Support Recyclespay for 1000 children in Lagos

ONE PLASTIC, ONE CHILD: KEEPING CHILDREN IN SCHOOL USING PLASTICS.

In case this report is the first time you come across this project, let me say a few things.

• The RecyclesPay Educational Project was kicked off in its infant stages as a project established from the need to ensure equitable access to an education for children living in vulnerable communities.
• Nigeria has a staggeringly high number of over 18 million out-of-school children; the number was below ten million when we started.
• Shocking as this sounds, we have made tremendous progress on the project, going into over 53 communities and reaching close to 3 thousand children during the course of this project.
• The number “18 million” is a reflection of deep systemic failure, which we strive to address through engagement, awareness, doing our bit, and civic pressure.

Our model is simple: go into vulnerable communities, find struggling schools and parents, onboard the schools and parents, the parents gather the plastics, and we ensure collection, after which the money gotten from the exchange of all collected materials are remitted directly into the school purse to ensure children whose parents are unable to pay their fees do so. Avoiding the risk of being kicked out.

COVID changed the world, and in retrospect, the project also changed. We now focus on single large communities with a cluster of schools where we can do our collection in one quick, easy swoop as opposed to going to different communities miles away from each other.

These children, who often come from impoverished homes, mostly living with their single mothers or absent fathers, are forced at an extremely young age to fend for themselves and their families.

The project has since addressed these issues directly and indirectly by helping guardians see merit in letting their children go to school as opposed to fishing or hawking during school hours.

Switching our model of operations has enabled us to cut down on the cost of buying fuel and vehicle maintenance. The project is movement intensive, as there is a need to ensure that all the plastics and recyclables recovered by the schools are collected and then exchanged for payment of school fees. This means we must have a truck running around all the schools where we operate.

Within this reporting period (April–June 2025), we recovered 242.4 kg of recyclable waste from the schools we work with. We have provided books and school bags and embarked on a series of tree-planting exercises in various schools to ensure that children learn in safe and healthy spaces

We believe education is the foundation upon which we build our future. We are committed to building this future and ensuring it is inclusive, equitable, and prosperous for every child, everywhere.

Your donations have so far been the difference; small as it may seem against 18 million, it is making the difference for 1, 2, 3… children.

This is no doubt significant in the individual lives we have reached, opened, and elevated through your help.

Our next phase of implementation will see us focus on localizing recycling efforts in the various communities we serve. This way, we spend less moving around and focus on empowering these communities with the resources at our disposal.

Beyond just directly putting these children in school, we will give the people access to earn so their kids are no longer forced to drop out and help with earning an income.

Thank you for reading through this report, thank you for being here, and let's do more.

One plastic at a time.

• GlobalGiving_Data_for_JUNE_2025_African_Clean_Up_Initaitive.docx (DOCX)