Diamonds for Peace (DFP) conducted trash management workshops in Weasua Town to raise awareness of the negative impact of littering trash in the community. The reason DFP did so was to address the issue of residents throwing away trash throughout the community, rivers, and forests without understanding the negative impact.
About two hundred elementary and junior high students from 4th to 9th grade participated in the workshops in 2022 through 2023. In the workshop, students learned about trash and how it affects humans, animals and the natural environment. They also learned that in order to properly manage trash in the community, they can separate burnable, non-burnable and recyclable items. The workshop was conducted as both classroom lecture and practical trash-picking exercises.
DFP also conducted a similar workshop targeting adults in Weasua in 2021. Following the workshop, residents established the Hygiene Promotion Committee (HPC) to lead aninitiative to ensure that the community is kept clean. HPC leaders were trained by DFP so that they would be able to train others after they participated in the first workshop in 2022.
Deborah’s brief biography
Deborah is a seventeen year old junior high student in Weasua Town. She has gotten entered to the 10th grade in the 2023-2024 academic year and is one of the students who participated in the trash management workshop.
Deborah practices trash management
Following the workshop, Deborah started practicing trash management in her home and at school. Based on learnings from the workshop, she realized the importance of keeping a clean community. She started by cleaning the trash in her own home and also started talking to her family members and friends. Trash management is not an easy concept to grasp in Weasua since residents have not been accustomed to do so and have gotten used to littering trash anywhere they choose.
According to Deborah, she is not happy with the way people in Weasua have been littering trash. She feels helpless as a child and stands alone with the idea of having a clean community, but the trash management workshop led the way for her to further her campaign for a cleaner environment.
Deborah talks to her family members and neighbors about trash management
Deborah set up a trash can in her home to collect trash to be later carried to the approved dumping site. She encouraged her family members to make use of the trash can rather than littering the trash all over the place. She also encouraged her neighbors to set up mini trash cans in their homesfor collecting trash. Her family members’ and neighbors’ responses have been mixed. When Deborah talks to them, they practice proper trash management for a while, but when she doesn’t, they revert to their old habit of littering trash. This has made her frustrated as her efforts seem fruitless. However, she focuses on the fact that her family members and neighbors at least listen to her when she talks to them about trash issues. She says “I will not give up and will keep talking until they finally realize the effects of keeping their community clean and start practicing to maintain a clean community”.
Deborah’s plans to promote trash management
Deborah continues to talk to her family members, neighbors and friends about the importance of keeping their community clean. Her family members usually listen to her, although they are inconsistent in terms of practicing proper waste management. Her friends on the other hand, mostly make fun of her whenever she tries to talk to them about trash management. They call her names like ‘‘Holy Mary’’ and ‘‘Most Civilized’’; they say she is trying to prove to be the cleanest of them all. She accepts all the names they call her, but insists on telling them that littering garbage all over the place will make the community look and smell bad, and will make the residents sick. She continues to encourage them to do the right thing.
The people in the community have difficulty accepting new ideas and ways of doing things. They are often stubborn even after they see benefit in the change that is being promoted. Although Deborah is frustrated that people continue to be careless about how they manage their trash, but she understands that they have been accustomed to carelessly littering for a very long time, so it will take time to change their attitudes and for them to start doing the right thing. She also believes that this change will come only if someone stands up consistently to lead the way. She has vowed to remain committed to the process of keeping a clean community because she is convinced that it is the right thing to do and it is her passion. She will support the initiative of the HPC, and continue to talk to her family members, neighbors and friends about the need to keep the community clean.
Conclusion
Change is a process, not an overnight event. With strong consistency, it can start with one person, and can gradually spread to the whole community and the whole of society. Deborah’s action should be hailed, the need for other residents to follow her good example needs to be stressed, and the act of keeping the community clean needs to be promoted throughout the community to support the efforts of the HPC, in ensuring a clean and healthy community.
Front photo: Deborah talking about her efforts about trash management (c) Diamonds for Peace