Thirty-six schools across 12 districts of Nepal participated in Nationwide Cleanup and Poster Competition for Schools. As a part of the competition, all the participating schools organized sustainable cleanups and community awareness campaigns to highlight waste burning and illegal dumping as harmful and life-threatening practices.

They translated their cleanup efforts into creative posters that displayed best practices and solutions in waste management. Schools were engaged in waste reduction, segregation and recycling activities, which brought a sense of responsibility among the students and made them realize how their little efforts to keep their surroundings clean and to educate their communities can bring a huge change in the country.

Totally, 7519 students, staff, teachers and people from over 30 local groups cleaned their school surroundings and communities. The competition was organized by Clean up Nepal with the support of Australian Embassy in Nepal, and an awarding ceremony was held on 10th February 2019 with the collaboration of Kageshwori-Manohara municipality and the New Star Pole School.

The New Star Pole school from Kageshwori Manohara and Shristi school from Kathmandu were declared as the winner and runners up of the competition respectively.

Peter Budd, the Australian Ambassador to Nepal and Krishna Hari Thapa, Mayor of Kageshwori-Manohara municipality rewarded the winning schools. The schools collectively received Rs.65,000 worth of library resources and waste segregation bins.

At the event, the Mayor informed that waste management awareness is more effective through children, hence the municipality has recently launched waste management programs for 5 community schools and intends to replicate it to all the schools within the Municipality.

The Australian Ambassador to Nepal stated how local communities, organizations, and schools are working together at community levels to solve a global problem. The children from various schools also spoke at the event and highlighted that the individual efforts can solve bigger problems. They strongly believe that this is our waste, our problem, and our responsibility!

The Mayor intends to continue building relationships with schools and local organizations to emphasize waste segregation and recycling within the municipality. Several community school principals, Doko Recyclers, PABSON and key representatives of Kageshwori-Manohara municipality also attended this synergistic event.