Raggy Charters, Mosaic & Re-Trade Re-Cycle Project

We are very happy to see this project idea turn into a reality.  WE ARE OPEN AND RUNNING!  Thanks go to all at Raggy Charters, Mosaic Piecing Lives Together and The Re-Trade Project for all efforts to get this project off the ground.

4th JULY 2025 - And we are rolling along! The Children are enthusiastic and thankful for this initiative at their school. The staff all look great in their new shirts! 

2nd JULY 2025 - a very BIG thank you to a sponsor for our recycle team's work shirts. Greatly appreciated.

20th June 2025 - Today we had a great 2nd colleciton day; the children were so excited and happy! They collected three bulkbags full and the team did a great job again! Thou all!   The children will bring their bags back to refill with their next collection drop and swop!

And the next milestone is here - 6th June 2025 open and operating! Such a feeling of accomplishment for all involved. And excitement from the childdren who are now helping clean up their environment.

The first child came to us a little awkward, not yet knowing how it worked, received her card and came to me at the scale. Together we looked at the number of kilos and then a big high five ; kilos that were then converted into points that were still empty on her card. And while I emptied her pockets in the big bulk bags that would be picked up by the recycling company later, she went to wash her hands and walked into the store. She was taken in by one of the team members to help her and a few minutes later, she came out with a bag with some foods and a big smile from ear to ear. So happy so proud.

A first step on the way to a slightly higher standard of living and a cleaner living environment"

THANK YOU pICK N pAY BOARDWALK MALL - WE ARE STOCKING UP WITH THE VOUCHER KINDLY DONATED! haLF DONE AND HALF TO GO! wE ARE EVER SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS.

And the day arrived 28 MAY 2025 - OPEN DAY CELEBRATION. 

Thank you to talented artist Nceba Ntwakumba for painting our logos!  If you can help and be a part of this wonderful project please contact us! 

The excitement builds as we are almost ready to celebrate the opening of the Swop shop

Window and Door in, shelves in, artwork in progress! The project is coming to life and we thank all those involved in making this come together.

26 april 2025 donation trolley collaboration with Bidfood Chef’s Shop Gqeberha Hop on in Event 

25 April 2025 donation trolley collaboration with KWIKSpar on first

Kwikspar on First were very kind to let us set up a donation trolley with our team on Friday 25th April. The team chatted to shoppers and told them about our exciting project. We are so happy and overwhelmed by the response - leaving the day with a trolley full of supplies for the Swop Shop. A huge thank you to the Spar Management and Staff and of course to ALL SHOPPERS for their amazing contributions.  THANK YOU!! 

12th & 22nd & 24th APRil 2025 the teaching continues

Purity and Annemieke continue to educate parents and pupils on the importance of looking after our oceans and home land. And donations continue to come in and the container is being prepped for the grand opening.  

thank you to echo foundation caritas and volunteers 

Scarves and gloves hand made and donated from the Echo Foundation Caritas - a service center that arranges tea rooms, chair pilates and all sorts of activities for the elderly. Thank you ladies for your great handy work and just in time for winter.

12th April 2025 Barrel racing amazing race fund raiser   

Raggy Charters were a pit stop for the Barrel Racing South Africa's Amazing Race Fund Raiser.  Great fun was had by Purity, Thuba and Halala who manned the station. They made sure contestants followed the rules and completed their tasks before they could get their next clue to continue the race. One task was for contestants to donate a non-preishable item in the crate for the Swop Shop.  The morning ended with a crate full!! Thank you to all for the donations - was truly wonderful to receive such a great contribution for our project. 

10th April 2025: container is waterproofed & ready to be fitted out.

Annemieke has returned from the Netherlands to visit and help with getting the project up and running. Annemieke has been involved since day one when she joined us at Raggy Charters as a volunteer. We are so happy to see her again. Annemeike arrived with a suitcase FULL of goodies for the shop. One specific donator is Smyle who donated bamboo toothbrushes. Thank you so much. 

The container has been waterproofed and the planning for kitting it out has begun.  Will soon be divided and shelving installed. In the meatime the gathering of goods keep going.  

today, 6th MARCH 2025, a very special day indeed!

Thank you to Skål International Nelson Mandela Bay who will be gathering contributions for the Swop Shop from members at all upcoming  meets.  
This is truly wonderful! 

      

A special thank you goes to our Volunteer from The Netherlands, Annemieke Nidjam. Annemieke so enjoyed joining in with all our educational projects while she was with us. One in particular touched her heart and thus evolved into the now new Great Re-Cycle Project.  Read below about how it all started.

Inbetween her usual life, Annemieke has made time and been hard at work raising the much needed funds to get this project up and running. Enough has been raised for us to go ahead. We now reach out to the local community to please assist with the start up and way forward. Please take a look at our proposal and let us know if you can assist in any way. Will be greatly appreciated.

Purity Khosa, Raggy Charters Marine Guide, checking the site for placement of the Swop Shop Container and look at the lovely vegetable garden at Mosaic. Great work! 

