The fight against plastic pollution is ongoing! Our first project in Capurganá may have come to an end but that does not mean we have stopped working. With administrative work piling up, we’d like to give you a glimpse behind the scenes and let you know what we have been up to during the months of May and June.
In order to scale our efforts in the future, we meticulously documented our every step during the pilot project in Capurganá. This included daily protocols of tasks, conversations, achievements, unforeseen challenges, necessary permits, learning materials, etc, etc, etc. Leaving Capurganá meant the time has come to analyze our documentation, be critical about our achievements, discuss what went well and what we could have done better, and most importantly how we will continue. The result of that hard work: a playbook that can be used and reused on every new project site by any stakeholder or co-creators.
Wrapping up our project in Capurganá also meant reviewing the hours of video material produced and condensing it to meaningful content. So far, we’ve created two short videos (english/ spanish) which document our efforts in fighting plastic pollution, conveys our passion for the topic, and demonstrates the necessity and urgency for these projects.
Over the past few months we have been fortunate enough to have been approached by a great number of individuals and organizations offering their help and support. This led to many conversations on how we could divide the work, include volunteers, define subgroups, and make sure that the communication between Switzerland and Colombia runs seamlessly. We learned that, as we grow, the setup of our organisation needs to be defined more clearly.
As part of that, we’ve sharpened our vision which will serve as our north star for the coming years. Our vision is to become a Plasticaware Community/Family, where everyone follows the same dream to fight plastic pollution on our planet sustainably. This works well with our original mission statement: “Empower people to reduce, recycle, and upcycle plastic through education, awareness, and support”. And, together, they create our winning formula:
Awareness & Education + Empowerment + Transformation = Sustainability
Lastly, as with every non-profit organization, the topic of fundraising becomes a constant companion. Without funds, our association cannot continue. That is why we have opened a Go-Fund Me publicity campaign where we show what we have achieved in our pilot project so far and what we aim to do next.
Please do remember there are many ways to help. Creating awareness and sharing our story is also one of them. The University of St. Gallen published an interview on their blog “Startups im Fokus”. As we say, sharing is caring, so please do share the link and our mission with your network. Here is the link to the article: HSG Alumni
For our next blog, we don’t want to reveal too much but we are currently working on a Sustainability Plan for Capurganá as well as a new project in another community in Colombia :).
Until then, see you soon.
