The school children painting their waste segregation bins as part of the recycling programme
As part of its community investment focus on the environment Vivo Energy Ghana, the Shell licensee, in partnership with Environment 360, a Non-Governmental Organisation has launched a comprehensive recycling programme targeted at basic schools in the James Town, Chorkor and Lartebiokorshie enclave of the Greater Accra Region.
The initiative, dubbed CyClean, forms part of Vivo Energy Ghana’s people-centred community activity programme, focused on communities where it operates. This programme aims at instilling good environmental behaviours and a recycling mind-set in school children.
The programme, which began with an orientation in the schools, subsequently encouraged the school children to set up their own recycling stands which were painted and labelled to represent a particular waste (plastic, paper and metal). The children were then tasked to segregate their waste with the help of volunteers.
Additionally, the students were also equipped with skills through series of creative activities such as making pencil and pen holders as well as flower vases out of plastic materials. Monies earned from the sale of these recycled products went into buying stationery for the school children. Their intellectual prowess was also evident during an inter-schools debate and song composition on recycling.
In an interview, the Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Mr. Ebenezer Faulkner said the company is committed to increasing efficiency in its operations and minimising its environmental footprint.
He added that the company owes a responsibility to educate local communities and help them adopt behaviours that will safeguard the environment.
“At Vivo Energy Ghana, we believe that instilling the habit of recycling in children, particularly those in school, will have a generational effect. In another demonstration of our commitment towards the environment, staff of Vivo Energy Ghana recently collaborated with the Atukpai community, the National Commission for Civic Education and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to embark on a massive clean-up exercise to commemorate World Environment Day,” he stated.
Commenting on Vivo Energy Ghana’s involvement, the Executive Director of Environment 360, Cordie Aziz, said the initiative is under Environment 360’s broader project dubbed Evolve for corporate organisations who are passionate about the environment. This programme is specifically designed to give a ‘second life’ to our waste and ensuring a clean environment.
“This is a community development project, which is targeted at reducing waste and encouraging waste segregation. Vivo Energy Ghana has shown commitment and the schools involved are really poised to make a change in their respective communities,” she said.
So far, over 3,000 school children from Nii Kojo Ababio Basic School, A.M.E Zion Cluster of schools, St. Georges Anglican School and Korle Gonno R/C Boys School have participated in this programme.
