By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director
What do you do in rural Madagascar if you want to sweep your school yard?
You get your students together, in the shade of the trees you have planted over the years. The assistant teacher, who is also the handicraft teacher, shows you how to make your broom. All you need to do: collect sturdy grass in the perimeter outside the school yard, tie it together et voila: You’re ready to sweep your school yard.
Cost: zero. Garbage produced: zero. No plastic pieces in the environment from a (cheap) broom made from oil based products that just gets discarded when it falls apart. This broom can be put on the compost pile, or used as kindling to start a (cooking) fire. True sustainability starts at the village level.
Cleaning the village environment has been Zahana’s endeavor for over a decade. Since our first concerted village cleanup, they have been able to also keep diseases transmitted by insects such as Tugiasis (Tunga penetrans), a skin disease spread by fleas, in check (yes, this webpage is from Augist 2006.)
Markus and Ihanta
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