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“Let’s Turn Trash, into Cash!”

One woman, Nzambi Matee, is on a mission to save her country and help the planet.

A materials engineer in Kenya, Matee is turning post-consumer plastics into bricks that are ‘stronger than concrete.’ Her start-up is called Gjenge Makers. The company is making a big impact on her area, her country, and the world by removing plastic waste products and solving the problem of building material shortages.

So far, it looks as though her bricks are being used to pave beautiful pathways and get people off the dirt floors they have traditionally lived with. This serves her community by making the area more beautiful and easier to traverse, especially in the rainy season. She has big goals to get her facility scaled up and producing bricks for housing and other construction materials.

Her work led to a nomination for a place among the “Young Champions of the Earth.” She was one of seven winners for the year 2020.

In this promotional video, you can see for yourself how Matee and her crew take the waste out of the world and turns it into useful (and lovely) products. I hope she finds the funding she needs to take this business to the sky. I would love to open a facility like it in my town!

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Philanthropic kids get creative, then get busy.

My children and I tend to bring a trash bag with us whenever we go into the woods. Human access leads to trash being dumped. We have upped our game and started taking walks and hikes with the express intent of cleaning the world. It’s their idea and I think therapeutic: It’s a tangible something they can DO to affect the state of our world.

I have always known that kids aren’t stupid, they’re just young. Because of COVID-19, kids across the country, and around the world, are out of school with a lot of free time on their hands. It’s not surprising that they are coming up with a lot of ideas about how to affect positive change in the world they will inherit. With the support of adults around them, they are working to make change happen. Big or small, I know their efforts are the right thing to do, for them and the people they serve. Follow the hyperlinks to articles for more detail on each story.

This young woman began hosting bake sales to raise money for Parkinson’s disease research. Inspired by a family who suffers from the horrible disease, she’s working to make sure others can have more effective treatments.

These Girl Scouts are collecting supplies to donate to the local animal shelter. They had plans to complete a group service project, but COVID-19 meant that they had to get creative with their project.

This young man started providing PPE to his community as an Eagle-scout project. He just couldn’t sit by doing nothing when he knew there were shortages happening.

I’m so proud of these young people getting out there to serve their communities despite the challenges of the pandemic. I look forward to the thoughts they will have about the world after this experience. Are you getting out to serve in your area? Comment below with your ideas!