Umcebo Design takes waste management overseas
The mandate was to speak to the children in French schools about South Africa and to do creative waste management projects with them.
UMCEBO Design’s Robin Opperman and Ujala Sewpersad recently returned from a trip to South Central France, where they shared their passion for creative waste management with children at local schools.
Their invitation to France came from Euroculture which was concerned that children at village schools in the area were socially and culturally isolated. Euroculture, which gets funding from the European Union and the French Government, was established to scan the world for people doing interesting things. Once they have been identified, they are invited to the village schools to speak to the children about their culture and the work they do, to expand the minds of the learners.
“Laurent Festas, who was in South Africa scouting for interesting people, visited Golden Hours School where he was told about the work done at Umcebo. “He contacted me to ask if we would be interested in working with him. I went across initially for five days in June to see various sites we would work with, and then Ujala and I went over from 14 November to 1 December to work at eight different schools, with children aged between three and 15 years old,”said Robin.
Robin and Ujala’s mandate was to speak to the children about South Africa and to do creative waste management projects with them. They got the children to collect plastic, and worked together with them to create wall hangings, chandeliers and mobiles. “The idea was to show them what we do at Umcebo and to help them find their own creative voices and own creative way of recycling,” said Robin.
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Through the project in France, it was suggested they return in future to get involved in other projects the organisation is involved with. Robin explained that said next year there will be an art project run in five villages, with a procession passing through each village, and they had been asked to create some outfits made out of recycled materials for some of the performers.
“This is one of the tentative ideas they have been talking about and we are excited about the partnership. An article appeared in a French newspaper about our visit, and we are excited that the efforts of people in Glenwood who help us by donating waste items have been recognised and have travelled to France! We are not experts, but we have real fun doing this,” said Robin.
He said as much as they had gone there to teach the French about waste management, he and Ujala had learnt so much from them. He said by being in a different culture and place, they had learnt about plastic in other countries.
Ujala commented: “I couldn’t find a single bit of litter in the countryside. It was a real eyeopener and makes us aware that we have a long way to go. There seems to be a lower volume of plastic made in the country, there are no plastic bags in the shops, only paper or cardboard,” she said.
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