Saturday 15 September 2007 saw Omaruru’s second Clean-Up Day and a chance to water the seed planted last year. 1100 children and
approximately 250 teachers, parents and residents managed to fill 6000
refuse bags in four hours! (Thank you Plastic Packaging for sponsoring
the bags and being totally committed to cleaning up Namibia).
Why do people litter? Essentially because ‘not to litter’ is
habit-forming and must be learnt. Let me elaborate. Children will
subconsciously throw a sweet wrapper on the floor, over-eager to get at
the content and oblivious of the consequence. It will take an adult to
say: ‘John/Jane, please pick up that sweet wrapper and throw it in the
dustbin.’ With time, consistency and a degree of patience, John/Jane
will learn to throw away the waste paper. The litter problem, globally,
boils down to lack of education from an early age which inevitably leads
to apathy. Of course ignorance can not be entirely blamed and,
sometimes, is conveniently bliss.
Education is the focal point for the Omaruru Clean-Up Campaign. Thanks to Omaruru Spar, the first and only supermarket in Namibia (to our
knowledge) who has insisted in selling its plastic bags, a Clean-Up
Campaign Fund was formed (Should you own a supermarket and feel you wish to sell plastic bags, contact Bobby Griebel at Omaruru Spar on 081 128 1718. If you feel the need to make a difference and clean up but need advice, call the Omaruru NCCI on 064-570 356).
All it has taken is a few persistent individuals who want a cleaner town
and voila!
In December 2006 Omaruru (appro-ximately 35 adults and 270 kids) embarked on our first Clean-Up Day and together managed to fill 2500 refuse bags in five hours. It was an amazing feat. The seed was planted.
The impact was bigger this year due to the fact that we got all the
schools involved and managed to put together a major prize: A
Mini-School-Makeover worth N$20 000, proudly sponsored by Neo Paints
(painting) as well as a generous sponsor from Omaruru (to fix tables,
chairs as well as fixtures and fittings).
And the winner was … Ubasen Primary School! Congratulations!
Wow, what a day! The effort from all the sponsors and participants was
overwhelming. Thank you Omaruru from the bottom of our heart.
Raymond Spall
Organiser

Omaruru Mayor Mike Tjirare at the prize-giving, addresses 1350 parents, teachers and students who filled more than 6,000 bags with trash in four hours in Omaruru.