Reusable shopping bags making
Date Published:
Organization description
The applying organization is Mitandi Women and Orphans care. It is registered as a Community Development Group with community Based Services Department of Kyamukube Town Council- Bunyangabu District in Uganda Reg. NO. KTC 046/18.
Our mission is improve the life of vulnerable women, children and orphans through eradicating poverty, illiteracy, promoting health and environment protection.
Our vision is to realize a well informed and self sustainable community that is free from poverty, illiteracy, hunger and diseases.
Our objectives include:
To empower women to initiate sustainable projects that can eliminate poverty, create employment, limit diseases and hunger.
To involve women and children in the struggle to conserve the environment.
To promote literacy among women and children so that they are enabled to fully participate is communities programs and realize their rights.
OUR WISH
Project Description
The project that we have proposed is making reusable shopping bags. We want to challenge the inappropriate disposal of plastic bags in the community bearing in mind that the rest of the communities will also adopt to use our reusable bags. This project seeks to provide an alternative to plastic shopping bags by empowering women and young girls out of school to create a social enterprise to create reusable shopping bags from used clothing, used polythene bags and pine needles and banana leaf midribs as linings and in turn educating community members on the benefits of reducing plastic bags usage through purchasing reusable bags.
The original story for this project
On 24th December 2023 the eve of Christmas Kiiza Praise the chairperson and Immaculte a member of Mitandi Women and Orphans care went shopping in Kyamukube Town Coucil. Immaculate was concerned about how most of the women were carrying food and other items. She noticed that more than 90% were using poly-then bags. Then she told Praise. They returned home while discussing it and of course while seeing other used buvera/poly-then bags thrown in gardens, along the road and people’s compounds. This made these two people to sale the idea to the rest of the community members in the meeting of the group members that was held on 2nd January 2024.In this meeting, members borrowed the idea and it was included among the three suggested projects: These included : Soap making project, Reusable sanitary pads making and plus Reusable shopping bags. The selection of the above 3 projects prompted for voting this project to be submitted to WISHWALL FOUNDATION. The engagement strategy was to promote awareness on the pollution created by discarding plastic bags, or information on how to properly dispose polyethylene (nylon) materials. More so, as plastic bags take approximately about 20-30 years to completely decompose in the soil, pollution also leads to degradation of arable farmland, leading to poor harvest.
Problem Statement
More than 90 % of the people who go for shopping use polythene bags commonly known as “Buvera” which are used once or twice or tear away after one or two uses and are thrown in gardens, play grounds, home compounds and village squares.
Proposed Project Activities
The major activities that will take place under the proposed project are: Training 40 women and girls on making different types and designs of reusable shopping bags. Purchase and collecting of project equipments and materials for use to make reusable shopping bags. Making / production of reusable shopping bags. Educating community members on the benefits of reducing plastic bags usage through purchasing reusable bags.
Marketing of reusable shopping bags using Fm radio advertisement, at churches, household level and in markets. The majority of the grant funding will be spent on purchasing and collecting of project equipments and materials for use to make reusable shopping bags like sewing machines to sew bags from old clothes, pine needles and banana leaf midrib to be used as bag linings, Hand needle, rulers, and scissors, black smith needle for splitting banana leaf midrib, climbing shoes and safety belts to help us climb pine trees during collecting the pine needles from trees.
Expected Project Impact
Through this women and girls social enterprise, selling reusable shopping bags will contribute towards a reduction in environmental pollution and degradation in community spaces, and help develop a public consciousness on the importance of environmental stewardship.
It will help to save money which would be spent on purchasing polythene bags commonly known as “Buvera” which are used once or twice or tear away after one or two uses; with reusable shopping bags the buyers will enjoy strength and durability.
The project will limit water pollution: we will put some already used polythen bags back to use and thus limit throwing away of used polythene shopping bags which if thrown away, Leech into the water and end up degrading the water quality with toxic compounds and end up harming human and animal health.
This project will contribute to soil conservation because we will put some polythene bags back to use. When polythene bags are thrown on land it makes soil less fertile. Polythene bags do not dissolve; they break into tiny pieces and remain for many years contaminating soil waterways.
Project sustainability
The sustainability strategies of this project will fall in training 40 women and 20 young girls out of school. These 60 trainees will remain in the community and will train more women slowly by slowly and we will realize many women having learnt to make reusable shopping bags.
7 % of the profits that will be made will be saved on the organization account and this fund will meet some future project needs.
The community members will be advised to plant more pine trees and banana plants where the needles and banana leaf midribs can be collected.
