It is a Global Environment problem: Rubbish. You can find a piece of rubbish in any place on Earth, from a crowded city to an isolated beach. Mozambique is no exception.
Due to the fast growth of population, lack of environmental education, high poverty index and insufficient organized infrastructures and services for rubbish collection, the cities and other untouched areas are facing the problem of rubbish accumulation.
Every problem has a solution and this was one of the premises that lead to the creation of an NGO called Cooperativa Ntumbuluku. The word means Creation and Nature in one of the Southern Mozambican Languages.
The main goal of this NGO is to be an example of self-sufficiency, sustainability and to use resources in a more effective and wise manner, correcting our tendency of using all items as disposable ones.
Cooperativa Ntumbuluku is very well known in Mozambique today and this is due to the work of hundreds and even thousands of volunteers across the Country. One of its most important actions is Operation CACO (CACO means small pieces of glass in Portuguese) – in a few dozens of these clean-up actions, thousands of tons of glass bottles, plastic residues from oceanic currents and many other residues were removed from cities, beaches, nature reserves, mangrove areas and many other vital places for our environment.
Carlos Serra is one of the Co-founders of this NGO. Carlos has a very natural love for this matter. His strength, perseverance and persistence are indestructible. He is the spokesperson of a project that started small, but it is slowly growing huge in our beloved Mozambique. He works with one of the main partners of this project, MITADER – Ministério da Terra, Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Rural (Ministry of the Land, Environment and Rural Development).
Mabeco Tours Team started to work with Cooperativa Ntumbuluku almost since the beginning. We try has much has possible to get involved in these actions and to offer our “hands” and our love for the environment. We will continue to do so and on a very positive note, we are seeing the beginning of the change, meaning that the educational purpose of these actions is working among the Communities and especially the young generations. It is a privilege to be a part of the change.