Activities undertaken in the first phase of the project

1. Form partnerships and collaborations

As part of the preliminary actions to roll out the Coastal Watch project, there was the need to identify and involve key stakeholders. The participation of these entities plays a key role in making the project successful Based on the project module, Coastal Watch listed 15 organizations, companies and agencies as target partners and stakeholders. We reached out to the listed organizations through visits, calls and followed up with the submission of official letters. Follow-up visits and meetings were made to ascertain the participation of companies and agencies. At the end of the period of building partnership, Coastal Watch got 8 organizations and agencies on board as partners to implement activities designed for the Coastal Watch project. (Refer to Table 1)


Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations

Support in recruitment of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) who are waste pickers

Korley Klottey Municipal Assembly

Support executing the project in the municipal

Osu Traditional Council

Support in entry into the community and providing Coastal Watch with a site for the swap shop

GES-Korley Klottey Municipal Directorate

To help establish and facilitate the ocean club in the 15 schools in the municipality

SESA Recycling

To support improving capacity of waste pickers and collection of plastic waste from women waste pickers and schools

Zonal Council (Mandela Area and Osu Manhean)

To support in mobilizing youth for training, community awareness and clean up

Borla Taxi and Tricycle association

Improving capacity of waste of pickers and mapping an effective transport system for waste collection.

IRECOP

Collect wastes recovered from the ocean

2. Organize Training workshops for Teachers and Youth Volunteers

To achieve this goal, we partnered with Ghana Education Service Korley Klottey Municipal Directorate who received us well since it goes in line with their objectives. Coastal Watch designed and presented a training manual and toolkit for the administration of plastic and ocean protection education in the classroom. With the help of the municipal directorate, we got 15 schools for the project. On 8th June 2022, we brought under one roof 15 teachers who will serve as patrons/patronesses of the clubs in each school. The teachers were accompanied by a student who will serve as a club captain. Circuit supervisors and Municipal Directorate, Key officers such as School Health and Environment Programme Coordinator, Physical Education Coordinator were not left out. Coastal Watch staff took participants through the training manual and toolkit, and they all understood. Participants were given shirts, toolkits to improve easy facilitation of clubs in their schools.

3. Form and Manage Ocean Clubs in schools

Children and young people have what it takes to change their community when they?re seen and heard. This makes them a very positive tool in behavioural change activities. As part of activities aimed at causing positive behavioural change in Osu, we planned to form ocean clubs in 15 schools. This clubs will equip pupils with knowledge on plastic waste management, leadership, and confidence skill for them to serve as ambassadors in their communities.

Management of the ocean clubs officially started on 8th June 2022 after the workshop. The toolkit has been designed in a way that, pupils are supposed to watch visuals and listen to sounds that will let them appreciate the ocean and issues affecting it. This requires the use of projector, laptop, electricity, and an extension board. The project has a component where toys that depict marine animals, recycling tools and equipment, and games are exhibited under a tent on their school compound for the pupils to experience. Due to inadequacy of these logistics for each school, we visit each school daily to afford the clubs the opportunity to use them. This movement is supposed to be done 13 times since there are 13 lessons in the training manual and toolkit. So far, we have lessons 1 to 4 have been covered by each school and the rest will continue till 25th November 2022.

4. Organize workshops in Schools and Bootcamp

To ensure effective facilitation of clubs in the schools there was the need to recruit volunteers from the community who will visit the schools to support teachers. We put out a call for volunteers and had 20 people applicants. After a thorough conversation we settled on 10 applicants because of the availability and proximity to the schools. The volunteers visit the schools weekly from Monday to Friday.

