We are with Alina Kunz, Denise Duschneit, Carmen Apolito, the three friends who just a year ago created a group called Limpiaventura, a group of people who dedicate their free time to cleaning the beaches of Fuerteventura.
When and why was Limpiaventura born? In January 2015, one Sunday, we decided to go and clean together because being on the beach we realized every time that there was always a lot of waste.
And so Limpiaventura was born and what exactly do you do? We meet at several beaches in Fuerteventura and clean.
Then after cleaning we share a picnic all together to socialize, play with the children enjoying our clean beach.
When do you meet? Usually on Sunday mornings, but sometimes we met in the afternoon or on Saturdays… we have a group on Whatsapp where all the people who belong to it can propose initiatives and different days to clean the beaches.
If someone is interested in participating, how can they do it?
By contacting us on our FB page “Limpiaventura”, writing us an email at info@limpiaventura.com or contacting us with Whatsapp at 610013424. What do you do with the garbage you collect? Now we have the great fortune to have the support of people who work for the Ayuntamento.
We leave the bags in a precise point and the next day they collect them.
When we can, we also take part of the waste to the recycling bins.
And the best pieces, the cutest ones, we use to make Art and Recycling courses for children…
How do you finance Limpiaventura to buy gloves, bags and everything you need? With donations from those who support us and with the sale of Limpiaventura t-shirts and stickers that we have made.
Does the Municipality give you a contribution for your work? For now, he collects the bags every week and gives us black bags.
I know you do courses for children, what are they about? We make different types.
From building sand castles with Nacho, looking for treasures with Denise and her friends, watching videos on the protection of the environment, creating small lamps with recycled cans, reading books and then representing them theatrically, up to real art courses with the artist and photographer Elena.
Using some of the materials collected on the beaches (plastic, wood, glass) Elena helps them to create and recycle and give new life to objects that had lost their usefulness.
Thus their awareness grows.
It seems very important to us that children understand the importance of not polluting, they are the hope of a better world… They are our future.
Do you collaborate with other associations? Yes, we have collaborated with Avanfuer, with el Ayuntamento to clean Lajares and Puerto Lajas, with Limpiacofete to clean the beach of Cofete in the south, with Clean Ocean Project and one weekend Avafes de Gran Canaria invited us to clean the beach with disabled children and to release a turtle.
It’s wonderful when they invite us and we can collaborate together for the same cause.
We also collaborated with Fuertefelinos to collect food and thanks to Fuerteventura Dog Rescue we were able to clean the beach together with our dogs
What are your plans for the future? To continue to clean our island until it becomes something normal to be careful and protect the environment, to unite with people from other islands and with tourists to be part of the solution, and not just the global problem of pollution.
We would like to increase the number of volunteers to achieve greater impact and better results and thus create a platform to unite people of different ages, cultures and backgrounds who want to actively participate in the protection of animals and the oceans.
We also want to reach children and schools, explaining them through stories what our activity consists of.
We are also raising funds to publish a book to reach all the children of all the schools on the island of Fuerteventura.
Their happy faces after a day on the beach cleaning together encourage us and give us the right motivation to keep going and every time with more energy.
by:Angela Pasquali
