13 July 2019| Community, Ecobricks
I would like you to meet a very special young lady I have meet on my ecobrick journey, her name is Aaliyah and she makes ecobricks
She also has a disability, uses a wheelchair and has a wonderful laugh. I have come across many people who have said , “I can’t make ecobricks because I am disabled” I find this so sad, because one of the things I truly love about ecobricks is that they are about building community and inclusivity.
Let me tell you how meet Aaliyah, she belongs to a church community, Kings Church, Southampton. I did a starter workshop for them earlier this year, although she did not come that day, so I had to wait to meet her. The workshop went really well and from there every Saturday they hold an ecobrick social making session in one of the rooms at the church. The church runs its own community cafe (which serves amazing cake) and the socials help to bring customers into the cafe and and the cafe provides willing ecobrickers.
The ecobrick group have made around 90 ecobricks so far, and they are all logged on the Gobrik website. They have around 15 people who are active in the ecobrick group, with around 8 members turning up at the socials each week. The group has made one two litre ecobrick stool which Aaliyah likes sitting on, and have big plans for benches at the church and to help the local school build with ecobricks. They also turned up one Wednesday afternoon at the greenhouses to have a basic lesson in cob building ready to build.
Aaliyah doesn’t have a huge amount of strength to stuff the bottles, but she can cut up the plastic, which she will sit and do for hours making sure the rest of the group has plenty of plastic to stuff with, and then fills bottles loosely for the others to get tightly packed. She also encourages the rest of the group to look at the plastic they are using and to look at what they can change.
Could Aaliyah have been able to be involved as she is if the community didn’t work with her? I doubt it, she may have achieved a couple of ecobricks, and they may not have reached the weight, but as part of a group she can make ecobricks, she can be an inspiration to others to make ecobricks, and they all have fun together. When I visited the Saturday morning social, there was lots of chatter, and laughter, it felt like a community should.
This to me is what is at the core of ecobricks, community working together, finding ways that everyone can be included. There is no reason why anyone cannot be involved in making ecobricks other than we don’t include them.
What are you doing in your community?
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2021 Update!
Since I first published this post, the church community has kept making ecobricks, taking the socials onto zoom during 2020. They have achieved an earth and ecobrick planter in one of the groups gardens – picture is from before it was fully finished
And they have now teamed up with another Southampton church and will be encouraging each other with their ecobrick projects.
The Watercress Queen 