Help Up, a river cleanup organisation has moved their fight from the river to the streets, combatting the pollution problem where it starts.
Cape Town, South Africa – Help Up is an organisation that works to clean up problem areas that are littered or polluted by using pledges they receive from the public to pay people that need employment. The people are paid to work on these areas for a few hours. Help Up is managed by Georgia Mctaggart who gets stuck in with the people that help with the cleanups.
They have been focussed on cleaning up Black River, doing weekly cleanups, hauling out tonnes of rubbish from the river. However, often the problem starts in the city where pollution and litter enter rainwater systems and get flushed into the waterways surrounding the Cape Town CBD.
The team took their cleanup to the root of the problem, clearing out street drains. Thanks to a pledge from PlasticsSA, the group will now be able to fund multiple drain cleanups a month to combat the river pollution.
“This is the stormwater drain outside Hawkes and Findlay on Station Road Observatory. One of the 8 stormwater drains cleaned by Help Up today. Thank you PlasticsSA for pledging R1000 per month towards the wages for these stormwater cleanups. Thank you to our volunteers; Werner Meyer and Abdoul Bahati the Super Fireman and, of course, our homeless avatars Neville and Nikita”
You can help the organisation pay for more people to work in these areas by supporting Help Up, find them on Facebook here. They require just R50.00 to pay a person for 2-hours work. Not nearly a massive amount but just enough to make an enormous difference.
“Our pledges range from R50 to R150 depending on the type of clean. So for the Black River Cleanup, we pay the avatars much more than they would earn doing a street cleanup.”
Take a look at their new cleanup venture below.
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