Together for a Cleaner Environment – GISA at World Cleanup Day

On World Cleanup Day, the German International School Accra community sent a strong message for environmental protection, responsibility and collective action. More than 30 members of our GISA family – teachers, educators, parents, students and kindergarten children – made their way to Ananse Beach to actively take part in a large beach clean-up.

The morning began on an energetic note: around 400 participants from different organisations came together for a joint aerobics and stretching session. Afterwards, the participating groups were introduced and assigned to different sections of the beach.

Then it was time to put on the gloves and get to work. With great commitment, young and old collected waste along the beach and separated it directly on site. Plastic bottles were collected separately from wood, coconuts and textiles so that as much material as possible could later be processed and recycled. Other waste was gathered for the subsequent mechanical cleaning of the beach.

It was particularly impressive to see how naturally all generations worked together. Our youngest participants from kindergarten joined in just as enthusiastically as students, parents and staff members. In this way, the clean-up became not only an environmental activity but also a shared community experience in which responsibility was not merely discussed, but actively put into practice.

At the end of the activity, the filled rubbish bags were weighed. The exact total amount of waste collected during the morning will be announced at a later stage. After all the hard work, participants were able to enjoy a small snack and a refreshing juice.

For us as a school, an initiative like this is about much more than simply collecting rubbish. Education for sustainable development also means helping children and young people become more aware of their environment, encouraging them to take responsibility and showing them that their own actions can make a difference.

A special thank you goes to our teacher Ve Fredrich, who took the lead in organising GISA’s participation in the beach clean-up and prepared and supported the activity with great commitment.

We would also like to thank all members of our school community who took part and contributed so actively. The beach clean-up once again showed that when many people work together, even small individual contributions can have a significant impact.