When we learn as mothers, we can teach our children how to have a better life. Not everyone can work in an office. This is something you can do for yourself, and your family will grow up with this system.”

This is the first project to train people in reprocessing techniques across the waste streams,” explained Mike Webster, the project manager from the WasteAidUK initiative, which delivered its inaugural project with the livelihood NGO Concern Universal. “There are plenty of reprocessing projects that haven’t got off the ground because the technology is out of reach for most people. We have focused purposefully on entry-level systems that can be made locally, and the waste materials that are actually here, not a western perception of what should be recycled.“It was really important to partner with a local organisation with strong community links. This is as much about behaviour change and finding new ways of incentivising waste management. Our focus groups showed that even a tiny financial incentive can make for effective collection systems, people are really interested in learning how to make income from waste.”

We tell women how to price their products, how to add value, how to do marketing, and everything in between“ One Plastic Bag would be a great resource as a springboard for Earth Day activities or a school wide venture into a community action project. Other smaller scale activities include: Miranda is a teacher and children’s author. She first traveled to Gambia in 2003 as a teacher and discovered Isatou’s project. Twelve years and five trips later, her research and collaboration finally brought the finished book to the world. “Through interviewing the women of Njau I learned the importance of determination and confidence when working on something worthwhile.” Miranda currently spends her days writing new books, traveling, raising butterflies and foster animals, and speaking at schools. Learn how to invite her to your classroom at www.MirandaPaul.com.

As well as organic fuel briquettes, the women learned how to turn plastic bags into paving slabs – although plastic bags were banned by the government in July – and fish and food waste into fertiliser. She was honoured with The International Alliance for Women Difference Maker award in Washington DC, United States [4] [7] [8] At that time, women in Gambia were not allowed to work. They were expected to take care of the home and family. At first, Isatou worked in secret. Slowly, she began sharing her work with other women who joined her.

Today, the journey to Njau can take as little as three to four hours. It’s just one sign of the rapid changes in Gambian life. Private cars and vehicles are everywhere. The main highways are paved over almost their entire length. Halfway up the country, a beautiful bridge, completed in 2019, arcs over the Gambia River. The signs of development are everywhere, including one of the most obvious and (to outsiders’ eyes) distasteful: rubbish.

Isatou: Before I started this work, everywhere you would find plastic bags flying all over the environment.It was 1997, and 25-year-old Isatou Ceesay was taking a walk through her village of N’jau in the centre of the Gambia – the smallest country in Africa. As she turned down the dusty main street, women greeted her from their courtyards as they prepared vegetables and washed clothes. The smell of familiar dishes filled the air. Children played in a clearing by the forest, and cows grazed near a field of peanuts. Later that afternoon, she sat with five friends in the shade of a tree for the first meeting of her women’s group. Students could make Before and After posters of the plastic bag situation in Isatou's village. Alternatively they could research their own recycling issue and create a Before and After campaign complete with radio, tv and print advertisements. The initiative aims to support poor women in The Gambia by increasing their income and improving the standard of living for their families and communities. “It can be very, very difficult for women,“ Ceesay says. “So few go to school. They do gardening, work in the fields, and so many other activities, but at the end of the day they have no say on their pay – the middle men will just give them whatever prices they want for their goods.“ Just a few days’ stay in Njau also offers any visitor a chance to observe some of the invisible aspects of progress, such as an inspirational mindset, can-do attitude, and an environment where men and women work together. These are just some of the intangible impacts created by WIG, the organisation that put Njau on the international radar. What started with a simple plastic bag clean-up has evolved into a giant umbrella for fighting climate change, reforesting parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, supporting women’s empowerment, promoting disability advocacy, and preserving traditional knowledge and culture.

The women continued with their tiny business, now also making shoulder bags and cosmetic purses from plarn. Many of them were earning money for the first time, and they were able to use it to buy food to help their families through the ‘hungry gap’ – the three months in the year when there were few crops from their farmland. Their husbands noticed how their family’s lives were improving and encouraged their wives in their purse-making. The women no longer worked in secret, and soon others joined them. Within a year, Isatou’s community recycling project had grown to 50 women and she named it the N’jau Recycling and Income Generation Group (NRIGG). Isatou started the organization, the Njau Recycling and Income Generation Group. More than 100 women participate in the organization. They gather waste and bring it to a central location to be used by everyone. One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia". www.publishersweekly.com . Retrieved 2019-11-01.In terms of education, we are the ones who are always behind. Boys are chosen to go to school. When we conduct our training, we find women can do a lot, but don’t know who they are, or how to implement things,” she said. A young woman, Isatou discovers that plastic bags are being used more and more in her village- and being tossed aside, littering the ground. Her story was published in a book authored by Miranda Paul and Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon [4] [9] [10] Isatou Ceesay (born 1972) is a Gambian activist and social entrepreneur, popularly referred to as the Queen of Recycling. [1] She initiated a recycling movement called One Plastic Bag in the Gambia. Through this movement, she educated women in The Gambia to recycle plastic waste into sellable products that earned them income. [2] [3] Early years and education [ edit ] In the Gambia, the community organisation WIG has been educating communities about the hazards of burning rubbish, and teaching them how to recycle, since 2009.