One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia (Millbrook Picture Books)

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Students could research and create a presentation for their own town/city council to ban the use of single use items such as plastic bags, straws, coffee cups, etc. Undoubtedly, Isatou’s story is unique and remarkable. It teaches us that we all have a duty and a responsibility towards our environment and that our little efforts can go a long way.

MISSION: To raise awareness for children’s books that celebrate diversity, and to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries. Miranda is a teacher and children’s author. She first traveled to Gambia in 2003 as a teacher and discovered Isatou’s project. Twelve years and five trips later, her research and collaboration finally brought the finished book to the world. “Through interviewing the women of Njau I learned the importance of determination and confidence when working on something worthwhile.” Miranda currently spends her days writing new books, traveling, raising butterflies and foster animals, and speaking at schools. Learn how to invite her to your classroom at www.MirandaPaul.com. Isatou Ceesay's journey epitomises the adage that where others see problems, visionaries see opportunities. She didn't just aim for a cleaner environment; she aimed for transformed lives. Isatou's legacy is a testament to the power of innovation, determination, and the unwavering belief in the potential to effect change, no matter how daunting the challenge. In 2012, she was awarded the TIAW “Difference Maker” award in Washington, DC, United States. She remains humble and not arrogant even though there is a book written about her and hopes that it will inspire others to join or can become makers of change in their own communities.Remember, if you’re planning a trip to the Gambia, West Africa—ask your tour operator for the unique chance to meet the women of Njau and stay in the village. Thinking about waste as a resource, rather than just a mounting problem, lies at the heart of the first global report on waste, launched this month by the UN Environment Programme and the International Solid Waste Association.

After the reprocessing sessions, the community recycling project provided a week’s training to help participants form their own businesses or social enterprises. The idea is that this knowledge will cascade through the communities, with women encouraged to organise their own training events after completing the course. She is very active and has worked for the US Peace Corps office in the Gambia, the Swedish organization Future in Our Hands, and as a consultant for development organizations. The recycling project, which began in 1998 in the midst of a lot of resistance still running and growing right now. Some people laughed at Isatou and her friends, telling them they were ‘dirty’ for digging around in the rubbish. Some men told her that her plans couldn’t work because she was a woman and too young to be a leader. But Isatou believed in what she was doing. She loved helping others and relished a challenge. In her family, everyone had always worked together to solve problems, and her mother had been a great inspiration to her. In the Gambia, many girls were unable to finish school because they were needed at home to help their mothers. Isatou wanted women to have the chance to learn skills and to earn money, even if they had not been given the chance to finish their education. Today, the journey to Njau can take as little as three to four hours. It’s just one sign of the rapid changes in Gambian life. Private cars and vehicles are everywhere. The main highways are paved over almost their entire length. Halfway up the country, a beautiful bridge, completed in 2019, arcs over the Gambia River. The signs of development are everywhere, including one of the most obvious and (to outsiders’ eyes) distasteful: rubbish.

In 2012, Isatou won a Making a World of Difference Award from the International Alliance for Women. Two years later, NRIGG became the Women’s Initiative Gambia, and today Isatou has trained over 11,000 people all over her country in the dangers of plastic and the opportunities for upcycling waste. But her work has had an even bigger impact as, in 2015, the Gambia’s government banned the import and use of plastic bags. It was 1997, and 25-year-old Isatou Ceesay was taking a walk through her village of N’jau in the centre of the Gambia – the smallest country in Africa. As she turned down the dusty main street, women greeted her from their courtyards as they prepared vegetables and washed clothes. The smell of familiar dishes filled the air. Children played in a clearing by the forest, and cows grazed near a field of peanuts. Later that afternoon, she sat with five friends in the shade of a tree for the first meeting of her women’s group.