One of the most significant achievements to emerge from United Planet Tanzania’s work with LIVE-Ex has been the LIVE-Ex School Competition in Morogoro, which brought together 180 participants, including 108 students and 72 persons with disabilities from EMFERD.
The competition featured environmental awareness campaigns, vegetable gardening, and the establishment of waste collection points. More importantly, it created a platform for students and persons with disabilities to engage together on questions of sustainability, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
The clearest lesson was that inclusion and innovation are not separate goals. When persons with disabilities and secondary school students share the same space around a common purpose, barriers dissolve and genuine collaboration begins to emerge.
Another success from the same journey is the Waste to Wonder initiative, a creative environmental project conceived and led by mentee Vedasto Mganga, who was awarded a cash prize through LIVE-Ex during the second cohort.
Inspired by the programme’s emphasis on innovation and community impact, Vedasto used his prize to develop Waste to Wonder in Dar es Salaam, an initiative that transforms discarded materials into functional and valuable products for the community. His journey reflects the kind of transformative change LIVE-Ex sets out to create.
The experience taught United Planet Tanzania that the true multiplier of impact is not only a programme or a prize, but a person willing to use what they have learned to inspire others. Both the Morogoro competition and the Waste to Wonder initiative have become sources of inspiration and positive change within their communities.
Read more about Live-EX project HERE.
