Known as Eco Escola, a JOBAB social project, located in the Gamek community, in Morro Bento, it has the capacity to accommodate 150 students and teaches grades 1 to 6. With the aim of welcoming children who are outside the education system, due to their guardians’ lack of financial means, fees are paid with the delivery of solid waste (50 kg of plastic bottles or 100 kg of cardboard)
Created in January 2018, the school began as an explanation of the neighborhood, and then the need to expand arose, as the number of children outside the education system increased because parents did not have the financial means to pay the students’ expenses. .
According to the general coordinator of JOBAB, Areadine Rebeca Manuel, this is a philanthropic organization that develops several projects focused on community development, promoting environmental education through the collection and management of solid waste. Eco Escola is one of JOBAB’s projects, located in the Gamek community, in Morro Bento, and has the capacity to accommodate 150 students. At the moment, there are 124 students enrolled, from 5 to 15 years old. The school has four rooms, where classes, from 1st to 6th grade, are taught by 36 employees, including teachers, administrative staff and others.
Parents do not pay fees with cash, but by delivering solid waste, preferably plastic bottles and cardboard, since 2021. Parents must pay with 50 kilos of plastic bottles or 100 kilos of cardboard. With monthly collection, they manage to record approximately 10 tons of cardboard and 18 tons of plastic bottles, and take around 30 tons of solid waste per month for recycling. “Some parents have more than two children.
We ask them for a balanced amount, and they manage to cover it. The institution operates as a normal primary school, but some programs that are considered important for the current context have been implemented, such as English, environmental education, among others”, he said. Essentially, they ask for PET plastic, water and soft drink bottles, and cardboard.
They decided to choose these two types of waste because they are not highly valued and appear easily on the streets of Luanda. As they are located close to the Catinton market, where there are many warehouses that discard a lot of cardboard and other waste on a daily basis, this has not been an impossible mission for those in charge of education. The solid waste received from those in charge is then sent to recycling companies in Viana and Cazenga, which pay in cash, which helps maintain the institution’s financial sustainability.
Bottles and cardboard are not enough
Despite the waste requested from those in charge, the interviewee said that it has not been enough to cover all the school’s expenses, so there are always concerns that end up being secondary. This is how Coca-Cola and Refriango recently made a donation, with the delivery of various materials to JOBAB, as part of the All Hearts campaign, which promotes donations to the NGO.
Eco Escola was one of those selected due to Coca-Cola’s global commitment to making a difference in the locations where it operates, with solid waste management and recycling as its concern. Among the donated goods are a computer, a printer and an Internet router, to facilitate the teaching and learning process of Eco Escola children, as well as biosafety materials (gloves, boots, uniforms), construction materials (shovels, hand), which will help in the process of collecting and treating solid waste. Areadine Rebeca Manuel expressed satisfaction with this donation, as, she said, it will help a lot to continue, with dynamism, the work they carry out.
In addition to the ecological school, JOBAB also has solid waste collection and management projects, both at the organization’s collection points and in a door-to-door collection system, as well as a grocery store called “Busara”, which functions as a an Ecotanda (where purchases are also made with solid waste deposited in the store and not with money). Finally, it is important to say that since 2019, Eco Escola has become a community school through a partnership with the association of community schools that has a protocol with the Ministry of Education. Students have an official document when they finish the academic year, they are entitled to a primary education certificate, with which they are entitled to enroll in another public or private school.