4.1 The Bootcamp

Organized on the 6th of July 2022 the Coastal Watch Boot Camp brought together 190 students from 16 schools and gave the attendees tools and knowledge aimed at reducing plastic pollution in the ocean and their communities for sustainable change. At the boot camp, youth volunteers, leaders, mentors, teachers, and artists led workshops and activities to build skills and knowledge. The Bootcamp also gave students the opportunity to witness what other students are doing internationally. Each participating school was giving stimulating activities such as designing and presenting campaign strategies to reduce single-use plastics in their schools, homes, and communities, composing a song on plastic pollution and displaying a short drama on plastic pollution and showcased the exhibition of eco-friendly waste plastic bags, wallets, plastic bottle bins, plastic-related items, workshops, painting, and upcycling among others.

Participating schools were Nii Amugi Avenue Basic School, All Nations Hillside Academy, Osu Salem Presby Boys JHS, Osu Manhean Basic School, Liberty Avenue 3 Primary, Additrom Preparatory school, St. Barnabas Anglican Basic School, Osu Salem 1 Basic school, and the Mantse Tackie 1 Primary School. The rest were Gray Memorial Basic School, Osu Presbyterian Girls Basic school, Calvary Methodist 2, St. Joseph R/C Basic School, Mantse Tackie 3 Primary/KG, Calvary Methodist 1, Liberty Avenue 1 and 4 primary and the Bethany Mission International School all in the Korle Klotey Municipality. Additrom Preparatory school received a trophy and a certificate for emerging as winners of a plastic waste competition held for the various schools.

5. Organize Plastic Recycling and Upcycling Workshop (Capacity building and training workshop for women waste pickers and people with disability)

To ensure effective waste management, it is essential to encourage recycling as an option hence there is the need to enhance capacity and skills of new and old waste pickers. This is because waste pickers are the second point of call in the plastic recycling value chain after the consumer. As part of the project activities, we were supposed to identify and train 60 waste pickers and persons with disabilities. This is with the aim of building their capacity and upgraded their skills on best practices to improve their collections and increase their income.

To identify waste pickers in Osu, four project staff went to Osu Community to invite women waste pickers and recruit other women who want to take up waste collection as a business. In two days, the project team registered 70 women pickers. Our partnership with The Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations gave them the responsibility to identify and recruitment people with disability who collect plastic wastes. On Friday 25th May 2022 we brought together the people registered (people living disability and women waster pickers). We had 50 participants attending with 20 being people with disability. Participants were taken through how waste is managed in Ghana, opportunities in the business of collection, quality of materials and how to earn more, where to find plastics and financial literacy. The workshop was facilitated by Madam Lydia, Mr Acquaye, Municipal Health and Environment director, Christopher from SESA Recycling and Carl Selorm Dovi from Project Hope Ghana. The workshop afforded the waste pickers the opportunity to discuss the possibility of forming a cooperative to formalize their operations





Activities planned and completed in this reporting period and results achieved in the second phase of the project.

1.Management of Ocean clubs in Schools
As part of project activities in the first tranche, there was a successful launch of Ocean Clubs in 17 schools on the project and the need to manage the clubs through weekly visitations, external events, and activities. The management of the ocean clubs started in the first tranche of the project cycle through to the end of the second tranche. During these activities, volunteers and project officers visited all 17 schools every day from the 19th of September 2022 to the 7th day of December2022. (Ref. Table1). During these visits volunteers supported teachers to take club members through lessons outlined in the official training manual of the club. Projectors and murals were used as training tools for easy comprehension of topics during lessons. To ensure the advocacy is expanded, volunteers also exhibited toys, books, and recycling materials on the compound of schools for the whole students to experience the education as well. To encourage the schools to embrace and continue the clubs. Project Hope Ghana presented a citation and certificates to all participating schools and patrons respectively. The citation and certificate will also create brand visibility for donors and supporting organizations.

