Collecting waste – creating change
Nyaluak fled from South Sudan to Ethiopia. Now she earns a living by collecting rubbish. The effects are many: refugees earn an income, the environment improves, and it contributes to peace in the local community.
Collecting waste that is sold and recycled has provided income for Nyaluak Bang and other refugees.
“This has given me income to buy food, clothes, and school supplies for my children. I have also used money to start a cafeteria,” says Nyaluak Bang. She is 38 years old and a single mother of five children.
We are in Jewi refugee camp in Gambella, Ethiopia, not far from the border with South Sudan. We are surrounded by piles of garbage collected by Nyaluak and other refugees: plastic jerrycans, metal cans, broken plastic chairs, and other scrap.
Here, Norwegian Church Aid has established several projects aimed at providing refugees with a livelihood, but with ripple effects far beyond that. One of them is the project “Waste for Value”, where participants collect garbage that is sold and recycled.
Forced to flee
“We collect garbage every morning and bring it here every Monday and Wednesday,” says Nyaliem Chuol (40). She too is a single mother, with seven children to support.
The two women are among 156 refugees participating in this project in the camp. They began collecting garbage in 2019, when Norwegian Church Aid started the project.
About 60,000 refugees live in the camp. There are several refugee camps in the region. Most of the 400,000 refugees in Gambella have lived here for over ten years. They crossed the border in 2014, during the civil war in South Sudan, and have remained ever since. The two women and their families had to suddenly leave their lives and everything they knew in South Sudan.
“My husband was killed in South Sudan in 2014. After he died, I fled to Ethiopia with the two children I had then,” says Nyaluak Bang.
Nyaliem Chuol’s husband died of illness after they arrived in Ethiopia. The two women describe a desperate situation when they fled to Ethiopia, and a difficult start as refugees in a foreign place. They look back on a good life in South Sudan—before the war.
“Life was good in South Sudan before the conflict. I was newly married and happy, my husband was a trader and paid for everything we needed,” says Nyaluak Bang.
“My husband was a fisherman, we had cows and a small farm, so we had income,” says Nyaliem Chuol.
Lasting income
Most refugees in Gambella have been dependent on aid from the UN and other international organizations for years. Those who collect garbage here are no longer dependent. Once a certain amount of garbage is collected, it is sold to local buyers in the host community outside the camp, who then sell it for recycling in the capital Addis Ababa. Collectors earn income based on how much they gather.
But the results go far beyond that, explains Bekalu Dagne Agize at Norwegian Church Aid’s office in Ethiopia. He helped develop the concept.
“It started when we saw that all the garbage in the camp was a problem. Much of it was brought here by aid organizations to help people, but at the same time it created an environmental problem,” he says.
“But we wanted to do more than protect the environment. We wanted to create lasting income for those living here. The refugees had nothing; they left everything when they fled South Sudan,” he says.
Reduced tensions
Norwegian Church Aid organized groups of volunteers who wanted to participate, not only in the camp but also among locals outside.
“When the refugees arrived, there were tensions between them and the locals. The locals saw the refugees as a burden. This and similar projects have become a bridge between the two groups, since refugees sell to the host community. They sit down and cooperate,” says Bekalu Dagne Agize.
Plastic and metal pieces left on the ground not only created an unpleasant environment, it also polluted the soil.
“Collecting garbage contributes to better health, environment, and economy. We create a circular economy where refugees collect garbage, sell to buyers in the host community, who then sell to recycling companies. They in turn make products that sometimes come back here,” he says.
Over 250,000 kilos of garbage have been collected and recycled over the years. The project has now been copied in several places in Ethiopia and in other countries through Norwegian Church Aid.
"Extremely dramatic"
At first, few signed up to participate, but now demand is high. People in particularly vulnerable situations are prioritized, such as single mothers. Women are primarily responsible for fetching firewood and water and caring for children. Almost all participants are women. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) provides food distribution here. But WFP has had to reduce food rations for refugees in Ethiopia due to lack of funds.
“For those dependent on WFP rations, it is becoming increasingly difficult,” says Nyaliem Chuol.
She herself can now give her children more varied food. She has also bought seven goats. “That gives me the opportunity to sell a goat if I need extra money,” she says.
Margrethe Volden, country director for Norwegian Church Aid in Ethiopia, confirms the serious situation caused by global aid cuts. The consequences are also felt here in Gambella.
“We have an extremely dramatic situation in international aid, with severe cuts. Norwegian Church Aid is trying to make people less dependent on aid by providing jobs. Projects where we try to create lasting solutions for refugees are considered the way forward. What we are doing is pilot work, and it seems to be working,” says Volden.
