A team of children from Nakuru, with an average age of 12 have turned into town heroes thanks to their extraordinary social group which they use to rake in money by recycling dumped plastic bottle caps.
Currently boasting of 12 members, the children wake up bright and early, making their way to the Ahero dumpsite where they source for their raw material.
Donning protective face masks, the gifted children then set about moulding the dumped plastic caps into beautiful pieces of art and usable items such as colourful skipping ropes, bangles and keyholders.
Francis Karimi, a Class 7 pupil and a member of the group, says that they were driven by not only the need to help their parents but also their goal to protect their environment from the tonnes of plastic waste dumped in their backyard.
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"It takes about 60 minutes to make the longest skipping rope in our catalogue, which we sell at Ksh150," she revealed.
Using water and design skills learned within the unique social group, the team then sets out to produce as much as they can each day, going on to sell them across their home town.
Following the closure of schools on March 15, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Karimi and her group revealed that they needed to find a way to help out their parents, who have been struggling due to the harsh economic impact of the pandemic.
"The money they make has been really crucial in enabling me to buy food at the end of the day," one of the children's parents revealed.
The creativity of the group has attracted the attention of their entire neighbourhood in Ahero, Bahati, with many lauding their ingenuity.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive to have all schools closed to curb the spread of the coronavirus affected nearly 17 million learners across various levels.
Education stakeholders met on Friday, June 26, to discuss the reopening of learning institutions in September 2020.
However, Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha reiterated that the reopening would be dictated by the prevailing Covid-19 status.
He added that his decision would be strongly reliant on the advice from the Health ministry.
“As a physician, I will tell you according to my training, we should open after we have reached the peak and stabilised and started coming down for 14 days continuously. There is no country in the world that has dared to reopen when the Covid-19 infections were still rising," he stated.
