The campaign to organise World Cleanup Day in Mozambique is underway. The event is co-organised by Let's Do It Mozambique and the Ministry of Land and Environment. This year the event will take place over two days - on Friday, 16 September in public, community and public schools in the country, and on Saturday 17 September in neighbourhood and village communities as well as in public spaces (beaches, riverbanks, islands, markets, roads).
The aim is to mobilise at least one million people, quadrupling the result achieved the previous year (250 000 people).
The slogans chosen were:
Keep the neighbourhood clean
Keep the school clean
Keep the beach clean
Keep the place clean!
For the purpose of preparations, consultation meetings have been held with provincial directorates of the environment, with provincial services of the environment and with the municipalities, as well as work meetings at the level of Let's Do It nuclei existing throughout the country.
Capacity-building activities for activists and volunteers are also underway in several cities throughout the country, an experience that has been very successful, covering topics such as the impacts of waste pollution, a brief history of the World Cleanup Day, environmental education for the maintenance of cleanliness, zero waste from home and family economy.
On a support level, letters have been sent to the main companies in the country, requesting T-shirts and basic support material, and the organisation has already received some positive responses. Our aim is to send T-shirts to the main clean-up events throughout the country.
It is important to mention that our activists will help teachers transmit educational messages in schools, focusing on the importance of keeping clean, on the 16th of September.
The current mood is one of enormous enthusiasm and expectations toward World Cleanup Day 2022.
World Cleanup Day is currently one of the greatest examples of active citizenship resulting from the combined efforts of organisations, communities, individuals, national and international institutions, municipalities and governments, which have found a link in the environmental cause that goes beyond any differences or barriers of any kind. This movement is a reason for hope on a planet ravaged by ecological and climatic crises, revealing humanity's capacity to overcome differences and act for the common good, for other species and for the Earth itself, making use of solidarity.
To this end, it is very important to understand this event goes far beyond a global clean-up action, constituting one of the largest educational actions underway on the Planet, characterised by a set of principles, values, strategies and actions aimed at changing our way of being and being based on excessive consumerism, by our disregard for the impact of pollution on health, biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as on the climate. It is very important to intervene with children, girls and Youth, bearing in mind their role in the change we want for a clean, green and balanced Planet. To this end, the campaign should be geared towards reaching as many schools, teachers and children as possible, as well as girls and Youth, by means of simple, appealing, and encouraging messages and actions.
The work in schools can be carried out through direct coordination with the education authorities at national or local level, as appropriate, and preferably sufficiently in advance, to achieve the greatest possible mobilisation for the World Cleanup Day, but also the adherence of more and more children and young people to care for the environment.
The focus on the approach of keeping sites clean reflects the concern with the sustainability of our campaigns, i.e. it is not enough just to organise clean-up actions in the various sites, but also to work with communities, organisations, institutions and individuals in maintaining cleanliness and, consequently, improving the health conditions, quality of life and ecological balance of the areas of intervention. A very important aspect of the campaign for World Cleanup Day is the capacity for dialogue, communication, and coordination with all the living forces of society, including central and local governments, public and proven institutions, churches, the media, universities, non-governmental organisations, urban and rural communities, individuals (including artists, public figures, etc.), putting the global/environmental cause above any particular or specific interests.
Work should be done on identifying the causes of waste pollution, mapping the main critical places, characterising the composition of the waste (which varies from country to country, region to region, city to city) and attention to the impacts of waste on health, biodiversity, and ecosystems, and climate, bearing in mind the importance of steering the campaign towards success.
It is also important to instil in each person the pleasure of contemplating the beauty of a clean environment, the best of our Planet, the charm of a landscape, of green space, of a careful beach or river, including preparatory actions aimed at the environmental rescue of polluted or degraded spaces.
Special work in the design of a campaign that uses the social networks preferred by the younger sections of the population, with the necessary creativity and magic touch to awaken interest, guarantee adhesion and generate change.
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