Slum Art Foundation has started building the physical structure of its school for arts using plastic bottles.
The project, which is officially named the Slum Art “Pet Bottle” school, will be an educational monument for children living within the slums in Ijora Badia, Lagos State aimed at empowering the children with an enabling facility to be trained with the skills of Art.
The foundation whose sole focus has been to empower children living within slums in Lagos State through mentorship, reformation of mindset is helping them develop creative talent and skills, to make them useful to self and their immediate community.
To clarify what the art school represents, Adetunwase Adenle, director, Slum Art Foundation and four-time Guinness World Record holder stated what is driving the project is a strong desire to provide children with an enabling environment within the slums, where they are free and within a secured environment after school to acquire skills in Art.
“The use of plastic bottles in the construction of the school is aimed at showcasing the use of waste materials around us for artistic creations” Adenle said.
The director of Slum Art School further stated that the children in slums have been made to understand the impact of waste, especially the plastic materials around their community which lead to the blockade of drainages with the added consequence of flooding and are becoming integral parts of the building process of the school. This move has been a key driver in cleaning their environments through the picking up of plastic bottles which have been included in the depository towards the completion of the school.
“Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwolu recently urged industrial organisations to develop alternatives to plastic bottles and other non-degradable items constituting major threats to the sustainability of our environment, through the pilot project of the School construction in Ijora Badia Slum by Slum Art, we hope to be a part of the drive by the current administration in sustaining a healthy environment” Adenle said.
This will also create an enabling environment that takes children off the streets after school and impart them with required skillsets, which will aid their development.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
