Last month, many residents complained about refuse remaining uncollected during the municipal workers’ strike.
However, once the refuse ciollection returned to normal, they fell silent. However, the learners at Kuyasa School for Special Learners refuse to remain silent about the litter strewn around Grahamstown’s streets.
Last month, many residents complained about refuse remaining uncollected during the municipal workers’ strike.
However, once the refuse ciollection returned to normal, they fell silent. However, the learners at Kuyasa School for Special Learners refuse to remain silent about the litter strewn around Grahamstown’s streets.
The school says that they are "disgusted by all the rubbish that is in our beautiful town". Last year, they made a big effort during World Environment Week to clean up the town, collecting around 200kg of waste as well as finding inventive ways of using the rubbish as part of their curriculum – analysing and weighing it in classes. The staff even got the learners excited about collecting rubbish by having a competition to see which class could collect the most. However, a continuous effort needs to be made.
With national cleanup week starting on Monday, 14 September, the school has come up with another innovative way to get people interested in looking after the environment.
"We challenge all schools to clean up around the school or in areas that need to be cleared," they say. They also suggest that the rubbish should be sorted for recycling by separating paper, plastic, metal and glass. The municipality will help in this initiative by issuing bags to the participating schools and by collecting the rubbish from them on Friday, 18 September at 8am.
Schools that would like to participate are advised to contact Kuyasa on 046 622 6750 and ask to speak to Elisma or Thozama, as they will need to provide the municipality with a list of the participating schools and how many bags each school will need.
The participants are also reminded to keep safety in mind when collecting rubbish – gloves should be provided to participating students, and they should be made aware of dangers as used needles, broken glass and rotting food. It’s time to clean up Grahamstown!
