
Sarah Khoudja
Ambassador
CuCilento
Italy
Environmental
Rural Areas
Rural village
The innovation journey
Sarah Khoudja is the founder of CuCilento, a tailoring upcycling laboratory.
She is originally from France and worked for several years as a project manager in different humanitarian NGOs in Brussels. In 2021, Sarah with her family decided to move to Cilento to start a new life. She participated in the Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) programme – a training co-financed by the EU to support women entrepreneurs to develop their business idea. After completing the course, she opened the CuCilento lab, which quickly grew.
This is a project that recycles agricultural materials such as olive harvesting nets, and other materials such as boat sails and factory scraps, to create sustainable products.
Furthermore, the aim is also to promote environmental protection and social regeneration with the intention of stimulating greater awareness also in people’s purchasing and consumption habits. She therefore organizes sewing workshops for children and adults to spread the culture of upcycling.
The innovation impact
Thanks to her innovative idea, Sarah is spreading the culture of upcycling and recycling in a region where these concepts are still unpopular.
Sarah also gives work to several women in the area who find themselves in particularly vulnerable situation and would like to expand her laboratory to implement more social projects that empower women and are environmentally sustainable.
Sarah has been also the promoter of the Circe women’s collective (and its transformation into a non-profit association) whose aim is to promote women’s resilience, awareness, and empowerment.