Oando Foundation on Friday partnered the Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) to clean up Ilasamaja, a suburb of Lagos.
The exercise is part of the ‘Clean Our World’ project, an initiative of the Oando Foundation, funded by Sumitomo Chemicals, Japan with the NCF as an implementing partner.
The Lead, Environmental Education Officer, NCF, Mrs Abidemi Balogun, said that the exercise was in continuation of the Clean Our World (COW) project, initiated by the Oando Foundation.
Balogun said that it was a community clean-up to create awareness on the need to care for the environment and to change people’s attitude toward waste management.
According to her, organising the clean-up within a school environment with the assistance of volunteers is to make the exercise sustainable.
She said that no good learning could take place in a dirty environment, saying that was why some of the pupils were engaged to imbibe the culture of cleanliness.
Also, one of the partners in the project, African Clean-up Initiative, (ACI), said that the Clean-up exercise was another opportunity to drive home the culture of volunteerism.
Monitoring and Evacuation Manager, ACI, Mr Shedrak Bright, said that ACI had a role to play in teaching the pupils the proper way of sorting and managing wastes.
According to him, the exercise will also teach the pupils how to clean the environment without supervision.
Bright said that instilling environmental consciousness early in the life of the children would help them to become better waste managers when they grow up.
He said that the wastes generated from the exercise would be sent to recyclers and they in turn, would process it, recycle it and send it to an off-taker, who would convert the materials into final products.
Some of the pupils from Olukun, Kusoro, Dele Ajomale and Ire Ilasamaja and some other volunteers, took part in the cleaning exercise
