<![CDATA[Two weeks ago Makafui Awuku a.k.a Mckingtorch The Poet started a journey to promote sustainable environments and turn plastic bottle waste into viable solutions for our communities.
The aim was to do a few models of solutions we can create with plastic water bottles, which will normally be choking our gutters with its ripple effect of health problems and cost in terms of waste management. But since Christmas is here he decided to take a shot at doing a Christmas tree first.
He ended up with a Christmas tree of water bottles with 396 pieces of bottles, which would have been lying in our gutters. Waste is one of the biggest challenges in Ghana and the country is losing so much money to waste management due to the indiscriminate littering by us the citizens.
The project seeks to change attitudes and provoke people into turning the waste into wealth and using it as a catalyst to deal with poverty, hunger, unemployment, ill health and other solutions that is also in line with the UN SDG 2030 project.
The Christmas Tree is lit and has allowed for us to do a Christmas in the zongo community of Madina Mayehot around Social Welfare. The tree is placed outside on the streets in the community and will be lit at 6pm till midnight for the next few days and the people in the community are extremely excited about the project due to the fact that it is done with plastic bottles. We hope we can convert the excitement into behaviour change.
The theme for the event is Christmas In Madina Zongo and there will be poetry, spoken word and music with food too. It is a free event and everyone who can make time in the evenings to watch and take selfies under the tree should do so.
Makafui Awuku also known as Mckingtorch The Poet is a poet and a spoken word artist who has uses word play to influence people and provoke dreams. He did a poem on galamsey and Mothers that got published by Citi FM and has also within his short poetry and spoken word career of 12 months has shared same stage with Sarkodie at the Africa Dialogues Event in June, Ghana@60 Ghana Culture Day Event at the National Theater in March.
He has also performed at Ghana Start-up Awards, Ghana Energy Awards, Ghana Youth Summit, Joy FM Open Mic where he shared same stage with Manifest and KSM. He also performed 3 times in Nigeria including performing in front of inmates of Badagry Prison near Lagos and in front of the USAID Director for West Africa.
Makafui Awuku is a YALI Alumnus and recently got selected and spent weeks in Lagos for President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative Course. Makafui is a church car park volunteer at Agape House New Testament Church and has been supervising the parking of cars for the past 8 years giving away at least 8 hours of time a week volunteering in this way within the last 8 years.
Makafui has also be working as a soccer coach with American International School in East Legon for the past 6 years. You can follow him on social media with the handles Mckingtorch The Poet and Author Makafui Awuku. His dream is to have a country where citizens and government become responsible for their behaviour and actions.]]>
