Clean a river in Migingo & stop plastic pollution

Hello friends, 

 Since we last updated you in November, work has continued in Kenya to expand the recycling facilities and processing plants that had been destroyed by the flooding earlier this year. 

Indeed, the hard work of the team on the ground has had some incredible impacts, despite the tough conditions. We are proud to report that in 2024, 15 successful clean-up events and partnerships were launched that empowered more than 20,000 community members to participate actively in managing and cleaning plastic waste in different communities in Kenya. We also launched “River Warrior” initiatives that brought up 2,500 youths to clean different sections of the rivers. A total of 85 metric tons of plastic waste was collected through the various community engagement and cleanup programs. The collected plastic waste was repurposed into different construction materials at the Chemolex recycling facility.

In addition, 5,500 metric tons of plastic waste have been repurposed into products such as paver blocks, fencing poles, and construction lumber. The improved infrastructure is essential in supporting effective collection systems that ensure plastic waste is segregated correctly and sorted before being recycled/repurposed into different valuable products.

It doesn’t stop here, however. With your continued support, throughout 2025 we plan to complete the rebuild of the Community parks by removing all the debris brought by the floods and complete the establishment of a plastic recycling hub for community exhibition and sharing knowledge on different aspects of plastic waste repurposing and recycling, amongst other goals. This will help to continue the long term sustainability of the project, as well as continue the hard work of cleaning up the river. 

As ever, we thank you for your continued support. If you would like to share this project with your friends and family, we, and the Chemolex team in Kenya, would be extremely grateful. 

Best wishes

Kirsten and the SVRG Team

Links:

• Chemolex's website

Hello Friends, 

Last time we had to share with you the tragic news of the floods that had devastated significant parts of Nairobi and the surrounding areas, including at many of the sites where our partners have been working. 

These past few months have been spent tirelessly cleaning up after the floods, building back not just quickly but better. As we reported last time, the local government and the Nairobi Rivers Commission have taken the opportunity to develop a new strategy for protecting the riverside environment. Our partners have been participating in the creation and maintenance of a green "corridor" 30-60m wide around the river. This corridor draws inspiration from the riverside gardens we had been already been creating and will mean that communities are less prone to flooding in the future. It will also mean that less rubbish ends up in the rivers, aligning with our overarching goals.

Now that the critical parts of the clean-up operation have been completed, our partners have also been able to continue their work in collecting plastics from the river and repurposing them. This will continue to be the focus of their work going forward, and we look forward to seeing the fruits of their labour soon. 

In the meantime, if you are able to share this project with friends and family, we will be using funds raised to help the displaced flood-affected families, as well as creating new community facilities alongside the green buffer zones by the riversides.

The riverside communities of Nairobi and we all thank you for your help and ongoing support.

Best regards

Kirsten and the SVRG Team

Links:

• Learn more about our partners' work here