We Clean We Green Malawi

We had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Pike Ng’oma, founder and team leader at We Clean We Green in Malawi. 

Hi Pike! Firstly, if you could introduce yourself and your role at We Clean We Green in Malawi?

My name is Pike Ng'oma and I'm an environmental and climate change activist and also a founder and team leader at We Clean We Green Malawi

Tell us all about We Clean We Green, when did the charity first start?

We Clean We Green was established way back in 2020 after discovering that the planet is suffering a lot and that human made errors have seriously contributed to the collapsing of our innocent planet earth.

So I thought of joining the battle with already existing teams on the planet towards Cleaning and Greening the degraded Environments                               

Even before the formation and establishment of We Clean We Green, I was already saving nature in different climate change related projects where I was a manager.

Amazing! What is the vision for We Clean We Green?

Our vision is o bring young people all together in combating the effects of Environmental degradation in Malawi

Our mission is to empower young people through friendly environmental activities so that they can meaningfully contribute sustainable development environmental restoration.

"We Clean We Green’’ Was established under several objectives which are interlinked as follows:

- To Clean and Green the damaged environments of Malawi.

- To empower young people with knowledge and skills on environmental management and protection so that they can make informed choices regarding their responsibilities on caring for environment

-To help in mitigation of climate change impacts through cleaning and greening the Malawi’s environments

- To Support Communities with Livelihoods intervention in food security, health & sanitation, Disaster risk preparedness, reduction & Management, education, gender empowerment and Climate change

- To work with other local and international Organizations in implementing projects that will help and contribute to Sustainable development goals ✓ Charity activities and volunteership

How did you first get involved with the organization?

As explained above, I am very passionate about nature, and in 2019 that’s when I discovered that the youth are in the majority and the most polluters, I thought of involving myself in cleaning and tree planting campaigns organised by other organisations, and even myself as a volunteer. After realising that Malawi is also one of the countries suffering waste colonialism and also looking at what climate change has done to Malawi, I thought of raising a flag and I thought the best way to serve nature from waste pollution and also re-greening it is to establish my organisation.

So this worked as I started with 7 young volunteers and now we are over 100 volunteers fighting litter in Markets, rivers, schools, hospitals and also the beaches of lake Malawi. The number includes Youths, women men and children as we are getting everyone on board.

 What are the biggest challenges that you come across with litter?

We face so many challenges as far as litter fighting is concerned…

- Public calling us bad names when we are fighting waste pollution.

- Isolation from other community members as most waste pickers are regarded as useless people.

- Lack of working and protective equipment as we handle complicated wastes.

- Lack of capacity building for most volunteers- there’s need for waste management trainings.

- Lack of resources (materials) for training and awareness campaigns on waste pollution especially in markets, schools, hospitals and along the beaches

- Lack of resources to establish a material recovery facility to properly manage all complicated waste.

- Irresponsible citizens on waste disposal and management.

- Low participation of young people as many see that it’s a dirty tasks and its meant for the dirty people or uneducated people.

- Poor household waste management which affects environment because un segregated waste always end up in landfills

- Lack of Government to enforce some of the laws in relation to waste pollution management

- Lack of seriousness from other authorities to tackle waste pollution

- Lack of financial muscles to set litter or waste management projects

- Racism in terms of funding opportunities

What can people do to support We Clean We Green?

- Capacity building

     -  Financial support to execute planned projects on waste management and other climate related projects which are on the objectives.

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- Provision of working and protective gears

     - Exchange visits in some countries doing well on waste management.

Thank you for your time Pike, amazing to  chat to you and learn more about We Clean We Green. 

Learn more about We Clean We Malawi by heading to their website, or following their work on social media - information all below!

      We Clean We Green Malawi

Address : P.O BOX 2224, Lilongwe, Malawi C. Africa Phone : +265 999 310 331

Twitter : https://twitter.com/ / WecleanWegreen

Instagram: @we_clean_we_green_malawi

Email:  wecleanwegreenmalawi@gmail.com

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