One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia (Millbrook Picture Books)

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I think that when you abuse your environment, you abuse yourself”– Isatou Ceesay When Isatou and four other women started the movement, the N’Jau recycling center, their mission is to educate on how to reclaim garbage and recycle plastic rather than letting it accumulate behind their homes. On YouTube there is a video of Isatou Ceesay showing how to make the purses with recycled plastic bags. This could be viewed and then the students could make their own. This would be most appropriate for Grade 4 students (or older). A young woman, Isatou discovers that plastic bags are being used more and more in her village- and being tossed aside, littering the ground. In 2009 Isatou got a job working for Future In Our Hands, a Swedish non-profit. This provided her with the opportunity to work with a wider range of communities in the Gambia. In 2012, Isatou also won the International Alliance for Women’s Difference Maker award. Today, her story has also been published in a book called ‘ One Plastic Bag’ authored by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. And yet, Isatou persisted. Twenty-five years later, her photo is on display at the national museum in Kachikally and in popular city restaurants such as Smile Lounge in the touristy area known as Senegambia. Her story has been told in books and documentaries. Above all, WIG is not only still active, but it has also expanded into nearly every corner of Gambian society and is inspiring countless individuals and groups to find solutions to problems other than plastic waste.

Isatou met a Peace Corps USA Volunteer in Gambia, where she learned how to reclaim plastic waste. Now, members of the movement craft wallets, bags, and toys for children-all of which came from reclaimed plastic bags that they cut knit and sew. With more than 2,000 members in 40 different communities throughout Africa and projects with the European Union, the movement has come a long way. TIAW World of Difference 100 Award Winners 2012" (PDF). The International Alliance for Women. 2012 . Retrieved 2019-11-01. [ permanent dead link] Isatou stood at the edge of the village and looked at the ugly heap of rubbish piled high on the red earth. Amongst the discarded tins, food and bike tyres, one thing stood out: there were plastic bags everywhere. Mosquitoes swarmed above murky puddles of water pooled on bags on the ground. Two of her neighbour’s goats perched on the rubbish, foraging for food. She shooed them away. Isatou had heard that many people’s goats had died recently. When the butcher cut them open, he had found plastic knotted in their stomachs.Having spent a lot of time in Senegal and a little in Gambia, I can tell you that there are lots of wonderful strong women working to empower other women. I’m not sure what the numbers are now, but for quite a long time, Senegal had significantly more women representing them in parliament that we had here! (in UK). They’ve not had a female president yet but it can’t be far away! This is the first project to train people in reprocessing techniques across the waste streams,” explained Mike Webster, the project manager from the WasteAidUK initiative, which delivered its inaugural project with the livelihood NGO Concern Universal. “There are plenty of reprocessing projects that haven’t got off the ground because the technology is out of reach for most people. We have focused purposefully on entry-level systems that can be made locally, and the waste materials that are actually here, not a western perception of what should be recycled.“It was really important to partner with a local organisation with strong community links. This is as much about behaviour change and finding new ways of incentivising waste management. Our focus groups showed that even a tiny financial incentive can make for effective collection systems, people are really interested in learning how to make income from waste.” After seventeen years of hard work, the government consulted them and voted a total ban on plastic bags imports. Now, shops have to use alternatives such as paper bags or paper wrappings, or customers need to bring their own reusable shopping bag.

Silver: Lee and Low Books * Chronicle Books * Capstone Young Readers * Tuttle Publishing * NY Media Works LLC/KidLit TV For 17 years, Isatou Ceesay has empowered women and contributed to one of the most important problems around the plastic waste.

One Plastic Bag activities ...

But Isatou wanted to find more ways to share her knowledge and help people in her village. In 2000, she got a job as a language and culture helper with the Peace Corps and, through this, she helped to secure funding to build a skill centre in N’jau, where the women could meet and work together. Here they could learn about the importance of caring for their environment and about the dangers of burning plastic. Isatou started to teach classes on subjects such as gardening, soap making and tie-dying, and the women were able to sell many of the things they made. She had learned about nutrition and gave cooking demonstrations on how to prepare meals full of vitamins and minerals to keep their children healthy.