We are delighted to share a blog written by Anna Wagner, Teaghan Ong and Darwyn Montreuil, students at Saint Andrews International High School Malawi who are part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2018-19 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 620 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
The earth needs you not, You need the earth . Let’s join hands and save our home the planet earth from heaps of rubbish. If we don’t cleanup our mess we will be replaced by mess. let us reduce, refuse, recycle and reuse and have sustainable consumption and production.
A way to connect with the things we care most about.
Around Blantyre and Malawi it is shocking how much litter there is at the sides of the roads, and all types of litter just pile up and up. Because most of Malawi’s population is in poverty and most families don’t have enough food to eat, it is not their priority to clean up and as there isn’t many bins or re-cycling systems e.c.t.
We thought of ways to help prevent it and came up with many ideas, but then realised that children love to dance and make noise, it is part of their culture really! So we decided to make music using the rubbish we find.
We were inspired by Libby Bowels, a marine biologist who has demonstrated many plastic awareness events including cycling around New Zealand! She gave a talk in our school earlier in the year about single use plastic and the effects of rubbish and we decided we wanted to get involved. Then we got this opportunity and boom! Off we went!
Our Journey
A few problems we have faced are: not many people have the equipment we have been using the make the instruments, communicating not everyone speaks English and we don’t speak Chichewa. I am now more aware of my love for the environment and the animals having to live with us throwing litter on their environment.
We are hoping that one day the world will have learnt how to reduce, re-use and recycle litter to make the world a better place for all living creatures. And we are hoping to add another ‘re’ to the saying… REMAKE!!! We are going to go to an orphanage in the surrounding town and we are going to run a few workshops, showing them how to turn mess into music and we will have a few challenges for them to complete for a prize.
We hope to then visit 2 more times to see how they have developed and if they have earned a prize by creating a new song or even a new instrument. One of our team members, Anna, knows the orphanage well and her and her family often has the newspaper delivered by the boss, Faroh.
The Next Chapter
We really hope that this will affect the environment just as a small project the grow in the long run. We want more people globally to be inspired to be like Libby and help the world. We also hope that more people get involved in this annual competition as it is a great way to connect with the community and the environment.
We also hope that people realise that the smallest actions can change the world, because when everyone does that one thing, it can change the world! We also want people to think about what they are doing ever day. For example, re-using bags at the shops instead of buying new ones.
The 2018-19 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2019. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
