Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO), a local NGO has supported informal waste pickers and waste workers in the Ashanti Region with relief packages amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The relief items include food products such as rice, oil, and tin tomatoes, and safety products such as soap, sanitizer, wheelbarrow, and holding nets.
The sanitation workers, most of whom are involved in GAYO’s Sustainable Community Project, received PPEs in addition to the relief packages.
GAYO commenced the Sustainable Community Project in the Adansi South District as the first-ever community-led zero waste project in Ghana. It aims to create a zero-waste model that can be replicated in other communities across West Africa and develop an incentive-based waste management strategy for job creation and green product development.
According to the organization, there has been a significant reduction in its capacity to continue to work with the informal waste workers due to the global pandemic hence the decision to support them.
GAYO said the support for the sanitation workers is to ensure their dignity and protection during the time of the pandemic and also reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 infection.
In the Adansi South District, informal waste workers contribute to the gathering of waste from market centers and food stores. These wastes materials are transported to the facility where they are processed into sustainable products such as charcoal briquette, recycle art, and compost by local entrepreneurs.
GAYO’s green business model is structured around our ability to pay the waste workers for collecting and processing measurable, pre-agreed quantities of waste.
The organization is currently working jointly with the Ga East Municipal Assembly in collaboration with the Institute for Environmental and Sanitation Studies of the University of Ghana to pioneer integrating the informal waste sectors with the formal waste sectors.
Waste pickers and informal waste workers worldwide are currently facing deep and life-altering challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In some locations they must continue to work, often without the proper protective equipment, jeopardizing their health.
In other places, recycling programs are temporarily shut down for sanitation purposes and workers are left unemployed for the duration of the shutdown without reliable income outside of potential government assistance. Relief services during this time could prevent workers from needing to seek out other unsafe jobs during this crisis and allow them to get back to work in the waste sector as soon as safely possible.