The applying organization is Mitandi Women and Orphans care. It is registered as a Community Development Group with community Based Services Department of Kyamukube Town Council- Bunyangabu District in Uganda Reg. NO. KTC 046/18.
Our mission is improve the life of vulnerable women, children and orphans through eradicating poverty, illiteracy, promoting health and environment protection.
Our vision is to realize a well informed and self sustainable community that is free from poverty, illiteracy, hunger and diseases.
Our objectives include:
To empower women to initiate sustainable projects that can eliminate poverty, create employment, limit diseases and hunger.
To involve women and children in the struggle to conserve the environment.
To promote literacy among women and children so that they are enabled to fully participate is communities programs and realize their rights.
OUR WISH
Project Description
The project that we have proposed is making reusable shopping bags. We want to challenge the inappropriate disposal of plastic bags in the community bearing in mind that the rest of the communities will also adopt to use our reusable bags. This project seeks to provide an alternative to plastic shopping bags by empowering women and young girls out of school to create a social enterprise to create reusable shopping bags from used clothing, used polythene bags and pine needles and banana leaf midribs as linings and in turn educating community members on the benefits of reducing plastic bags usage through purchasing reusable bags.
The original story for this project
On 24th December 2023 the eve of Christmas Kiiza Praise the chairperson and Immaculte a member of Mitandi Women and Orphans care went shopping in Kyamukube Town Coucil. Immaculate was concerned about how most of the women were carrying food and other items. She noticed that more than 90% were using poly-then bags. Then she told Praise. They returned home while discussing it and of course while seeing other used buvera/poly-then bags thrown in gardens, along the road and people’s compounds. This made these two people to sale the idea to the rest of the community members in the meeting of the group members that was held on 2nd January 2024.In this meeting, members borrowed the idea and it was included among the three suggested projects: These included : Soap making project, Reusable sanitary pads making and plus Reusable shopping bags. The selection of the above 3 projects prompted for voting this project to be submitted to WISHWALL FOUNDATION. The engagement strategy was to promote awareness on the pollution created by discarding plastic bags, or information on how to properly dispose polyethylene (nylon) materials. More so, as plastic bags take approximately about 20-30 years to completely decompose in the soil, pollution also leads to degradation of arable farmland, leading to poor harvest.
Problem Statement
More than 90 % of the people who go for shopping use polythene bags commonly known as “Buvera” which are used once or twice or tear away after one or two uses and are thrown in gardens, play grounds, home compounds and village squares.
Proposed Project Activities
The major activities that will take place under the proposed project are: Training 40 women and girls on making different types and designs of reusable shopping bags. Purchase and collecting of project equipments and materials for use to make reusable shopping bags. Making / production of reusable shopping bags. Educating community members on the benefits of reducing plastic bags usage through purchasing reusable bags.
Marketing of reusable shopping bags using Fm radio advertisement, at churches, household level and in markets. The majority of the grant funding will be spent on purchasing and collecting of project equipments and materials for use to make reusable shopping bags like sewing machines to sew bags from old clothes, pine needles and banana leaf midrib to be used as bag linings, Hand needle, rulers, and scissors, black smith needle for splitting banana leaf midrib, climbing shoes and safety belts to help us climb pine trees during collecting the pine needles from trees.
Expected Project Impact
Through this women and girls social enterprise, selling reusable shopping bags will contribute towards a reduction in environmental pollution and degradation in community spaces, and help develop a public consciousness on the importance of environmental stewardship.
It will help to save money which would be spent on purchasing polythene bags commonly known as “Buvera” which are used once or twice or tear away after one or two uses; with reusable shopping bags the buyers will enjoy strength and durability.
The project will limit water pollution: we will put some already used polythen bags back to use and thus limit throwing away of used polythene shopping bags which if thrown away, Leech into the water and end up degrading the water quality with toxic compounds and end up harming human and animal health.
This project will contribute to soil conservation because we will put some polythene bags back to use. When polythene bags are thrown on land it makes soil less fertile. Polythene bags do not dissolve; they break into tiny pieces and remain for many years contaminating soil waterways.
Project sustainability
The sustainability strategies of this project will fall in training 40 women and 20 young girls out of school. These 60 trainees will remain in the community and will train more women slowly by slowly and we will realize many women having learnt to make reusable shopping bags.
7 % of the profits that will be made will be saved on the organization account and this fund will meet some future project needs.
The community members will be advised to plant more pine trees and banana plants where the needles and banana leaf midribs can be collected.
