“I am a Climate Justice Campaigner. I say let’s make our neighborhoods Flood Free” Hope Asanji, MIFALI member
As a young person, I was happy to take part in the cleanup campaign in my local community this September 16, 2023, commemorating the World Clean Up Day. This was my first time taking such initiative in advocating for and organizing peers in doing such community service. And just as the theme “Let’s Do It World”, my team and I did it: When the idea first came to mind, we decided to do the cleanup of litter from schools to streets and most importantly the rivers round which gets blocked from plastics wastes and pollution.
As a climate justice campaigner and an ardent advocate for the flood free neighborhood campaign, I was fortunate to meet like-minded individuals coming all around Yaoundé to promote the idea and cause of making our neighbourhoods flood free. Together with my peers from the MIFALI movement, on that day, we picked up plastics especially bottles estimated to a total of 1 ton (1000Kg) that was polluting the rivers around the school and was the principal cause of flooding in that community. It is our believe that this massive pick of plastic bottles would help reduce the re-occurrence of flood in our community and also help to prevent some common disease spread in our community such as malaria and typhoid.
This enriching campaign was carried out in Barrier at Lycee d’Ahala neighbourhood, and we feel happy to have led such an initiative as climate justice campaigners. The experience was so exciting and enriching, as it was an eye-opening experience for me in particular as it wasn’t just a personal issue being a flood victim myself, but it helped to trigger the inborn innovative ideas as we had to improvise by using already used mosquito nets as bottle trash cans were not available on site. The site was so atrocious as plastic bottles in the area were too much and filthy. Nevertheless, it was a reminder to me of how important it is to take care of our environment, and how every little effort counts.
In a nutshell, this event was a valuable experience that has taught me the importance of acting and making a positive change in the world, regardless of the challenges that may arise.
I conclude with the question: for how long will it take before we see bottles again inside these rivers?