2.Organize Plastic Recycling and Upcycling Workshops in Schools
Waste management is a very complex activity as some wastes might not go through the channel of being disposed of. This is where local recycling and upcycling activities are needed. As we teach school children to segregate their waste, there was a need to teach them what to do with the waste that are not collected. The plastic recycling and upcycling workshop was of the aim to equip school children with the skills to turn their wastes into new useful products. Coastal Watch brought together 3 different Plastic up cyclers as facilitators to teach the students how to use plastics to create new things like pencil cases, bags, flower vases, stationery holders, dustbins, wall clocks and other materials. This activity happened in 3 different locations to accommodate the students. Schools were grouped into 3 zones according to their locations.

3.Plastic Advocacy and training For Volunteers.
After drawing a curriculum for school children, we realized the need to draw an activity for the whole community. This activity was to create an opportunity for interaction between the community people on the effect of bad waste management on the ocean, especially plastic waste on marine animals. To execute the community awareness activity, we recruited and trained 30 youth volunteers on effective waste management that focused on segregation and the reduction of waste. The volunteers received training on the modules on the Framework of Ghana?s Waste Management and effective ways of managing waste as well as advocacy, communication, and leadership to enable them effectively to go into the communities and educate residents.

4.Initiate a community awareness campaign
There were two separate community awareness campaigns at Akuma Village and Osu Mandela Park reaching about 600 households including shops and 5000 people in the Osu, Korle Klottey Community received plastic education. Our project team and volunteers numbering 30 met at Akuma Village to interact with community folks about plastic waste management. The reception was great, as the community members witnessed the effects of plastic on the ocean and their lives. Each community awareness activity lasted for 6 hours with volunteers having personal interactions and education on plastics, their effects and proper waste separation.
Grant Management services (GMS)The team also pasted posters at vantage points in the community and handed out educational flyers to the community members to extend education and awareness.

5.Open and maintain a community SWAP store After the Capacity Building Workshop for Women Waste Pickers and Persons with Disabilities, there was the need to provide an avenue to offset their collected plastics and to bridge the gap between plastic aggregators and waste pickers we launched a plastic swap back event on Monday, November 7, 2022,with SESA Recycling being the sole aggregator. Originally, we planned on opening a swap shop but the challenge of setting up a space amidst three other plastic collection points in Osu led us to focus on the immediate problem which is providing an instant opportunity for inhabitants of Osu to exchange their plastics for cash. This new plan was aimed at economically empowering people in these hard times whilst creating awareness of the value of post-consumer plastic waste. The swap back activity happened four times bi-weekly from the day of the launch. On each day, a temporary plastic swap booth was set up at the Osu Cemetery area with a sound system to create awareness, while volunteers of Coastal Watch and SESA Recycling visited households and local shops in the Osu Lokko Area to speak to them about the effect of indiscriminate plastic waste disposal and the value of plastics. A tricycle was also made available by the team to assist residents in bringing their plastics to the swap booth and to also weigh plastics instantly from households and pay them on the spot. Each day of swap back activity lasts for 8 hours with a total volume of 354 kg, 247.63 kg, 120kgand196kg recovered respectively. Some of the post-consumer plastic wastes recovered were pure water sachet-LDPE, PP and PET bottles with PET bottles recording the highest numbers. The SWAP Back event was supported by the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly who helped to distribute letters to churches and other societies in the municipality. Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE) also supported by giving us soaps from Lifebouy as incentives for waste pickers.

6.Beach Clean ups.
Beach clean-ups are important because they serve as a good awareness tool to bring citizens in contact with the problem of marine pollution and be part of the real change. On 25thJune 2022, we organized the first beach clean-up at Mensah Guinea Beach near the Arts Centre. The beach clean-up brought together more than 200 participants from the community, teachers, students, and pool of coastal watch volunteers. The activity started at 10am with aerobics and plastic waste management education. After the education, participants picked sacks and collected defined waste and weighed them. The event climaxed with refreshments and a microplastic practical education activity fed by Coastal watch Project Manager Mr. Christian Amoako for the students. A total volume of 900.24KG of waste were recovered from the ocean. Coconut waste recorded the highest volume at 363KG and wood recorded the lowest volume at 9.53KG. This data serves asa guide for policy shaping.