Volunteers turn out for community clean-up

Founder and team joined residents in Cameroon for a community clean-up campaign, clearing accumulated waste alongside the community.

The campaign forms part of the Foundation's environment and climate resilience pillar, which covers waste management and clean community campaigns alongside reforestation and climate-smart agriculture.

Waste as a health issue

Waste accumulation in growing settlements drives preventable illness, and the cost of that illness falls disproportionately on the households least able to absorb it. For a woman heading a household alone, a child's preventable illness means lost earning days on top of medical costs.

Treating a clean-up as an environmental activity alone misses this. It is also a public health intervention and, indirectly, an economic one.

Why clean-ups need a disposal plan

A clean-up that clears waste without arranging where it goes moves the problem rather than solving it, and the waste returns within weeks. Our approach pairs organised clean-ups with the collection and disposal arrangements that stop that happening, agreed with the community before the day.

Women leading environmental action

Women are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and climate shocks, yet remain underrepresented in environmental decision-making. Our pillar positions women as community environmental champions — trained and supported to lead initiatives and to sit in the forums where land and resource decisions are made — rather than only as those affected.