HOW IT STARTED:

Raggy Charters chat with Children assisted by Mosaic - Piecing Lives Together 7 June 2023         we are very excited to be working with Mosaic and the retrade project - watch this space for exciting things to come

Halfway through last year Raggy Charters, ReTrade and Mosaic NPO joined forces in the battle against plastic and in favour the ocean life in Algoa Bay, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).

Raggy Charters, a whale and dolphin watching organization and initiator of many environmental and educational projects, and ReTrade, a recycle and educational initiative, found each other in an educational/conservational project. Teaching children about the importance of the rich and beautiful ocean life in Algoa Bay and the devastating influence of plastic on that same ocean life & ecosystem. Showing the children both sides, teaching them about marine life and about recycling. The aim is to raise awareness of the huge problem that plastic is, what is the effect on nature, and especially how each and every one of them can make a positive contribution to conservation and their future!  

We started the project at Mosaic (NPO), a heartfelt initiative in orphan-care, that use a systemic approach, not only to help these children in their circumstances, but also giving them all kinds of (creative) lessons to find their real talents, grow in their self-esteem and stand up. Mosaic has already started, in a small way with recycling, but want to do way more with this. Thus, Mosaic has joined the ReTrade and Raggy Charters educational and recycling project!

Purity, head guide at Raggy Charters and Annemieke, volunteer from the Netherlands, visited Mosaic and shared an interactive presentation about the incredible wildlife in Algoa Bay, the backyard of these children. Thereafter we organized a clean-up around the school for the three highest grades. Every one of the children got (recycled) plastic bags and gloves (thanks to SST Africa!) as their safety is important. How necessary this clean-up was! There was so much rubbish and plastic everywhere, we could hardly handle it. The children ‘saw it’ for the first time, now fully aware of why it is not good to litter. The enthusiastic children worked tirelessly, picking up everything and cleaning their own environment with pride. And next to cleaning up, one of the most important lessons was learnt: the awareness that all this rubbish shouldn’t be out there at all. The rubbish that was thrown into nature all around them was a ‘norm’ and part of their surroundings…

Two weeks later we organized a third event, at the harbour of Port Elizabeth. We split the same group in two; one group going on the boat to see the beautiful ocean life with their own eyes; the other group enjoying a presentation in which they were shown and taught about the problem and the solution of our plastic world.

The children not only becoming aware of how much plastic we use in daily life, but also were showed how much the animals in the ocean suffer because of all this plastic. That every human action has a reaction/consequence.  Last but not least: we taught and showed the children how to be aware and to try and use less plastic in their daily life. What to do with the plastic they do use or the plastic they find in their surroundings: RECYCLE!

It was great to see pennies drop with the children, the start of awareness! With going on the boat right after / before the presentation, there was a connection straight away. The problems that plastic present in our surroundings with the creatures that we all want to protect from that plastic became real! Fortunately, both groups were treated by the ocean cruise, getting to experience not only their first outing on the sea, but to also see and enjoy a large pod of dolphins. The children had the time of their life, being on the boat out in the ocean, and seeing these beautiful creatures in the eye sure made a lot of impact and now what we had taught them, made sense.  They now understood the importance of taking action. How big an impact was made was shown when some children were waiting and watching their friends return from their cruise: pointing out to the ocean several times, seeing plastic float, and wanting to retrieve it! Something they didn’t see/notice before as it was ‘normal’ for the rubbish to be there.

There is still so much work to do on this, many schools and children to visit and educate in Port Elizabeth. Next to these lessons, we are raising funds to start a ‘swap shop’ at Mosaic premises. A ‘swap shop’, an inspiring way to encourage children to collect recyclable materials from their surroundings - keeping their area clean this way and giving an example to other locals – and getting back something in return with their earned tokens. The tokens are swapped in the shop for something useful. There are currently other ‘swap shops’ established, and we learnt a lot from them. Once we have enough funding and the necessary assistance from people, we will move on to the next stage!

These few lessons we gave to the children, the combination of getting the children to pick up the rubbish, giving ideas of what they can do with the recyclable rubbish, showing them the damaging effects of the plastic in the ocean and getting them to see the beauty of the marine life first hand – the creatures we want to protect – is invaluable and encourages us to keep going with this project and the battle against plastic in our oceans.

Thank you to The Million Plus Recycling Program for the caps given to all the children.. A reminder to take home and keep the lesson alive.

CHILDREN AGED BETWEEN 6 YEARS AND 11 YEARS LISTENED INTENTLY AND ENJOYED THE MORNING.

 18th July we followed up with the children and the fun continued with a clean up around the school - what a great job done! 

25 July 2023 we hosted the children with an Educational talk on the marine life and the effects of the plastic waste on the environment and how each of can assist in conserving the oceans. Thank you to the NELSON MANDELA BAY YACHT CLUB for the use of your boardroom - the perfect setting.
   

Lastly the very excited children enjoyed a boat ride with Jake and the crew and the highlight was a pod of bottlenose dolphins.  

Thank you to The Million Plus Recycling Program for the caps given to all the children.