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Alumni in Tanzania Reuse Plastic to Make Supplies for Local Schools

Group of young people holding up signs that say "AFS, YES, AYA, IRIS"

In Tanzania, people are using innovative ways to counteract the environmental impact of plastic waste. From Thomson Safaris, a company that organizes safaris for tourists in the country, banning plastic bottles to a recycling plant that is using plastic to make anti-coronavirus face shields, there are lots of projects focusing on the goal of reducing or recycling plastic in the country. Although these new and innovative ideas are a step in the right direction, more still needs to be done, especially at the individual level. Alumnus Abdulshakur Abdilah (YES 2018-2019, Tanzania, placed with AYA/AIFS in Scio, NY) sees firsthand the increasingly negative impacts of plastic waste on Zanzibar Island, as plastic bottles are the number one cause of pollution in the community. 

To address this environmental crisis, alumni in Zanzibar hosted a two-day workshop designed to educate participants on unique ideas to reuse the plastic waste in their community. On the first day of the project, alumni taught participants how to create items such as pencil/pen holders, garden planters, toothbrushes and toiletries holders, and educational tools such as letters and numbers from recycled plastic. The next day, the newly created items from the recycled plastic waste were donated to a local orphanage and Learning Center. These facilities are often underfunded and therefore lack basic supplies for the orphans and members. The donated items were received with great gratitude and it also provided the opportunity for children to learn about recycling and how they can convert things that may otherwise be seen as waste into useful items.

YES alum crafting in a classroom

This project promoted volunteerism and education in the community by providing the opportunity for alumni to reuse a little bit of the overall plastic waste in the Zanzibar community, as well as educating themselves and others on the need for recycling. Alumni used their leadership, communication, and creativity skills to accomplish a project that will contribute to the overall awareness and reduction of waste in their community. 

Abdulshakur says his experience in the United States inspired him to do this project. While in the U.S., he often volunteered in Scio by participating in street cleaning. He said it was surprising to see minimal plastic waste during these volunteering activities. Upon talking to his host family, he learned this was due to existing and ongoing plastic waste recycling efforts in the U.S. “The idea of recycling recyclable plastic materials is not well understood by many people in my community and I took this as a challenge that I wanted to address during my free time as a way of giving back to my community and applying what I learned in the U.S.A.”

A group of young people sitting around a table, crafting

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