The initiative aims to support poor women in The Gambia by increasing their income and improving the standard of living for their families and communities. “It can be very, very difficult for women,“ Ceesay says. “So few go to school. They do gardening, work in the fields, and so many other activities, but at the end of the day they have no say on their pay – the middle men will just give them whatever prices they want for their goods.“

Autumn 2 - Where will the polar bears live? Inspired by The Last Polar Bear by Jean Craighead GeorgeFive coastal communities are involved in the enterprise, which aims to teach people about good rubbish management and, crucially, how to turn waste into wealth. Isatou: Before I started this work, everywhere you would find plastic bags flying all over the environment. Really fascinating blog and a story well worth telling! Wonderful that Luke offered his photos free to promote your initiative. Although Ceesay's focus has thus far been on Africa, she has the wider world in her sights. “Whatever country we are in, it is so important to spread the word,“ she says. “This is a big global problem, and by connecting with similar people across the world I believe we can together make a lot of changes to help the situation we are in – the sky's the limit.“

It was 1997, and 25-year-old Isatou Ceesay was taking a walk through her village of N’jau in the centre of the Gambia – the smallest country in Africa. As she turned down the dusty main street, women greeted her from their courtyards as they prepared vegetables and washed clothes. The smell of familiar dishes filled the air. Children played in a clearing by the forest, and cows grazed near a field of peanuts. Later that afternoon, she sat with five friends in the shade of a tree for the first meeting of her women’s group. You only have to type Ceesay's name into YouTube to see the impressive speed and skill with which she can turn supermarket bags into fashionable purses. She is able to produce two and half purses everyday, and believes that doing so has helped saved numerous lives in her village. “If you leave it in the environment, people will burn it to light fires and get cancer and other incurable diseases,“ she tells me. “Donkeys and cows will also eat the plastic and die because they cannot digest it.“ Some people laughed at Isatou and her friends, telling them they were ‘dirty’ for digging around in the rubbish. Some men told her that her plans couldn’t work because she was a woman and too young to be a leader. But Isatou believed in what she was doing. She loved helping others and relished a challenge. In her family, everyone had always worked together to solve problems, and her mother had been a great inspiration to her. In the Gambia, many girls were unable to finish school because they were needed at home to help their mothers. Isatou wanted women to have the chance to learn skills and to earn money, even if they had not been given the chance to finish their education. The women’s efforts benefitted their families in several ways. They were able to sell their products, bringing much-needed money home, and they reduced the plastic waste. When she first started making her purses, all those years ago, Isatou’s aims had been to solve the problem of plastic waste and allow women to earn money to support their families. Now she dreams of seeing more women leaders in her country. There are now five women on the N’jau village council, something Isatou would never have imagined possible. And as a mother to three sons, she sees it as her duty to leave the world a better place for future generations. She wants all children to have the chance to go to school. If they are taught to care about the environment, she explains, then we’ll be leaving the planet in good hands.Five female activists who are changing the world". Responsible Business. 2019-03-08 . Retrieved 2019-11-01. On YouTube there is a video of Isatou Ceesay showing how to make the purses with recycled plastic bags. This could be viewed and then the students could make their own. This would be most appropriate for Grade 4 students (or older). Answer: Isatou says that when we abuse the environment, we are really abusing ourselves. You can help by learning about recycling and trying to reduce the waste your family creates. Njabe Ndaw (left) and Nyime Dibbo learn to make organic fuel briquettes at the Recycling Innovation Centre. Photograph: Louise Hunt Having spent a lot of time in Senegal and a little in Gambia, I can tell you that there are lots of wonderful strong women working to empower other women. I’m not sure what the numbers are now, but for quite a long time, Senegal had significantly more women representing them in parliament that we had here! (in UK). They’ve not had a female president yet but it can’t be far away!

She is very active and has worked for the US Peace Corps office in the Gambia, the Swedish organization Future in Our Hands, and as a consultant for development organizations. The recycling project, which began in 1998 in the midst of a lot of resistance still running and growing right now.

A global target

Isatou’s sister had taught her how to crochet, and this gave her an idea for how to upcycle the plastic bags that were causing so many problems – changing them from waste into something valuable. She would turn them into purses that could be sold to make money. Isatou persuaded five friends to join her to form a new women’s group, and together they collected bags from the rubbish pile, washed them and dried them out. Then, that first afternoon beneath the tree, they carefully cut each bag into a long continuous thread of plastic several centimetres wide – called ‘plarn’, or plastic yarn. With this, they started to crochet small purses for coins, using different coloured plarn to add pretty patterns. It took eight hours or more to make one purse and it used up around 10 plastic bags. The women were delighted with what they had made. MISSION: To raise awareness for children’s books that celebrate diversity, and to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries. One Plastic Bag is the story of how one woman cleans up her community, inspiring friends and neighbors to help create plastic, recycled purses, and reduce the trash in her village. Dyu, L. (2019, October 3). Isatou Ceesay and the women turning waste to wealth. Climate Heroes. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://climateheroes.org/isatou-ceesay-turning-waste-to-wealth/