Students for Building Blocks for the Future

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Building schools with recycled plastic bricks in Ivory Coast

In Ivory Coast, kilos of plastic are produced and dumped every day. The city of Abidjan alone produces 288,000 kilos of plastic every day. This creates a lot of waste, leading to serious groundwater pollution and blocked water drains. This increases the risk of diseases. Only five percent of the waste is recycled. This is often collected by poor women who sell it on the black market. They receive low wages and are seen as inferior by their community. It is therefore of great importance to help to empower these women and to work on a sustainable chain for waste collection and processing. In addition to the waste problem, there is also an education problem: about 1.6 million children do not go to school, partly due to a shortage of school buildings. It is estimated that 30,000 new classrooms will be needed by 2025. Thus, help is much needed.

With the program Building Blocks for the Future, UNICEF tackles both problems

We are setting up an innovative chain in which plastic waste is reused to make plastic bricks, which can be used for the construction of school buildings. UNICEF involves underprivileged women who receive a fair price for their work thanks to the program and can thus build a better future for their families. Finally, UNICEF helps to improve the quality of education by, for example, training teachers in pedagogic skills and to improve environmental awareness by planting greenery together with children. Want to help UNICEF with building schools ánd building towards a more sustainable future in Ivory Coast? Start your own fundraiser or make a donation!