They may not be able to walk in the footsteps of whales but an innovative new project is helping African school children to better understand their plight. With discarded flip-flops collected during a clean-up of Watamu Beach, youngsters will contribute to the construction of a life size whale to help raise awareness of and funds for Kenya’s whale welfare and conservation.
The ‘Schools to the Sea’ Programme, funded by Project Aware teaches five to 13-year-olds about the hazards of waste to the marine environment and animals, such as whales and turtles. Rolled-out over five years, the education project will enable 1300 young people, from some of the poorest communities in Kenya, to experience the wonders of the marine environment for the first time in their lives.
The initiative will raise awareness and develop understanding through a series of coral reef visits, snorkelling trips, mangrove expeditions and beach clean-ups.
One beach clean-up brought together children from different towns on the Kenyan coastline and together with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), Watamu Turtle Watch and Cordio, set off to clean.
Dipesh Pabari of WSPA Africa said, “In just one-and-a-half hours the children had filled over 50 sacks of rubbish, including 20 sacks of flip-flops! We had to put a stop to the clean-up because it was getting too hot. We could have gone on forever!”
‘Schools to the Sea’ will continue combing the beaches for rubbish and stockpiling flip-flops for the whale sculpture. In addition, community business UniquEco is recycling flip-flops into key chains, mobiles, curtains and a host of other objects.
Working with UniquEco and communities in Lamu, Kiunga and Wasini, WSPA will fund the creation of the whale sculpture. Global Vision International will also support the initiative by partially sponsoring community members to travel to Nairobi to help.
Through its Whalewatch coalition WSPA aims to maintain the ban on commercial whaling at this year’s IWC meeting in July in St Kitts and Nevis and through such activities hopes to raise public awareness and involve local communities to participate within the global campaign against whaling.
Currently 18% of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) members consist of African countries. With the exception of South Africa and Kenya all are pro-whaling despite having little if nothing to do with whales in their respective countries.
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