Events

Plant Trees, Not Plastics: Announcing the Winners

June 8, 2022

Online

MULTIMEDIA

Plant Trees, Not Plastics: Announcing the Winners

VIDEO

Join us to celebrate the top 10 finalists and the winners of the “Plant Trees, Not Plastics” competition.

Hundreds of young people from Eastern and Southern Africa submitted creative ideas for how they, or their communities, are tackling plastic waste. A jury selected the top 10 finalists based on authenticity, impact, and replicability. Thousands of people from around the world voted and rated their favorites online. We are now thrilled to announce the five winners.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the competition! We were heartened by the interest, engagement, and creativity to tackle this challenge and your passion for climate action.

Top 10 Finalists

Vallery Adhiambo

Kenya
Vallery Onyango is an environmentalist based in Homabay County, Kenya. She is very passionate about the environment and works with different groups of people within the community on matters concerning conservation, environmental justice, health, and sanitation. Vallery’s main goal is to achieve environmental justice through behavioral change using sensitization and engaging people in the conservation talks. With the community, she aims to share the indigenous traditional knowledge of using calabash as an alternative to plastic use. Vallery conducts extensive research on how to incorporate and design the calabash to be less fragile and portable so that people can carry it around. Vallery is looking forward to total eradication of single plastic usage in Kenya.

Tahiry Andriantsihoarana

Madagascar
Tahiry holds a master’s degree in sustainable development and disaster and risk management from the University of Antananarive, Madagascar. He’s currently an Msc Student at the PAUWES, Algeria, a Pan African University, tracking water policy in Algeria. Tahiry is passionate about sustainable development, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and how to ensure food security in Africa. This is why he is fighting against plastic waste, one of our planet’s main threats. Tahiry is looking forward to further knowledge and skills to help reach his goal, the sustainable development of my country and Africa.

Angela Gathoni Kinyanjui

Kenya
Angela Gathoni Kinyanjui is a diligent fundraising and development professional with significant commercial and third-sector experience. She strongly believes in the power of sustainable development in providing a path to prosperity, alleviating poverty, promoting gender equality, and advancing inclusive growth and social justice. Angela’s current role as a fundraising manager spans across two Sustainable Development Goals—Partnership for the Goals and Life on Land—through which she has successfully developed strategies to deliver high yield income across multiple streams through corporate and strategic partnerships, grants, and foundations. Angela is doing this while managing existing income streams and developed new business and funding streams to protect threatened primate species and their coastal forest habitat in Diani, Kenya.

Johnmary Kavuma

Uganda
Johnmary Kavuma is an award-winning social entrepreneur from Uganda, the co-founder of Upcycle Africa, Gewuza Foundation, Kimuli Fashionability, and Upcycle Impact Tours. He has dedicated his life toward inspiring and empowering youths in Africa to start small and grow big through enterprises that focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. He has spoken on different platforms and has also been featured in the media. His work includes using plastic waste to contribute towards affordable housing in the most marginalized communities including refugee camps. In 2020, he received the UN Habitant Scroll of Honour Award and in 2019 the IET Innovation Award in the category of sustainability and environmental impact. Fighting plastic waste by creatively finding ways of repurposing it into products of inherent value and fostering tourism impact on communities are some of the things Johnmary is most proud of. Johnmary is also a mentor and has been able to inspire and transfer his knowledge to many young people from different parts of Africa.

Cuthbert Mukora

Zimbabwe
Cuthbert Mukora is a development practitioner who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies. He is a climate justice advocate, youth mentor, researcher, and business consultant. Cuthbert advocates for community home-grown solutions to challenges around natural resources management, rural development, biodiversity and ecosystems management, environmental protection, and climate change. Cuthbert has vast experience in community development work, youth empowerment and advocacy. He has facilitated the establishment of school orchards and planting of more than 500 fruit trees in more than five rural and urban schools in Zimbabwe. His community development actions are determined to nourish the people and the planet together.

McDonald Mvula –Friends of the Earth Club, Siavonga Secondary School

Zambia
Friends of the Earth club at Siavonga Secondary School has been partnering with Envirogold Innovation LTD to raise environmental awareness among students, empowering them to make a difference in the environment via environmental protection, conservation, preservation, and restoration. Students are given the opportunity to participate directly in a host of different activities, and are working together to establish a strong environmental ethic.

Gillian Ndlovu

Zimbabwe
Gillian Ndlovu is a passionate sustainability steward whose career is burgeoning with the purpose of driving change in her community and networking with influential leaders. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Management and Information Technology (Hons) and graduated from Lincoln University (NZ) with a Master of Management in Agribusiness (Distinction) which she completed through the prestigious New Zealand Manaaki Scholarship. Due to serving in diverse roles and academic pursuits; she has a desirable multidisciplinary background. She is also highly involved in international forums and advocacy programs for youth and women. Currently, she is leading a social enterprise called BLISS that was established from a Global Citizen Scholarship received from the Ban Ki-moon Centre in 2021 toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Gillian lives by the mantra, "WE ARE THE CHANGE WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!" Work, study or fun - she is all about making a difference!

Simon Peter Okoth

Uganda
Simon Peter Okoth is an environment enthusiast and educator from Uganda. He has worked with local communities in Eastern Uganda, teaching sustainable environment management practices. For the last two years, he has worked as a field coordinator with Tree Adoption Uganda and as an environmental educator, training different communities on climate related topics and planting thousands of trees with different communities in Eastern and central Uganda, as well as training communities in urban slums proper waste management and disposal.

Hellena Sailas

Tanzania
Hellena Sailas, is a Medical Laboratory Scientist by profession, a full- time entrepreneur, an environment and climate activist, a young water fellow, an Africa innovation fellow and a TEDx Speaker. She is also a well determined and vigorous individual, yet pleasantly calm and an inspiration to many youths in Tanzania. She is a founder and Director General of Arena Recycling Industry, a social enterprise that recycles plastic waste into Eco-Bricks for the construction of pit latrines, water tanks and septic tanks. Hellena performs Sustainable Development Goal number 14 (Life Below Water), by aiming to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems from marine pollution. She organizes beach cleans up for collection of plastic waste around the ocean and use plastic waste as a key resource for production of Eco-bricks. Hellena has been heralded as one of the leading voices in environment and social-entrepreneurship by the citizen Magazine, East Africa Magazine, Black paper Magazine and has been featured in Footprint Africa, Dw- Swahili News, BBC Swahili, Yunus Environment Hub and Ocean Hub Africa.

Edgar Edmund Tarimo

Tanzania
Edgar Edmund is the founder of Green Venture Recycles, a company turning plastic waste into cheap and affordable building products in Tanzania. With a workforce of eight full time employees, Green Venture Recycles has so far transformed more than 300 ton of plastic into construction materials for use in constructing homes and furniture for schools and public spaces. On the importance of his company’s work, Mr. Edmund says: “Tanzania is a developing country, hence most of the people here are low–income earners. There is a high demand for affordable products which could at least enable many people to own their own houses regardless of their low incomes.”