A Ban on Neglect
Yesterday I had the opportunity to begin working with people who are starting a nonprofit organization called aBAN On Neglect, designed to tackle the problems of plastic waste and children on the streets. We met with two charitable organizations that help street children by offering education, trade training and services for pregnant girls.
People buy water here in 500 ml plastic sachet bags for about 5 cents a piece. The problem is that every day, roughly 40 tons of these empty water sachets end up littering the streets and gutters. Not only that, but there are an estimated 21,000 children who sleep on these streets every night. These are second generation street children who have been born on the streets of Accra and are now having their own babies on the streets.
aBAN is working to tackle both of these problems by teaching the children to make handcrafted goods out of sanitized, recycled water sachets and other recycled materials. The two girls who started the organization will be returning to the US on Sunday, and we will be continuing their work here. We have already begun selling products here, and we have Ghanaians on our team who will be able to involve local people and keep the organization going. We will eventually be exporting products to be sold in the US. All proceeds go directly to the charities and the children themselves get a percentage of every product they make.
The website is just in the beginning phases, but feel free to check it out for more information: http://www.abanonneglect.com/
