RecyclesPay Educational Project: Enabling Education and Combating Pollution in the Face of Economic Uncertainty
Hope, is a word we can never understand the full range of.
Our work as a non-profit beyond implementing transformational projects is to deliver hope to vulnerable communities, it is this same idea of hope that got us through the 2020 lockdowns, hope that together, we were more powerful than the covid-19 pandemic.
It is on the basis of hope I provide you with an update on the progress of the RecyclesPay Educational Project. The project tackles two pressing issues simultaneously: plastic pollution and education inequality. By incentivizing individuals to collect and exchange plastic for cash, we not only reduce plastic waste but also provide access to education for children in vulnerable communities. This has created a sustainable and impactful medium that benefits both the environment and society at large.
We have for over three years now, increased the level of financial and literary inclusion in the ten communities we have so far worked with, reaching over two hundred and fifty vulnerable children in the process.
Since its inception in March 2020, the project has recovered a total of 20,111.81 kg of recyclable waste, with 1,791.4 kg of plastics recovered between October 2022 and February 2023 alone. These figures highlight the success of our efforts in combating environmental pollution while providing financial support for the education of vulnerable children. One thing the figures do not reflect is the resolve of the communities to tackle the environmental waste problem while building a sustainable future for themselves and generations yet to come.
It is this resolve that inspires us to take action.
Drawing from our last report, “Recyclespay for 1000 Children,” despite the economic challenges faced by the project, such as double-digit inflation in Nigeria, we have remained committed to our vision of enabling children to access life-changing education. We have achieved this by cutting down on administrative and operational cost which has led us to focus on communities within and around our primary area of operation - Ajegunle in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ajegunle is a highly dense area made up of several slums with a range of issues like flooding, erosion, plastic pollution, teenage pregnancy and out-of-school children which is on the high.
Even with these challenges, we are making great progress towards our goal, but we need your help to continue making an impact in these communities, to continue giving people hope that tomorrow holds the fulfilment of the promises made yesterday.
However, we cannot do it alone. We need your help to continue supporting vulnerable children in their pursuit of education.
Every little bit counts. By donating to the RecyclesPay Educational Project, you are making a positive impact in the lives of vulnerable children in Nigeria. You are giving them the opportunity to access education and to build a brighter future for themselves and their communities.
Join us in our mission to combat environmental pollution and enable education. Donate today and become a part of the solution. Together, we can make a difference, one plastic at a time.
Thank you for supporting the RecyclesPay Educational Project.
For us at African Cleanup Initiative, we reiterate our promise to keep Raising Environmentally Responsible Citizens.
Dear sir,
Hope my mail finds you well. We have been having difficulty uploading our documents for our report on the site. Attached is a copy of our documents for data. I had sent this with a different mail but got a report today that the mail wasnt recognised.
PROJECT REPORT : 20% percent - double digit inflation has ravaged the Nigerian economy, making the local currency less valuable, and the struggle to fund and keep children in school even more expensive and difficult.
20 million - the number of out of school children in Nigeria has doubled due to a failure of adequate investments and the lack of a sense of intentionality with the little investments being made.
These numbers are lives, lives we at African Cleanup Initiative have worked tirelessly to ensure they remain in school.
The cultural and economic nuances which cause this failure has affected the purchase of books and educational materials and has seen the exodus of learners from more expensive schools to less expensive ones, putting a risk on the quality of education those children who are able to stay in school have access to.
The Recyclespay Educational project has not been left unscathed as this economic reality has seen an over 70% increase in cost of operations, this has resulted in less and less pickups from schools due to rising cost of fuel and maintenance of the vehicles.
The RecyclesPay Educational Project which was initiated to combat environmental pollution while enabling children in vulnerable communities stay in school through the exchange of plastic and other forms of recyclable waste has remained true to its vision by ensuring the children onboarded to the project are given the finanacial support they need to access life changing education.
1541 kg - The number of recyclable waste recovered from schools under our portfolio from June 2022 to October 2022.
18,320 kg - The amount of recyclable waste recovered since March 2020 in the peak of Covid and global lockdowns.
The Recyclespay Educational Project needs your support now more than ever, as we continue to review and optimize our operations for better efficiency in reaching more school children, we need you to donate, share our story of change, and become consistent cheer leaders to solve for the global out of school crisis.
Your support will be the difference between 20 million and zero.
One plastic at a time, one donation at a time, together we will phase out the difficult reality millions of children face with accessing education.
We greatly appreciate your support so far and commit to ensuring we do more to protect these vulnerable children and give them a future they can hope for.
AUTHORS NAME : ALEXANDER AKHIGBE
AUTHORS TITLE : PROJECT LEADER
Thanks for your continuous support.
Green Regards,
Balogun Arinade
Executive Assistant
African Clean Up Initiative
The Recyclespay Educational Project has indeed come a long way from the catastrophic events of 2020.
Over 168 million children were left unable to attend school, the effects of which a large portion of this number still live with to date. The problems with access include but are not limited to funding, security, distance, teaching methods, and available infrastructure. Unfortunately, for a sub-Saharan country like Nigeria, these issues are further exacerbated as a result of corruption and terrorism, which is a trickle-down effect of poorly developed education systems.
