By Helena Asamoah-Hassan | Project Leader
Folasade drives Information Campaign on dangers of plastic bags
Plastics do not decompose easily and are a threat to the soil with huge implications for food security. Plastic bags are everywhere in our communities posing serious environmental and health issues.
Folashade Adepoju, a librarian at the National Library of Nigeria saw this problem in Abuja, Nigeria and felt compelled to disseminate information on alternatives to the use of plastic bags especially as there is an absence of regulatory policies to control the use of plastic bags, coupled with lack of information on the dangers of plastic bags and their wrong waste management practices.
Being a participant in INELI -SSAf Cohort 2 made her to understand that provision of information by libraries is a sure way of achieving the SDGs. INELI- SSAf also gave her ideas about how to engage her community and provide targeted information services that could transform her community. Her library holds series of community engagement/sensitisation sessions with children, young people and recently other community members joined to clear a waste dump riddled with plastic bags. Her library also shares learning resources on the dangers of plastic bags and trains kids on how to make simple plastic bags using Maya software for their everyday use.
Folashade spoke to over 500 kids and adults on the dangers of plastic bags during the SDGs activation programme in Abuja, Nigeria and why government should join in the fight to stop the usage. The alternatives she advocates for are the use of cloth bags, recyclable bags and paper bags for groceries and shopping. Presently, they have a video clip that is used online for disseminating information on the dangers of plastic bags – https://photos.app.goo.gl/9buxMrqdMGdhzVrB6
More people in the Abuja community are now conscious of the dangers of plastic bags. Butchers and market women are ready to change from using plastic to paper bags or cloth bags. From the feedback they received from schools, children took the message home and now discourage their parents from accepting or using plastic bags. Attitudinal change is taking place as people ask for paper bags after shopping.
Folashade says “INELI- SSAf has inculcated the zeal of transforming my community into me and has equipped me with advocacy skills. My library will continue to disseminate information about the dangers of plastic bags as well as start advocacy for regulatory policies on the matter. We have written a storybook to clearly illustrate how plastic bags endanger the environment. Thank you AfLIA. Thank you INELI - SSAf for making me a bold, visionary and environment-loving librarian”
This and more are what the INELI-SSAf program does for communities through the skilling of librarians to tackle areas of need of their communities. Your donations enable us to skill people like Folasade to support their communities and assist in achieving the SDGs.
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