Community Clean-Up with Community Conservation Initiative     

Last month, Defend’s organizer, Sergio Cahueque, joined the Community Conservation Initiative leaders for their #TheCCINeighnorhoodCleanUpProgram in Deer Oaks Park. This community clean-up is part of an ongoing effort to take care of the environment, and we are grateful for the invitation to talk to impacted communities about our Healthy Housing program.

The Community Conservation Initiative works to support immigrant and asylum seeker communities in Maine to become long-term environmental stewards and protectors of their natural indoors and outdoors. Their work includes educating and bringing awareness to the challenges and opportunities for household waste sorting, recycling, reuse, and rethinking the concept of environmental sustainability in a context that acknowledges and is rooted in their cultural and indigenous knowledge.

Our role at the event was to support CCI’s efforts and to learn more about their work and initiatives. During the clean-up and through conversation with participants, we learned about Rwanda’s 2019 law that began phasing out all single-use plastics. According to Global Times, the law aims to control the growing habit of unnecessary consumption and disposal of single-use plastic items that have become a burden on the environment.

Both the clean-up event and the conversations were inspirational as we continue to work to address plastic pollution in Maine and across the US.

At the end of the clean-up, Sergio had an opportunity to talk about our Healthy Housing program, which aims to do three things:

1.   Raise awareness about common health issues that are prevalent in older rental housing (lead, mold, and carbon monoxide for example) and their unequal impacts among New Mainers 
2. Help people learn how to identify the issues above 
3. Share information about relevant resources to address and remediate these issues. 

P.S. – Help us continue this fight by pitching in today!