Clean up Nosy Be - A Wings of Change Initiative Bolstered by Tour Guides
People Power over Plastics #CleanupNosyBe
Complexity defines the 21st century.
Take garbage, for example. Plastics are literally choking the planet, washing up on islands everywhere. Nosy Be is no exception; this tropical island is as beautiful as it is littered. Well, not quite.
Holiday resorts have waste management systems of different sorts while local villages have none.
What it’s like to live amidst exposed garbage ?
As I write this blog overlooking the seemingly pristine Mozambique Channel, wafts of burning plastic amix into the hot gusts of wind, begging an obvious question:
How might plastics in the atmosphere affect thick skinned fruits, like the millions of mangos about to ripen?
What about tomatoes? A recent Turkish study of micro plastics in commonly eaten fruits identified tomatoes’ samples having the highest average amount of micro plastics.
Every village market in Nosy Be sells tomatoes. Every village burns garbage…hmm
It’s overtime to ask hard questions about plastics everywhere, on the ground, in the atmosphere and probably within us.
The culprits: diapers, broken class, batteries, soap packets and lots and lots of bubble gum and sweets wrappers. To make it worse, or maybe even better in making people aware, a pop up dental visit helps “sensibiliser les gens,” to use the local term on.
High consumption of processed sugars, especially between the ages of 6-12 largely determine long term oral and general health. The addiction to processed sweets starting at a young age is stark; bubble gum and candy wrappers are among the most prominent bits of waste during weekly clean ups.
More to follow in oral hygiene.
In short, indigenous and modern lifestyles are on a crash course in a race toward destroying the natural world and us along with it.
It's all interconnected and relates to poverty. With so much natural fruit, why buy sweets? As a status symbol, to feel rich, to have something to do? It’s mind boggling. This question is worth a root cause analysis, not only for the village clean up, but also for the health of the community.
Together is Better
Wings of Change and the Ambatozavavy Tour Guide Association kick off a new partnership to #cleanupNosyBe.
What began as a pre-covid initiative by the village tour guide association of Ambatozavavy has been re-ignited by the Wings of Change e-cademy students. Now together, the community is en force to get real with cleaning up Ambatozavavy.
The environment, the community is at stake. We do have a choice in all this. The human capacity to imagine something different is within us all. People power, grit and some new thinking will make sustainable life possible.
In what ways could you contribute?
Connect. Take Action. Share your story.
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#cleanupnosybe #sauvonslaplanete
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#CleanupNosyBe a Wings of Change Initiative
Weekly Clean Up in Ambatozavavy, Nosy Be
Millions of Mangos
Wings of Change and Ambatozavavy Village Tour Guides
Tanya is an advocate and facilitator for creative processes in problem solving and 21st century education.
Specifically, Tanya’s work is in support of UNSDG #4 Quality Education, a priority for Sub Saharan Africa and UNSDG #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Tanya has been an instructor for Wings of Change since their opening in 2019. She is currently teaching on site in Nosy Be where she’s also working with the community for change toward sustainability for doctoral research on creative leadership. This blog is a reflection of Tanya’s experience while in Nosy Be.
An edited version of this blog appears on www.wingsofchange.co
Wings of Change is vocational hospitality school and hotel a social enterprise with a dual mission of transformation through education and community impact.
More than 200 Wings alumni work professionally in hotels around Nosy Be.
The #CleanupNosyBe initiative is an awareness and clean up campaign for sustainability.
In return for their education, Wings of Change students become stewards for their community in learning and teaching English as well as basic points on sustainability such as separating garbage, composting and most recently oral care.
Through education and determination, we can break the cycle of poverty.
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