Celebrating World Clean Up Day 2020 with A Wonderful Story of Ali, Aisha & Flipflopi
Yesterday we marked World Clean Up Day with concerted clean up activities together with our partners all over East Africa. Incredible efforts by our friends and teams all around Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – from the oceans to the towns and to the lakes, everyone got involved. Notable efforts by our partners in Lamu (@takatakafoundation), Diani (@kwaleplasticsplus), Watamu (@ecoworldwatamu), Kisumu (@dungahillcamp / @plastikirafiki), Kampala, Dar es Salaam (@nipefagio), Zanzibar , Pemba (@kwanini_foundation).
Diani
Kisumu
Lamu
Dar es Salaam
A particularly poignant day for Flipflopi and the plastic revolution as we are about to move the dhow to Kisumu, on the banks of Lake Victoria, to start our next ‘upstream’ campaign to raise awareness of the pollution plaguing our region’s most critical freshwater ecosystem.
To celebrate the official launch of the expedition, we premiered a short film written and narrated by celebrated Kenyan actor John Sibi-Okumu, and directed by award winning animator Kwame Nyong’o, together by UNEP. Aimed at educating children, it tells the story of how Flipflopi came to be built, and what its mission is.
We are so pleased to hear Dr. Amina Mohamed, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture express her thoughts on the initiative:
“This is a wonderful initiative. It promotes sustainability and I am infinitely proud that it was born in Kenya.”
World Clean Up Day is just one day in the year dedicated to cleaning up our environment, but with the immense challenge our generation faces to address the plastic pollution catastrophe, we must continue the positive energy that this day generates. We were heartened to hear CS Tobiko make such a strong statement yesterday that asked the PET industry to finally take some responsibility and action – let’s hope the momentum continues.