SAF Announces 2022 Gregory Award Recipient 

September 8, 2022 

 
Photo courtesy Sakiratou KARIMOU M

SAF is pleased to announce Sakiratou KARIMOU M as the 2022 SAF Gregory Award recipient. The Gregory Award commemorates the legacy of G. Robinson Gregory by bringing an outstanding international student or early-career professional to the annual SAF National Convention.

Sakiratou KARIMOU M is the coordinator of the non-governmental organization Vert-Monde in Benin. Vert-Monde aims to promote environmental protection, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy. Sakiratou's work consists of designing and implementing projects that respond to the needs of local communities while protecting the environment.

She is working with international partners such as the GIZ to provide bioenergy to rural communities. With those partners, she is helping women to transform their agricultural residues into biogas, which will be used as cooking energy instead of firewood. Aside from her bioenergy projects, Sakiratou is very embedded in civic engagement endeavors. She obtained a grant from the US Department of State through the US Embassy in Cotonou to implement a project which consists of developing the culture of volunteerism among youths in Northern Benin. During the training, she taught more than 300 youths to volunteer for environmental protection.

With a support from the African Union, she is now working to scale up her civic engagement project. Sakiratou has been selected among the 50 youths engaged for climate in francophone countries by IFDD. She holds a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics (Nigeria) and a postgraduate certificate in Food Chains in Agriculture from the University of Weihenstephan-Triesdorf (Germany). She is also a 2021 Mandela Washington Fellow (USA).

We are honored to have her join us in Baltimore at the 2022 SAF National Convention.