Ghana’s Buz Stop Boys: The young professionals helping to clean up Accra

Known as Buz Stop Boys, a gaggle of largely younger professionals and tradespeople are driving a brand new wave of civic accountability in Ghana, selecting up brooms and shovels to scrub up the mounds of garbage which are an eyesore in cities and cities throughout the nation.

Their initiative has received the admiration of native celebrities and politicians – and even caught the eye of some UK youngsters who flew to the capital, Accra, to affix the clean-up.

“Our goal is not just to clean the streets but to change mindsets,” Buz Stop Boys chief Heneba Kwadwo Sarfo informed the BBC.

“If we can make people understand that keeping their environment clean benefits everyone, we’ll have a cleaner, healthier, and prouder Ghana.”

About 12,700 tonnes of solid waste is generated in Ghana each day, with solely 10% disposed of correctly.

Fed up with the filth and flooding it causes, Buz Stop Boys go round Greater Accra two to 4 occasions every week to clear clogged drains and gutters, pavements and roads, in addition to to chop over-grown grass.

The variety of volunteers will range, relying on who has spare time that day.

A civil engineer, Mr Sarfo fashioned the group in July 2023 with simply 5 individuals. He referred to as it Buz Stop Boys, realizing the title would resonate with the general public.

“The rich and poor, everybody knows what a bus stop is,” Mr Sarfo stated.

His small-scale initiative has now blossomed right into a motion, with greater than 40 women and men – from midwives to carpenters to army officers – becoming a member of.

“Social media has been key in getting more people to join our movement,” Mr Sarfo stated.

“Through our videos, we’ve been able to change the mindset of some people, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

It additionally led to a gaggle of UK college students visiting Ghana throughout their summer season break to assist with a clean-up operation in Ablekuma, an space in Accra infamous for its waste disposal points.

Mr Sarfo noticed their go to as an inspiration for extra locals to become involved.

“Don’t sit back at home and say you don’t care. One thing is key, without [the] environment we are useless, we are nonentities, and we can’t survive on this planet,” he stated.

Popular musician and human rights activist Sister Derby has thrown her weight behind Buz Stop Boys, praising the activists on her Instagram and X accounts.

She informed the BBC that she had been touched by their “pure selflessness”, and he or she and her brother had sooner or later joined them to scrub a stretch of a avenue market within the coronary heart of Accra.

Dancehall star and businessman Shatta Wale has additionally rallied behind the group, serving to elevate 30,000 cedis ($1,830, £1,415) throughout a dwell TikTok.

“These boys 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 stated.

The donations have been bolstered by these of politicians.

Former President John Mahama – who’s making a contemporary bid for energy by contesting elections due in December below the banner of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) – donated 50,000 cedis, whereas Transport Minister Asensu Boakye – who comes from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) – gave 10,000 cedis.

Welcoming the donations, Mr Sarfo stated the money was used to fund their actions – together with paying for garbage disposal and shopping for gasoline for his or her tricycle to move garbage to a refuse web site.

Politically non-partisan, the Buz Stop Boys’ sole focus is on realising their imaginative and prescient of a cleaner Ghana – one avenue at a time.

“Individuals should take up initiatives because waiting for government hasn’t worked over the decades and the records also show that in the event of an environmental disaster we as citizens suffer the most,” Mr Sarfo stated.

“It is therefore important for us to rise and help ourselves.”

Mark Wilberforce is a contract journalist based mostly in London and Accra.