Young professionals help clean up Accra

A gaggle of principally younger professionals and businessmen often called the “Buz Cease Boys” are driving a brand new wave of civic accountability in Ghana, taking over brooms and shovels to scrub up eyesores in cities and cities throughout the nation.

Their initiative has received the admiration of native celebrities and politicians and even caught the eye of some British youngsters who flew to the capital, Accra, to participate within the clean-up.

“Our purpose is not only to scrub the streets, however to alter individuals’s mentality,” Buz Cease Boys chief Heneba Kwadwo Sarfo advised the BBC.

“If we will get individuals to grasp that retaining the atmosphere clear advantages everybody, we could have a cleaner, more healthy and prouder Ghana.”

Ghana generates approximately 12,700 tons of solid waste every daysolely 10% are correctly disposed of.

Bored with the ensuing filth and flooding, the Buz Cease Boys patrol the Larger Accra space two to 4 occasions every week, clearing clogged sewers and drains, sidewalks and roads, and trimming overgrown weeds.

The variety of volunteers will range, relying on who is out there that day.

Mr. Sarfo, a civil engineer, established the group in July 2023 with solely 5 members. He named it “Buz Cease Boys” as a result of he knew the identify would resonate with the general public.

“Wealthy or poor, everybody is aware of what a bus cease is,” Mr. Safer mentioned.

His small initiative has grown right into a motion with greater than 40 women and men – from midwives and carpenters to navy officers – becoming a member of him.

“Social media has been key to attracting extra individuals to our motion,” Mr. Safer mentioned.

“By way of our movies, now we have been in a position to change some individuals’s mindsets, however there’s nonetheless plenty of work to be executed.”

It additionally prompted a gaggle of British college students to go to Ghana throughout the summer time holidays to assist clear up Abelekuma, an space of ​​Accra infamous for its waste disposal issues.

Mr Sarver believes their go to has impressed extra locals to become involved.

“Do not sit at residence and say you do not care. One factor is vital, no [the] We’re ineffective within the atmosphere, we’re insignificant, we can not survive on this planet,” he mentioned.

Well-liked musician and human rights activist Sister Derby has strongly supported Buz Cease Boys and praised the activists on her Instagram and X accounts.

She advised the BBC she was so moved by their “sheer selflessness” that someday she and her brother joined them to scrub up a road market in central Accra.

Dancehall star and businessman Shatta Wale additionally rallied behind the group, serving to to boost 30,000 cedis ($1,830, £1,415) throughout a TikTok reside broadcast.

“These boys are actual heroes. They’re doing issues that almost all of us are too busy or too proud to do. If all of us assist them, think about how stunning Accra can be,” he mentioned.

The donations have obtained help from politicians.

Former President John Mahama, who’s looking for to regain energy by contesting the December elections below the banner of the opposition Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC), donated 50,000 cedis, whereas from the ruling New Patriotic Get together Transport Minister Asensu Boakye on his half donated 50,000 cedis (NPP) – giving 10,000 cedis.

Mr Sarver welcomed the donations and mentioned the money can be used to fund their actions, together with paying for waste disposal and shopping for gasoline for tricycles to move waste to the dumpsite.

Politically non-partisan, Buz Cease Boys’ sole focus is reaching their imaginative and prescient: cleansing up one road at a time and making Ghana cleaner.

Mr Safer mentioned: “People ought to take initiative as a result of many years of ready on authorities efforts haven’t labored and the file exhibits that it’s we as residents who are suffering probably the most when environmental disasters happen.”

“So it is necessary that we step up and assist ourselves.”

Mark Wilberforce is a contract journalist based mostly in London and Accra.