Ecosystem Restoration Kenya Project #54689

Clean a river in Migingo & stop plastic pollution

by Smart Villages Foundation

Project Report | Mar 22, 2023
Winning the fight against plastic pollution

By Iona Smith | Communications and Impact Officer

Riverbed before...

Hello supporters, friends, supporters-to-be!

Well well well… A lot has happened since our last report, and we have a lot of exciting progress pictures to show you just how impactful this project has been for communities along the inner-city banks of the River Athi.

The transformations to these riversides in Nairobi have been phenomenal. The pictures really demonstrate the impact that this project is having within communities. When comparing the former riverside rubbish dumps to the luscious community gardens which we see now, it is hard to comprehend that they are the same place! Credit goes to our in-country partners Chemolex, who have leveraged community spirit in combination with their technical ingenuity to produce highly effective community river clean-up schemes.

We’ll keep this report short, as the pictures really do the talking in terms of demonstrating how impatful this project has been. So, if you want to support of continuation of transformations like these- DONATE NOW!

Please make sure you share this on social media, or if that isn't your thing then send it to your friends over email or any medium of commuincation that tickles your fancy.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to this project so far! We hope that with your help we can continue to support projects like this one.

All the best!

Iona + the Smart Villages Team

Rivers before...

River side after- we love the papaya trees!

Look at that transformation!

Community getting involved + planting more trees

Links:

Check out this video to find out more about our project!

Permalink

Nov 24, 2022
Fighting Plastic is Fantastic

By Iona Smith | Impact and Outreach Officer

Jul 27, 2022
Help continue the fight against plastic pollution!

By Iona Smith | Impact and Outreach Officer

Recent pictures from the Green Schools Initiative

So, you've stopped using plastic straws, you recycle all of your plastic; avoid buying products with plastic packaging; have a bamboo toothbrush; use a reusable waterbottle etc. BUT you want to make a real, long-lasting contribution to the fight against plastic-waste pollution. 'What next?!' I hear you cry...

Well, through supporting this project, you will help support Smart Villages and the Nairobi-based start-up Chemolex continue our highly impactful work of helping urban communities in Kenya fight the plastic pollution crisis.There has been a huge amount of progress in the last three months, following up on the successful completion of the design, fabrication and installation of the plastic capture devices in 13 dispersed locations along river Athi.

There have been huge transformations across the community sites, with former river-side dump sites becoming thriving community gardens. The plastic pulled from the rivers is now being recycled into pavement blocks. The efficiency of this plastic recycling has skyrocketed, as we have improved the daily production of the pavement blocks from 25 in January to 250 in March and 500 at the start of May 2022!

Chemolex have also started running additional community outreach programmes, and have launched their own 'Green Schools Initiative' which provides environmental protection education to local school children across Nairobi. These have been hugely successful, and the Smart Villages team very much enjoyed attending these workshops during their most recent visits.

However this project needs your support to sustain the fantastic work it is doing.

So, what can you do to help?

1. Donate to this project via GlobalGiving- all contributions are greatly appreciated.

2. Share this project report on your social media channels and across your network.

3. Follow Chemolex on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far- please continue to support us. You help make this project possible.

A huge thank you from the teams at Smart Villages and Chemolex!

Plastic Capture device in action

Bricks made from recycled river plastics

Capturing plastic

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.