Almost twenty waste collection jobs for women in Madagascar have been secured thanks to the efforts of an environmental centre supported by Jesuit Missions.
The Centre Arrupe Madagascar – which runs various programmes aimed at improving sustainability in the country – helped create the roles at the Tongarivo Waste Treatment Centre as part of wider plans to improve the site.
The women now receive a “stable income” by collecting rubbish, which is then sorted and sold onto recycling companies. They and their families also have greater access to healthcare thanks to a partnership with a local clinic.
It forms part of the development of the waste treatment centre, which had previously been used as a public dumping ground. It now has dedicated waste sorting and cleaning areas, a composting test site, and a vegetable garden and pond. There are also plans to build a canteen for the waste collectors.
A spokesperson for the Centre Arrupe Madagascar said: “This experience demonstrates how research findings can be transformed into concrete and sustainable solutions and sustained through a social enterprise model, while contributing both to improved waste management and to better living conditions for the people involved in waste recovery and recycling.”
You can support the Centre Arrupe Madagascar and other projects like it here.
