KURDISTAN (June 5, 2018) – Rwanga Foundation, in partnership with MRF Group, held a nationwide campaign in Kurdistan on Tuesday as a part of celebrations for World Environment Day, aimed at drawing attention to the problem of plastic waste pollution.

The World Environment Day 2018 theme is "Beat Plastic Pollution", a call for action to combat a great environmental challenges and reduce the plastic pollution on wildlife and people's health. The Street Plays were held in Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, Halabja, Zakho, Akre, Ranya, Garmian and Soran with focusing on plastic pollution awareness. 

After the play, actors, teams, volunteers and the attendees started a cleaning campaign to clean the streets and public locations. Moreover, infographic flyers were distributed in order to illustrate the negative side-affects, and how long does it take to decompose plastic and various items. 

‘’Environment protection being a global concern, is also the area of concentration for Rwanga Foundation. We always design and implement different activities through awareness programs and providing the public service. This year the activities were held in the heart of the cities across Kurdistan aiming to raise awareness and encouraging people to be part of protecting their environment because we believe in our environment is our home. This year, in partnership with the MRF Group, we celebrated the World Environment Day in a bigger scale’’’ said Zirak Hamad, Director of Public Relations and Media at Rwanga Foundation.

Environment is one of the four sectors of Rwanga Foundation. The activities were started on April 2018 by visiting basic schools and high schools in Erbil, Garmian, Sulaimani, Akre and Duhok and performing activities and encouraging the students to recycle and re-use the products that they use. 

''Part of our services at the MRF is recycling in order to re-use the products, therefore we wanted to design such a project in order to spread environmental awareness in the society. I hope all of us respect the land that we live on and keep it in order to have a healthy environment. said Rebin Chalak, Project Coordinator at MRF Group while taking part in the cleaning campaign.

‘’I believe that we are at the point where everyone knows how serious plastic pollution (and pollution in general) is, but we don't do anywhere near enough.’’ Said Mohammed Abbas, a 23 years old university student who joined the cleaning campaign. ‘’There are things we can do very easily that will make a difference. We can use a reusable water bottle instead of plastic bottles. We must all come together and act better to protect the environment’’ he added

 Held annually on June 5, World Environment Day is the United Nation's action for the protection of our environment and raising awareness on environmental issues.