Flipflopi Education and Innovation Centre: Inspiring the next-gen of circular innovators
A few weeks ago, our educational centre on Lamu Island hosted a group of high school students from three schools in Nairobi - Braeburn Garden Estate, Aga Khan Academy and the International School of Kenya.
As part of an immersive 4-day experiential, students were able to trace our entire recycling process from dump-site visits and sorting workshops to operating small-scale machines and handcarving products, our course is designed to inspire young learners to think about how we can integrate our heritage and leverage local expertise to solve global problems like plastic pollution.
This immersive learning experience was not only insightful for the students but the accompanying parents alike and when we received the letter below from Michael, it was a reminder of why our work on Lamu Island is critical to the lives of the people who now depend on it.
More importantly, this letter is a reminder of how anything is possible - we started by building a recycled boat as an advocacy tool which at the time seemed impossible but today, we have started the construction of our 5th boat, double it’s size and are providing essential waste-management for remote island communities.
Our hope is that through our educational centre, we can inspire innovation and influence community-driven solutions in similar communities across the world.
To find out more about our education pillar and the courses we offer, click below.
“Back in Nairobi, after a brief exposure to FlipFlopi in vivo, makes me appreciate both your vision for what is being accomplished for the Lamu communities, as well as the impact this may have on the young hearts and minds of your children.
It was wonderful to gain a view of the end-to-end program from community/ocean all the way to fabrication/building using recycled materials and/or the selling-on of recyclable plastics. This made the kids (and adults) appreciate the knowledge and know-how, as well as the passion, needed to make and sustain this way of relating to plastics, the communities, and the environment.
“Being exposed to FlipFlopi ignited an awareness; made them able to project themselves into action they can take to make and see a future in which they have a place, as well as building deeper empathy for what this means for communities and individuals in them.”
Interviews with ladies, both in the sorting facility and in communities brought a strong realization of the cultural gender-based challenges that persons must face on a daily basis to maintain the freedom to work with FlipFlopi. There were some real aha moments there, especially for the girls in the group.
Personally, I wanted to convey the deep respect that I feel for what you have accomplished, and where you envision this to go. Many hurdles are still on the way, but the compromises that you may seek with your partners will never compromise the impact so apparent in the voices of those we have met.
“We will now support the young participants in making further sense of what they have experienced, ensure that they make good use of it in their academic endeavors, but above all to support them in taking steps towards activism. I think that the magnitude of the waste and environmental issues at hand can be daunting to them as well as to us. Passivity would make us victims of, and worse accomplices in, an irreversible environmental degradation in our community.”
Thank you again for your hospitality. I did see the beginning of the large dhow construction on the beach. It makes us all dream. I will study the Swahili vocabulary of boats (poster in your training room), hoping it could be useful in a not too distant future.
Respectfully,
Michael Holzmann 🙏🏾🙌🏾”