Help Us to Build Back Better
A few weeks back tragedy struck at Captain Ali’s workshop - The home of Flipflopi, the world’s first recycled plastic sailing boat, and Takataka Heroes, and Captain Ali’s own boatbuilding and carpentry yard.
Fire ripped through the property and outbuildings - luckily no one was injured and we’re truly grateful for that - but a lot of machinery, tools and memories went up in flames. It only took a few minutes for the flames to roar through a storehouse, the makuti (palm) roofs and the heart of the workshop.
The call for help went out and it wasn’t long before 90 people arrived forming human chains passing water to ensure the fire didn’t spread further.
We’re so grateful for those in the community who came to help us that day - without them, things could have been much worse.
What we’re left with now
The machinery and tools used to build the world's first plastic recycling dhow and countless other traditional dhows have been damaged beyond repair. Machinery donated to Takataka Heroes from Plastiki Rafiki was burnt beyond repair but the industrial shredder donated to us can just about be repaired to work again.
The electrics of the workshop were burnt through and everything in storage - including a tonne of recycled plastic - was destroyed. Much of the work that was taken to create a recycling space here in Lamu has been destroyed beyond repair.
This is why today we’re asking you to help us build back better.
What we’ll do now
Although we’re all devastated by what has happened, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that is the opportunity given to us to build back better. To really think about the space we need and the machinery we want to create a super-efficient recycling plant together here on Lamu Island.
With thanks to the Flipflopi supporter network and their dedication to set up the heritage boat building school and to build an even bigger boat to sail the world sharing the plastic revolution, we have large extrusion machinery en route to Lamu. The original plan was to house that in Ali’s workshop, however, we’re having to rethink that now.
As you might already know, both Flipflopi and Takataka Heroes are nothing if not ambitious. So with this spirit, we want to build a dedicated workspace to make the recycling and building process more efficient so we can establish the foundation for the heritage boat building school, build the big boat AND clean up the Lamu Archipelago.
But to make this dream a reality, there are a few things we need to do first…
We’re going to have to sort and collect a lot more plastics
We’ll have to fix the Takataka Heroes shredder
We’ll build a new workshop
We’ll fix the electrics
And then we can build an even bigger boat…
But we need your help to do that!!!
Here’s how it breaks down...
New workspace KES 2,600,000 / £17,500
Fixing Shredder KES 50,000 / £325
Labour for shredding plastics + upcoming plastics collections KES 230,000 / £1500
Fire Extinguishers (for obvious reasons) KES 30,000 / £200
Fixing electrics KES 150,000 / £1000
With your support, we believe that we can be back up and running, better than ever in just 2 months!
We’re inviting you to join us on this journey. The journey towards a cleaner plastic-free future.
Both organisations - Flipflopi and Takataka Heroes - are coming together for this vision. Takataka to do the on the ground collections and recycling, while Flipflopi uses her influence to put an end to this plastic scourge.
We know we’re asking a lot. But as both organisations are run off the back of volunteers, we know that with our passion and commitments fused with your support we can make our dreams a reality.
So please, join us in this journey, give generously and share with everyone who you think might be interested and together we can clean our oceans and put an end to single-use plastics for good.
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