A group of mostly young professionals and traders known as Buz Stop Boys are driving a new wave of civic pride in Ghana, picking up brooms and shovels to clean up the mountains of rubbish that are an eyesore in towns and villages across the country. country.
Their initiative has won the admiration of local celebrities and politicians – and even caught the attention of some British teenagers who flew to the capital Accra to join the clean-up campaign.
“Our goal is not only to clean the streets but also to change the mentality,” Buz Stop Boys leader Heneba Kwadwo Sarfo told the BBC.
“If we can help people understand that keeping their environment clean benefits everyone, we will have a cleaner, healthier and prouder Ghana.”
About 12,700 tons of solid waste is generated in Ghana every day, of which only 10% is properly disposed of.
Tired of the filth and flooding it causes, Buz Stop Boys go around Greater Accra two to four times a week to clear clogged drains and gutters, sidewalks and roads, and to cut overgrown grass.
The number of volunteers varies depending on who has free time that day.
Mr Sarfo, a civil engineer, founded the group in July 2023 with just five people. He called it Buz Stop Boys, knowing the name would resonate with the public.
“Rich and poor, everyone knows what a bus stop is,” Sarfo said.
His small-scale initiative has now grown into a movement, joined by more than forty men and women – from midwives to carpenters to military officers.
“Social media has been critical in getting more people to join our movement,” Sarfo said.
“Through our videos we have been able to change the mindset of some people, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”
It also led to a group of British students visiting Ghana during their summer holidays to help with a clean-up operation in Ablekuma, an area of Accra notorious for waste management problems.
Mr Sarfo saw their visit as an inspiration for more locals to get involved.
‘Don’t sit at home and say you don’t care. One thing is important: without [the] In our environment we are useless, we are good-for-nothings and we cannot survive on this planet,” he said.
Popular musician and human rights activist Sister Derby has expressed her support for Buz Stop Boys, praising the activists on her Instagram and X accounts.
She told the BBC that she was touched by their “pure selflessness,” and that one day she and her brother joined them in cleaning a section of a street market in the heart of Accra.
Dancehall star and businessman Shatta Wale has also thrown his support behind the group, raising 30,000 cedis ($1,830, £1,415) during a live TikTok session.
“These guys are the real heroes. They are doing what most of us are too busy or too proud to do. If we all helped them, imagine how beautiful Accra would be,” he said.
The donations are supported by those from politicians.
Former President John Mahama – who is making another bid for power by contesting the December elections under the banner of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) – donated 50,000 cedis, while Transport Minister Asensu Boakye – from the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) – gave 10,000 cedis.
Mr Sarfo welcomed the donations and said the money was used to finance their operations, including paying for waste disposal and buying fuel for their three-wheeler to transport waste to a landfill.
The Buz Stop Boys are politically impartial and focus solely on realizing their vision of a cleaner Ghana – one street at a time.
“Individuals should take initiatives because waiting for the government has not worked in the past decades and the data also shows that we as citizens suffer the most in the event of an environmental disaster,” Sarfo said.
“It is therefore important that we stand up and help ourselves.”
Mark Wilberforce is a freelance journalist based in London and Accra.
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