One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia (Millbrook Picture Books)

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Isatou Ceesay was born in 1972 in a small village in Gambia, Africa. When she was a child until she was a teenager, she used a woven basket to carry goods to and from the market. When the basket broke, she took a plastic bag and started using it. She likes how strong and light the plastic bag was.

Chris Seekings talks to Isatou Ceesay about recycling plastic in The Gambia, and her mission to protect the environment while driving female economic empowerment And Isatou didn’t stop there. She and her friends have used some of their income to fund a community vegetable garden, which raises money to send orphaned children to school. International markets In 2009 Isatou got a job working for Future In Our Hands, a Swedish non-profit. This provided her with the opportunity to work with a wider range of communities in the Gambia. In 2012, Isatou also won the International Alliance for Women’s Difference Maker award. Today, her story has also been published in a book called ‘ One Plastic Bag’ authored by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. At that time, women in Gambia were not allowed to work. They were expected to take care of the home and family. At first, Isatou worked in secret. Slowly, she began sharing her work with other women who joined her. Isatou Ceesay's journey epitomises the adage that where others see problems, visionaries see opportunities. She didn't just aim for a cleaner environment; she aimed for transformed lives. Isatou's legacy is a testament to the power of innovation, determination, and the unwavering belief in the potential to effect change, no matter how daunting the challenge.As the saying goes, "A strong woman stands up for herself, a stronger woman stands up for everyone else." Isatou Ceesay is undeniably one of those stronger women. She's earned recognition alongside icons like Emma Watson as one of five female activists making a significant global impact. Here's the remarkable account of how she achieved this status... Silver: Lee and Low Books * Chronicle Books * Capstone Young Readers * Tuttle Publishing * NY Media Works LLC/KidLit TV

As a child, Ceesay was forced to drop out of school at a young age but that did not allow anything to stop her determination to keep growing and to keep learning from the surrounding environment and still dare to take action. Isatou: Before I started this work, everywhere you would find plastic bags flying all over the environment.

Isatou Ceesay

Remember, if you’re planning a trip to the Gambia, West Africa—ask your tour operator for the unique chance to meet the women of Njau and stay in the village. When we learn as mothers, we can teach our children how to have a better life. Not everyone can work in an office. This is something you can do for yourself, and your family will grow up with this system.” Isatou grew up in N’jau with two sisters and a brother. Her parents were farmers. As a girl, Isatou used bits of waste, like scraps of cloth and wood, to make dolls and other toys. This made her popular with her friends because children in her village didn’t have many things to play with. She was a bright girl who loved learning and always came near the top of her class. Sadly, her father died when Isatou was just 10 years old and her mother was left to support the family alone. Isatou desperately wanted to go to high school, but her mother couldn’t afford to send her. She needed Isatou to work to bring money into the home. This wasn’t unusual; in the Gambia an estimated 75 per cent of children do not have access to a proper education. It is women who are in charge of waste and they are dedicated to their communities, and can really contribute a lot,” said Ceesay.

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia". www.publishersweekly.com . Retrieved 2019-11-01. On YouTube there is a video of Isatou Ceesay showing how to make the purses with recycled plastic bags. This could be viewed and then the students could make their own. This would be most appropriate for Grade 4 students (or older).

Key Texts

Today, the journey to Njau can take as little as three to four hours. It’s just one sign of the rapid changes in Gambian life. Private cars and vehicles are everywhere. The main highways are paved over almost their entire length. Halfway up the country, a beautiful bridge, completed in 2019, arcs over the Gambia River. The signs of development are everywhere, including one of the most obvious and (to outsiders’ eyes) distasteful: rubbish. Just a day before our interview, Ceesay was giving a training session in a nearby village to women who had sold soap for many years. The first question she asked was how many of them had seen any profit from their endeavours. The answer: none. “We calculated their expenditure, the number of products they make and the amount of money they could get, and they were all so excited,“ she tells me. “Now they have that business model forever, and the ability to stand on their own two feet independently, with their own money and a say in how they sell their products.“ Other people in Gambia saw the same benefits in plastic bags. Soon, people began using the bags by the thousands. The problem was that they didn’t reuse the bags. They simply threw them on the ground. In Africa, women throw the family’s trash behind their homes so plastic bags often went there too. WasteAid UK has offered support for The Gambian Women's Initiative, and Ceesay says it is helping to communicate her message far and wide. “I know that everyone working in sustainability is doing an amazing job, and if just 100 people read this I hope that maybe 25 can take away some benefit from what I am saying. This is my job, this is what I do, anyone that wants hear my advice is welcome – the more the better. I am so excited about the change we are all making together.“

Her initiative aims to correct this by providing women with the training, funding and capacity they need for their projects, and offers to help them with their business ideas. “We tell them how to price their products, how to add value, how to do marketing, and everything in between.“ The project was recently recognised as an official community-based organisation in the Gambia, now referred to as the Njau Recycling and Income Generation Group (NRIGG). Today, Ceesay works with more than 11,000 people and NRIGG is based in four separate communities across The Gambia. [3] [6] [1] Awards and recognition [ edit ] Isatou had an idea. What if the plastic bags could be used to weave useful products, such as purses, balls, or wallets? She figured out a way to cut the plastic bags into one long strip that could be woven. In 2012, Isatou won a Making a World of Difference Award from the International Alliance for Women. Two years later, NRIGG became the Women’s Initiative Gambia, and today Isatou has trained over 11,000 people all over her country in the dangers of plastic and the opportunities for upcycling waste. But her work has had an even bigger impact as, in 2015, the Gambia’s government banned the import and use of plastic bags. It is rare to find a children’s book with such an important message about our environment, that is set outside the US, and is illustrated so beautifully! One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and The Recycling Women of The Gambia is the inspirational, true story about littered plastic bags and the woman who stood up and transformed her community. It is the perfect book to introduce environmental topics to kids like recycling, and also teaches that even one person can make a difference. The story begins on a walk in Njau, Gambia.

An uphill struggle

Five female activists who are changing the world". Responsible Business. 2019-03-08 . Retrieved 2019-11-01. But Isatou wanted to find more ways to share her knowledge and help people in her village. In 2000, she got a job as a language and culture helper with the Peace Corps and, through this, she helped to secure funding to build a skill centre in N’jau, where the women could meet and work together. Here they could learn about the importance of caring for their environment and about the dangers of burning plastic. Isatou started to teach classes on subjects such as gardening, soap making and tie-dying, and the women were able to sell many of the things they made. She had learned about nutrition and gave cooking demonstrations on how to prepare meals full of vitamins and minerals to keep their children healthy. a b "Isatou Ceesay, Queen of Plastic Recycling, The Gambia". Climate Heroes. Archived from the original on 2019-10-18 . Retrieved 2019-11-01.