SOA Kenya Hub - Mombasa Delta Cleanup

With support from the Swarovoski and Packard Foundations, SOA awards financial support through MIcrogrants to SOA Hubs and Ocean Leaders under 35 who are implementing ocean conservation projects in their local regions.

Dyna Kagendo - SOA’s Kenya Hub Leader - recently led a team of volunteers on a beach cleaning trip on the Mombasa delta complex. Collecting mostly cigarette butts, bottle caps, masks, gloves, plastic bottles and food wrappers, Dyna’s team managed to recover 342 kilograms of rubbish. 

To put that in perspective: if 342 kilograms of plastic bottles were laid end to end, they would stretch for 77 American football fields. Usain Bolt, at his top pace, would take just under ten minutes to run the distance created by the amount of rubbish removed from Mtongwe Beach - assuming it was all in the form of plastic bottles.

The cleanup lasted for four hours and saw the participation of 98 volunteers. Dyna reports that volunteers were “excited about the huge impact they made on such a short period.” Many hands make light work.

Plastic pollution on beaches is a growing issue in many parts of the world, especially in areas where tourism is a major industry. Plastic waste on public beaches is more than unsightly - it’s a hazard to local life, both human and animal. Cleaning these beaches by hand is a tedious, but necessary effort to restore them to their natural state, and allow the environment to function.

Hello!
My name is Dyna Kagendo, SOA Hub-Kenya leader.

On Saturday, August 15th, 2020, the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) - Hub Kenya held a beach clean up at Mtongwe beach, part of the Mombasa delta complex.

It was a prosperous project which received a good response from all volunteers, we had a total number of 10 community based organizations that participated in the activity. I was thrilled with the large turn out of 98 volunteers and together we cleaned up 342kgs of trash, which was removed from our shoreline; equivalent to each person taking 5 pieces of trash from the ocean.

Everyone was happy to be a part of such a huge impact in such a short timeframe.
Among the items collected to were: cigarettes butts, plastic bottles and bags, masks, ghost nets and fishing gear, bottle caps and toys and other plastic products, and so much more. 

One of the other memorable moments was during the education awareness program, we used Graffiti as an education tool for all beach users to see and understand the importance of plastic free seas.
It was an engaging section as volunteers shared their thoughts and commitments.

A sea turtle was used to represent other ocean creatures .

We envisioned this would be the question it and other sea creatures would ask:

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY  PLASTICS IN MY HOME?   

This is sad, many ocean creatures are suffering because of our trash.

*What are some of the other questions that this sea animals would ask?*
Think about it and help me raise awareness against ocean plastic pollution.

#SOalliance# #SOAHub-Kenya# #sdg14# #stopoceanpollution

Written by Dyna Kagendo

SOA Kenya - Hub leader