AMAGEP raises awareness on solid waste management in Johannesburg

Since the decline in the rate of the COVID-19 epidemic, the picture of a paradisiacal landscape too often spoiled by piles of garbage collected here and there in both cities and the countryside is a redundant image in India, as is the case in most developing countries where the priority is placed more on the survival of the inhabitants than on the protection of their environment.
Yet this problem does not only concern the visual aesthetics but it is above all about the health of the inhabitants. Moreover, in a country with more than a billion inhabitants and in a world where packaging and plastic are misused, there is an urgent need to raise awareness.

Amagep organized an awareness campaign, in the areas of Johannesburg concerned by the micro projects program, over two days to best convey a message of awareness and a user manual to manage this waste.
This campaign focused on students between the ages of 13 and 15 and mainly on girls about 60 children per neighborhood. Other workshops were aimed more at adults. AMAGEP had previously distributed to the schools concerned an activity manual to prepare the children on the issue.
It is an expert organization, Alain Matundu, who led the program with the help and facilitation of AMAGEP. The project concerns the Yeoville, Berea, Hillbrow and Bertrams districts in the city of Johannesburg in South Africa.

The list of wastes and their effects on the health of inhabitants and animals and other possible consequences has been listed. Then composting and recycling solutions were explained and demonstrated, as well as the possibility of using this recycling and composting as a source of income. The value of waste such as hair, eggshells or coconut was mentioned.
Fun and educational games related to the waste situation in their own village were organized for the children to raise their awareness on the issues of sorting, composting and recycling.

For AMAGEP, this pragmatic program is a social commitment of the organization in the project of common management of the environment and the fight against climate change.
A film on solid waste management was screened, following which groups of students were commissioned to disseminate the message received through the different households and collect the needs and questions of the inhabitants in order to guarantee the application of the different methods of waste management.
Finally, sketches and songs were presented on a stroll through the village by a street theatre company in order to draw the attention of all the inhabitants to the issue.

The message seems to have been passed successfully and RWO has been able to adapt their program to different audiences. The final objective is to make these 3 villages, model villages on waste management so that their action can be replicated in other neighborhoods…. An expert body is studying an adapted plan to organize the management of waste for these three sites.

According to the organization’s program, the end of this year 2022 will be very busy with activities on the ground finally to promote environmental values to young people and mbres of local communities in Johannesburg. AMAGEP is confident that such initiatives will be applicable in other cities in the country and Africa depending on the nature of any support the organization will receive.