These days, you hardly stroll through town without spotting a new signage or billboard, but have you ever wondered where they end up after usage? The refuse dump, the gutters, the landfills or is it left lying on a street close to your home?

Thus adding to the already crowded landfills and posing a problem that not only the Ministry of Sanitation, Zoomlion, WasteRight or even Buzstop boys will have to deal with but a real canker for everyone- including the unborn citizens.

Enter The Gracedlife Leadership Centre (TGLC), Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), and Ramafrique with a Climate Entrepreneurship Initiative dubbed Greencraft, to equip people with skills in bag making using recyclable materials such as billboards, and banners. Finding a better purpose for such ‘unwanted’ materials while empowering others with a skill.

Greencraft took place on 23rd March 2024 at Ashaley Botwe, the office premises of TGLC with over twenty-five people in attendance. The first session saw the various participants design their own bags under the instruction of the facilitator from Ramafrique, Awurama Kena-Aseidu using pieces of cut out banners. With a bit of creativity, innovation and style, participants finished off their bags with various designs- aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The second part of the event was handled by the Country Lead for CDKN, Dr. Prince Ansah who gave a presentation on climate change. This was followed by virtual reality session where participants played various games, simulation exercises on climate change. It was a novel experience for a lot of the participants who expressed excitement over how game-based learning, virtual reality and artificial intelligence technology enhance and facilitate climate technology.

The World Bank estimates that without significant action to reduce emissions, the cost of adapting to climate change in developing countries alone could reach $140-300 billion annually by 2030. Thus, the need for climate change to be addressed in a holistic and collaborative manner spearheaded by the Government, institutions, and citizens so that no one is left out or unfairly burdened.

Greencraft is just one of the many activities geared towards climate change awareness with many other similar initiatives in the pipeline, but is this a fight for just TGLC? Absolutely not!

If you wish to support or partner with The Gracedlife Leadership Centre to tackle climate change and other sustainability issues, please send us a mail on programs@gracedlifeleaders.org or visit our website- https://gracedlifeleaders.org/