Hilda and I got the unique chance to join the workshop organized by the Fan Milk’s PICK IT! project. It was facilitated by the MIT D-Lab, in TEMA New Town, a coastal fishing community on the outskirts of Accra.
We learn first hand about the MIT’s D-Lab co-design methodology, and witnessed its application with around 60 waste pickers from TEMA New Town and the Kpone dump site. Moreover, we learned a great deal about waste management challenges and opportunities from the experienced local waste pickers working in the informal sector.
I personally worked with a group of waste pickers with real engineering talent and inclinations. I even got to watch them build a prototype for their own reprocessing unit for plastic waste.
Hilda took part in building a washer for the water sachets collected from the streets of this local community. This initiative is ran all by women.
Nothing was more rewarding than seeing them all present the outcome of their work. Second, getting the recognition from the PICK IT! project management team was an added bonus that will motivate us to continue our work knowing it will make a difference.
We are now preparing our CASH IT!* project proposal to formally engage with PICK IT! in 2018. This will enable those waste pickers, and the women entrepreneurs emerging from within them, to build their own reprocessing center.
We learned … now we are hitting the drawing board to develop CASH IT!. We will develop a plan for that plastic waste, including ALL the flexible plastic packaging waste, to be reprocessed in valuable pellets or granulates for the plastic industry in Ghana.
Because we want ….
ASASE to help TEMA New Town to become a RESILIENT AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY!
If you want to get involved with our CASH IT! project get in contact with us.
