Iceland review - 2013, Síða 21

ICELAND REVIEW 19
NURTURING YOUR
OWN NATURE
Tobias Wolff said that “We are made to persist. That’s how we find
out who we are,” and Fida Abu Libdeh’s inspiring story shows
what we’re truly capable of.
at the heart of the story lies Iceland, raw and
unyielding with its blackened lava fields and
glaciers and volcanoes. Enter a 16-year-old Fida
Abu Libdeh, also unyielding. With the support of
her uncle who was already in Iceland, Fida, her mother and her
five siblings, Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, came to Iceland
in 1979. “It was a difficult age to enter a new education system
and my 17-year-old sister and I didn’t even know the difference
between the Danish and Icelandic lessons at school,” she tells me.
Quitting school for work, Fida then spent years campaigning for
Icelandic to also be taught as a foreign language within the school
system rather than only as a mother tongue. “That’s why I still
disagree when I hear that everyone has the same rights for educa-
tion in Iceland because unless you know Icelandic, you don’t have
the same rights.”
Unable to change the system as she would have liked to, Fida
decided on another course of action; to find her own path through
the system. Her destination? Her own education. So she went to
both night and summer school for Icelandic lessons, “although
I didn’t really start to learn Icelandic until I had Icelandic flat
mates and Icelandic friends rather than other foreigners like me,”
she explains. Armed with Icelandic language skills and with the
support of a grant, she then gained her stúdentspróf, the qualifica-
tion required to gain entrance to university. And so Fida went
on to study a B.Sc. in Energy and Environmental Engineering
Technology at the Keilir Institute of Technology (KIT).
It’s at this point in the story that Iceland’s nature and Fida’s
nature came together to produce something remarkable. And as
with any magical story it’s the coming together of diverse forces
that produces the alchemy.
By MiCa allaN PHOTO By PÁll STEfÁNSSoN
Close to where KIT is located, amidst lunar landscape, lies
Reykjanes Geothermal Power Plant. Combining Fida’s studies with
the geothermal energy that Iceland is blessed with and the geo-
thermal water’s abundant concentration of silica could lead to new
Icelandic health products with wide-ranging benefits.
Born from her B.Sc. dissertation, Fida, now an Icelandic citizen
and married with two daughters, founded geoSilica, a company that
aims to produce dietary supplement silica products from the water
of geothermal power plants in Iceland, with fellow student Burkni
Pálsson in 2012. Silica is something of a panacea, Burkni tells me.
Silica increases bone density in women, reduces osteoporosis, accel-
erates the healing of wounds and diminishes scars. It also promotes
shiny hair, healthy skin and nails and softens wrinkles.
Silica is present within certain food and drink products, for
example, string beans and—wait for it—beer, and I laugh as Burkni
explains that men’s main source of silica consumption is through
beer. However, as we age the body’s ability to absorb silica declines
and this is where geoSilica steps in. Now in an incubation phase
and with a three-year funding cycle of a total of ISK 30 million
(USD 233,000) Fida and Burkni aim to create a water-based food
additive that will become as ubiquitous as the vitamin pills we
routinely take.
As a result, harnessing the raw elements of Icelandic nature could
protect our own health and development, especially as we age.
And so whilst Fida’s arrival in Iceland happened at what was a
challenging age for her, the journey she’s taken has not only nur-
tured her own development, it has done so in harmony with the
wonders of Iceland’s nature. And we may soon be thankful for the
magic delivered from a little bottle that is the result of Fida’s per-
sistence and tenacity. 