An increase in 110 volunteers this year!

Ahh, Rio. One of the earth’s most iconic cities. Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf Rock, the Statue of the Christ, warm water, and of course the beaches. So beautiful, warm, and inviting - and in danger of being loved to death. The results are obvious – trash… SO much plastic trash.
But the beach is a community within this community, and once again it came together. 2019 is COI’s 4th year in Rio, and each event is twice the size of the previous one. This year we dominated Itaipu Beach with 250 volunteers led by the children of the community.

The kids get it. We met with students from 8 classes at 4 different schools. Now the kids won’t go to the grocery store without getting their shopping bag from home, and their mothers are upset with a change in the routine. We think we have been forgiven though, as many of the mothers joined us at the beach, and together we collected 400 Kg of debris - mostly plastic, but also BBQs, lawn chairs, and clothing.

Thanks again of course to all the local volunteers for spending their day cleaning the beach and to CLIN, the maintenance wing of the Niterói city government for disposing all this trash properly and all the sponsors like El Pescador, Areias Restaurante, LavoroSolutions, Puro Suco, Saboreando, Acanto Creche-Escola, Marcelo Natural, Emporio Verde, Gege Galindo, Casa da Sogra, Rotary Niterói, Prefeitura Municipal de Niterói, Cevejaria Piedade, and Cervejaria Noi. 

This year we also made student presentations in collaboration with 4 different schools: Colegio Canadense de Niterói, Colegio Paulo Freire, Acanto Creche-Escola, and Escola Prisma Montessori – Niterói.

Huge thanks to Claudia Rocha - COI International Affairs Coordinator, and Kelly Duim - COI Project Manager in Brazil, for a year of forward thinking and community coordination.

​Project Summary

​Project Name: Itaipu Beach Cleanup

​Focus: Learning and Growing with International Partners

​Number of Volunteers: 250

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​GROUPS INVOLVED

Clean Oceans International
COI Brazil

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​CHALLENGE

Working Together with Old and New Friends
Reaching Out to the Next Generation Ocean Stewards
Mobilizing a Community to Action
Working with Local Governments

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​SOLUTION

Appreciating the Opportunity to Make a Difference
Building a Global Community
Working Closely with Schools
Never Ever Ever Ever Give Up

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RESULTS

​800 meters of Itaipu Beach

​250 + Volunteers

​New Participants, Building a Bigger Team

​Inspiring Kids to Love and Care for the Ocean

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