I am Patrícia Mesquita, a student of Hayek Global MBA and I live in Cape Verde. Cape Verde is an African archipelago located in central Atlantic Ocean, composed of 9 inhabited volcanic islands.
I´m leading efforts of an action called “Sal a Pente Fino”, which intends to make the entire community of the island to gather efforts in one morning and clean the entire island, sensibilizing for the plastic and ocean pollution issue and educating for more sustainable actions.
With this post, I wish to reach out to the international community to help with the crowdfunding we are making to help with the environmental education role this actions has, and promotion of our cause for a private solution in an environmental problem.
PROBLEM THAT WE INTEND TO SOLVE:
Every year about 25 million tons of waste – solid materials manufactured or processed – end up in the oceans, according to a report released in 2018 by the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). And in this scenario, plastics are the main debris found in the marine environment (around 80%), it is disposable plastic. Plastics can take 500 years to decompose and seriously damage the marine ecosystem, often ends up killing many animals.
This is also one of the biggest environmental problems in Cape Verde, and for which there is still no solution in sight: the excess of garbage in the coastal areas of the islands. Currently, there are no frequent clean-ups of this marine debris.
There is also a lot of misinformation and a lack of awareness about sustainable habits and environmental protection within the local community, and as such, by involving the population in a massive clean-up campaign, at least once a year, we also educate and influence better habits for the people.
With the “Sal a Pente Fino” action, we believe that we can influence participants to take greater responsibility for the maintenance of their heritage, to have more sustainable habits in general, reduce waste consumption, leave the beaches clean after their family barbeques, and also, teach how we can consume less and less plastic in our daily lives.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION
On January 16, 2021, we carried out the first edition of “Sal a Pente Fino”, by mobilizing 733 volunteers in 45 groups, who cleaned 40 different areas of Sal Island, from north to south, in just one morning, mostly coastal areas. In this action made by the community, we managed to collect 2608 bags of trash, which represented approximately 39 tons of garbage removed from the streets and beaches.
See some photos here and Video on youtube.
Cabo MICE, as an events company and Ocean Lovers, organized all the logistics and communication of the event and we consider it to have been a great success, due to the big participation, the results obtained, but above all, the work to raise awareness of the population, given the environmental issues mentioned above.
The entire event was organized on a voluntary basis by all parties involved (from our organization, to the tour guides who helped us identify the most priority areas and for their participation in the action, both photographers, videographers, and other members involve). We also got the support of several companies and institutions, which participated with donations of materials, fuel or transport vehicles, among other support.
We are now organizing the second edition of this event, which will take place in September 18th 2021, the “International Coastal Clean-up Day”. On this date we will be in the sea turtle’s spawning period, and it is essential to get the beaches clean at this time to protect this endangered species. The date is also symbolic, as it precedes the traditional beginning of the tourist peak season on the island, which usually starts in October and we have an obligation to have the island in the best conditions, to receive the visitors we so long wish to have back.
EXPECTED RESULTS
In this second edition of Sal a Pente Fino, we hope to receive even more support from the community.
Our goals are to:
1. Achieve around 1500 participants, distributed in 50 different areas of the island
2. Collect 80 tons of trash
We also want to have an even more active role on educating the local population about consuming less plastic.
We have created this Go Fund Me page, to raise the needed money for that:
With your help, we can allow Cape Verde to become a role model of environmental protection and also help make the world a cleaner and better place.
Patrícia Mesquita is the General Director at Cabo MICE - Cabo Verde, and also a student of Hayek Global MBA.
Join Patricia, and other amazing international students in Hayek Global MBA!