At Morit International School in Ajegunle, Lagos, one plastic bottle equals one naira, so parents bring a lot of plastic bottles to be weighed and sold, paying their children’s school fees in this unorthodox way. Although it is the sole responsibility of the parents to gather the bottles for school fees payment, each student is encouraged to bring five bottles a day to teach them how to be “environmentally responsible children for the future.” This school is a solution to the two major problems Patrick Mbamarah noticed in his community, Ajegunle, an impoverished area in Lagos, in 2013: The growing number of out-of-school children and too many plastic bottles on the roads. Today, people in the neighbourhood voluntarily gather discarded plastic bottles from the streets and keep their recyclables to give to the school.
SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA
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