Paper profits in The Gambia
|
|
Richard Human
|
‘We wanted to do something for our environment as well as introduce the traditional skill of paper-making to the country,’ Saffie Joof (pictured) explains as she tears, pounds and soaks waste paper. Here, in a five-metre-square room covered with a creaking tin roof, Saffie and five others make paper that profits their entire country. While Saffie works on the waste paper, others in her team will go to the busy streets surrounding the nearby capital, Banjul, in order to collect shredded documents from the various embassies, hotels and businesses that regularly donate waste paper to them. Yet others will visit the city’s tailors to collect their off-cut material. Then they will return to the tiny family compound in the village of Faji Kunda, where the team runs a remarkable charity – The Paper Recycling Skills Project (PRSP). Their small-scale mill produces between 50 to 100 sheets of A3 paper a day, which are then bound in covers made from recycled cardboard and material before being distributed as photo albums and notebooks to the various retail outlets frequented by tourists throughout The Gambia. With the profits made from tourist sales, PRSP supports schools throughout the country. It has donated 60,000 exercise books, as well as extra stationery items including pencils, pens and reading books to schoolchildren during the four years it has been operating.
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
Except where otherwise noted, images on this site are copyright of the photographer/illustrator or representative agency.Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
