Clean Shores, Great Lakes schools’ outreach

At the start of our second clean-up campaign, the Clean Shores, Great Lakes team visited 9 schools over 3 days (August 9-11) in the Kyela District of Lake Nyasa: Kyela Secondary & High School, Nkuyu Secondary School, Mbugani primary School, Itope Secondary School, Kyela Primary School, Nyasa Lakeshore Secondary School, Matema Primary School, Kajunjumele Secondary School and Kapwili Primary School

Our outreach program directly engaged over 1300 students, their teachers and Headmasters. We were grateful to be able to cover some many schools in such a short period and thank Kyela District Council for understanding the importance of the message we wanted to share with students about the taking care of the environment.

We explained the threats of plastic pollution and the student’s enthusiasm shone brightly during many lively and engaging discussions. Questions were posed on a range of topics including, recycling, citizen science, and giving plastic waste a second life (circular economy). Our team showcased some of our innovative products that are made from collected plastics and gave practical demonstrations of waste sorting.

Students brainstormed ingenious methods to lessen the impact of plastic pollution. Their creativity and care shone through in every idea. At Kyela Secondary & High School the students were already taking action and showed us their innovative garden using repurposed plastic sacks. 

Our team was so pleased to meet and engage with so many enterprising students, particularly the youngest age groups like at Kapwili Primary School. We hope that we helped inspire them into greater environmental awareness and action, they certainly inspired us to continue the campaign we started in the last year.