You may call it waste but for pupils drawn from some ten selected basic schools in Tema metropolis, waste materials can be turned into many usable artifacts. This act of making waste reusable, dubbed upcycling according the school pupil will contribute a great deal to help clean the environment.
The pupils from the selected schools in Tema made the revelation when they were taken through training by the Zoomlion Foundation in upcycling and just after the training took up the challenge to compete with other children across the country who are willing to showcase what they can turn waste into.
The Zoomlion Foundation is using the month of November for the upcycling promotion campaign. The campaign is in two folds, first is a skill training and second is an upcycling challenge.
The training took place in Tema Community 4 Library where pupils from ten private and public schools in the Metropolis participated. The participants segregated some waste materials in their homes and brought to the centre to be transformed into artifacts.
The resource person for the programme was Mrs. Rita Oppong (Ghana National Best Teacher 2016) and Rebbeca Tuffuor, a staff of Zoomlion. Day 1 training focused on how to transform paper cartons and tissue rolls into beautiful desktop organizers. Day 2 training enabled participants to stick together materials and transformed glass bottles into artefacts such as flower vases, candle holders and other beautiful artifacts. The children learnt to apply decoration to their artifacts for wall adornment and table adornment.
Waste handling have over the years pose a great deal of an environmental challenge in Ghana, however the use of plastics does not seem to end soon except a better way is found to manage plastic waste through recycling. It is in the spirit of imbibing the children who are the future leaders that Zoomlion Foundation through its Zoomkids Club project have been grooming school children to segregate and learn to manage their waste.
According to the National Programme Officer of the Zoomlion Foundation, Thomas Narh Korley, the pupils are expected to transfer the knowledge to their peers in their various schools. Such training he believes would make the children see recycling and waste segregation as an important activity and also secure a clean and green environment for future generations.
He called on pupils across the country to enter into the upcycling challenge by presenting crafts created from waste for hansom prizes.
The Share Foundation, an NGO that cares for the welfare of vulnerable children partnered the Zoomlion Foundation in the upcycling training. Lily Mintah of the Share Foundation on her part noted that making the children aware of the benefits one can derived from waste is in itself an empowerment that would go a long way to building a better life. She called on other NGOs to support Zoomlion’s initiatives to increase recycling and reduce waste.
