An Update From The Great White Shark Project - The Kids Have Recycled Almost 13 Tonnes Of Waste!

Posted by Michael Starbuck on 6th Mar 2017

We love receiving updates from all of our projects, and today we are delighted to be able to tell you what’s been going on at The Great White Shark Project over in South Africa. This is the perfect project for those whose dream it has always been to get up close and personal with these beasts of the deep, so let’s take a look at what has been happening at the project!

The team and volunteers spotted a lot of sharks last year!

The Great White Shark may be becoming more and more elusive with each passing year, but the team at The Great White Shark Project had no trouble spotting the beasts during the daily boat trips last year. In total in 2016, the number of Great White Shark sightings reached a huge 2,542, and the month with the most sightings was April with a mighty 311! These are of course not individual sharks that have been spotted, as the chances are extremely high that a single shark has been spotted on more than one occasion, but it goes to show that as a volunteer on The Great White Shark Project you will be in amongst some of the richest waters in the world.

Take a look at this graph which shows a month by month run down of shark sightings at the project!

We also have an update from the recycle swop shop which the project founded too!

Juanita, who is a member of the in country team at The Great White Shark Project has written up a piece about just how well the Swop Shop the project runs to encourage recycling amongst the local community went last year, so we will let her take it from here!

“I sit here today, filled with a sense of humble gratitude…

Masakhane is one of the poorest communities in our area and yet, they do so much for their environment. In Xhosa, the word “Masakhane” means “to stand together”. An estimated 12 000 people call Masakhane home.

9 years ago, The Great White Shark Project birthed the Recycle Swop Shop in Masakhane, with the idea of instilling a sense of pride and responsibility in the youth.

We also aimed to teach the community about the importance of recycling and the impact of litter, especially plastic, on the environment.

Every good-weather, school-Tuesday, children bring the recyclables which they have collected from home, school or the street. Whilst standing in line, each child receives a nutritious cup of vegetable soup, cooked by our kitchen crew. The children are allocated X number of points, depending on the quantity and quality of the recyclables they’ve brought.

Our Swop Shop is stocked with school stationery, second hand clothing, small toys, blankets, basic food and sanitary needs – most of the stock is bought by The Great White Shark Project, and some of it is donated by our volunteers. Our Recycle Swop Shop is very popular and subsequently, Masakhane is one of the cleanest communities you’ll see in South Africa.

The stats for last year show the reason for my feeling humbled and grateful. From November 2015 to November 2016, the children of Masakhane handed in an astounding 12884kg of recyclables which is an incredible feat if you consider the fact that they carry everything themselves and that most of it is plastic. That is nearly 13 tonnes of litter that the children cleaned from their streets and prevented from blowing into the ocean.

Over 4000 children visited the Recycle Swop Shop during this period. So at least 4000 children had access to the school stationery they needed and received a healthy snack too.

We are grateful to the children of Masakhane and we are very proud of them.

 

As always, The Great White Shark Project is very grateful for the donations we receive for the Swop Shop, so a Great White thank you to all who helps to make the Swop Shop run like a well-oiled-recycling-machine…”

As you can see, things went very well for all involved with The Great White Shark Project, and if this update has inspired you to become our next Great White volunteer then take advantage of the current 15% discount that is running until the end of the month by looking at the project page here.

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