, through supporting small-scale projects generating far reaching results. What makes this initiative unique is a visionary approach, coupled with persistence and continuity," he added.

Celebrating its ninth consecutive year in the region, the Ford Grants is the largest programme of its kind and has rewarded and fuelled at least 90 grass-roots level environmental projects in the nine participating countries with nearly $700,000.
 
For 2008-2009, the $100,000 grants will be made available to individuals, community or non-profit groups that have projects currently running in the areas of preserving the natural environment, environmental education and conservation engineering.

The Ford Grants is open to applicants from UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.-TradeArabia News Service