Earth Volunteers, Ghana Completed a Summer One-Week Clean Up

Eradicating the Pollution on a Local Seashore  

 Earth Volunteers (EV), a WANGO member, undertook a weeklong clean up, July 1-7, 2005, at Banyin in the Western region of Ghana. The volunteers consisted of five Ghanaians and eight Italians.  

The goal of the clean up was to eradicate the pollution of the seashore and to educate the communities to guard against activities like refuse dumping and other unhealthy practices on the seashores. The communities were educated on better ways to dispose of refuse and other good sanitary practices. The local Assemblyman assisted with providing implements such as wheelbarrows. 

EV was enthused at the commitment of the local people on the first two days. However, this was short lived as the local people could not work with us for the whole period because they had to attend to their livelihood activities - fishing, palm wine tapping and alcohol distillation, petty trading, etc.  

Of particular mention was a certain boy of about 6 or 7 years of age in the community who worked with EV during the entire week. Indeed his punctuality was outstanding and he supported in refuse collection.   

After the clean up, some of the volunteers visited a place of interest called Nzulezu in the same community. We used a canoe and, accompanied by a guide, visited the community. EV interacted with the local people and got acquainted with the community’s history. 

The one-week clean up achieved its goals and was very successful. Looking at the work done by EV, the local people were amazed at our efforts and congratulated us for the good work done.

Contributed by Charles Abbey, Ghana