L-R: Danny Bonifas (Enovos); Kim Hermes (Enovos); Martine Karier (UNICEF Luxembourg); Credit: UNICEF Luxembourg

As a long-term partner of UNICEF Luxembourg, energy company Enovos has presented the humanitarian organisation with a cheque for €5,000 to support the construction of schools in Ivory Coast.

The sum of €5,000 will go to the “Conceptos Plasticos” (plastic concepts) project, the goal of which is to build schools in Ivory Coast from recycled plastic waste.

According to UNICEF, two million children in Ivory Coast are not currently in school. Faced with these figures and a waste management crisis in the country, UNICEF has joined forces with the Colombian social enterprise “Conceptos Plasticos”, which has developed a unique process: to recycle plastic into bricks to build schools. Back in 2019, the project saw the construction of a recycling plant in Abidjan, one of the largest cities in Ivory Coast, to manufacture bricks and process up to 33 tonnes of plastic per day.

In addition to building schools to allow more children to attend school, the project is helping clean up a country facing a serious waste management crisis. The project is mostly led by women, who work to collect plastic, enabling them to empower themselves and increase their income.

UNICEF is initially committed to building 528 classrooms to accommodate 25,000 children.