For us at African Clean up Initiative, this project has continued to see iterations even while maintaining its core function, changing aspects of the project to get to hard-to-reach communities, engaging in teacher training and welfare options through the plastic exchange, and building a community of individuals interested in the development of the educational sector around different schools.
We do all these because the numbers are not in our favour, 258 million children and youth are out of school globally, according to UIS data for the school year ending in 2018. Nigeria's share in this figure is over 10 million. Without a doubt the effects of having such high numbers of children out of school is even more catastrophic, increase In theft, unemployment, terrorism etc. are some of the results.
That is why we are more than ever committed to improving access, encouraging a conversation around the problem, building communities of individuals for different school establishments and ensuring that no child is left behind.
We cannot do this alone, nor have we been able to support over 180 children in the last three years alone. You have been a part of this journey, and now more than ever, we need your help to write better stories for these children's future.
Education requires heavy investment. As a nation cannot withdraw from emptiness, only education will ensure we groom citizens that are filled with the resources the country needs to grow.With inflation at an all-time high, it affects the lives of these children, we have more children going to school without breakfast, we have children not being able to afford the commute to school, more children are walking, more children are starving; and more children are being failed by a system that is supposed to put them first.
From March 2020 to June 2022, data shows we recovered over 16,779.21kg of recyclable waste, which have all been exchanged for access, safety, and inclusion in schools across Nigeria.
We are committed to not failing our present and future, which is why we call on our global donors to support, reach out and suggest more ways to deliver on this promise in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.
You, our GlobalGiving community, have been wonderful so far. We cherish and appreciate your contribution to changing lives.
Let's take this commitment further.
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All children have the right to go to school and learn, regardless of who they are, where they live or how much money their family has.
We believe Education is not a privilege but a common basic.
Sadly, we are in a world that is still battling a global pandemic, conflicts, diplomatic tensions and budget cuts.2020 was a redefining moment for the world, with a bigger hit being on the already vulnerable who are put in a much dire situation as a result of the issues previously stated.
Some of us may never connect to these issues in their truest form, going to communities and seeing children already becoming breadwinners of their homes and parents bedridden with illnesses as they cannot afford to pay for medical bills due to the absence of functional health insurance for these people is not just sad but frightening.
The Recyclespay Educational project which is a project that is over three years old has made a significant contribution to the lives of children across Nigeria, we have visited these communities to sit within the devastation these children call home to speak to them, listen to them and enable them to get an education all in a bid to make sure they become self-sufficient and active citizens for their communities and country.
Our passion has seen us change internal systems and operations to make sure we transit efficiently into the new order created by the global pandemic, this has seen increased one on one engagement, creating drop off locations to ease the collection of plastics from schools and parents, seeking for partnerships which will enable us to provide more incentives beyond plastic recovery and payment of school fees so the children not only participate in saving the planet but also understand new world technologies through our engagements with them.
These changes are not without their limitations and challenges.
Since the start of the pandemic, from March 2020 to February 2022, we have recovered from the schools being supported with your donation through GlobalGiving a total of fifteen thousand four hundred and fifty-eight kilograms [15,458.71kg] of recyclable materials which further translates to six hundred and eighteen thousand three hundred and forty-eight [618,348] individual pieces of recyclable materials.
Children like Zainab ( The Great Children Joy School), John (Isrina School) and the over 176 children who have received your support now have a chance at a future that is vastly different from their present situation.
Our gratitude to you goes beyond just words as we translate this gratitude into why we will keep on going into these communities, speaking to these children and being a support for these children.
Through your support, we are doing more, but it doesn't end there, we need you our donor community to take this message as gospel, run with it and push the message of one child one plastic beyond borders.
Thank you.
COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in education around the world. According to emerging evidence from some Nigerian regions, the pandemic is causing learning losses and increasing inequality. To reduce and reverse the long-term negative effects, Nigeria and other less-affluent lower-income countries, which are even harder hit, need to implement learning recovery programs, protect educational budgets, and prepare for future shocks by “building back better.”
The Recyclespay Educational Project, which was established to reduce the number of out of school children in Nigeria and also bridge the gap between children living in vulnerable communities and educational opportunities, has also been harmed by an unstable economy caused by inflation which led to an increase in the cost of logistics, fuel, maintenance, and overheads. The project's objective of promoting quality education for all has remained unchanged despite all this challenges.
We have been able to recover a total of 1,463.6kg/ 58,544 individual pieces of recyclables from the environment between July 2021 and October 2021.This brings our total recyclable count from March 2020 to October 2021 to 13,625.61kg/545,024.4 individual recyclable pieces recovered from the environment.
With the rising expense of school supplies, now more than ever, we call for everyone's support in ensuring we prevent more school children from dropping out of school and giving those out of school children the opportunity to get back into school.
Our sincere gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the Recyclespay project thus far, especially the GlobalGiving community for their excellent support, mentorship, and
dedication to ensuring that every child has equitable access to education.
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