232news –
By Fatmata Bundu
The Freetown Waste Transformers (FWT) and its partners, the Freetown City Council (FCC) and the Waste Collectors Management Association (WCMA) began house-to-house engagement and onboarding of the DortiBox Mobile Waste App in Block 7, Ward 436, Wilberforce Village.
The move is part of FWT’s preparedness ahead of the launch of the first DortiBox Mobile Waste App in Sierra Leone in a drive to transform Freetown.
FWT Project Manager, Michael Yambasu, explained that for a long, they have been meeting communities in one space and they noticed that they are not getting their desired target audience in those communities, through that, they decided to change from weekday activity to weekend activity.
He continued to say, they choose Saturday for the one-on-one engagement with households in other to market the DortiBox App to them and also to bring them onboard.
He pointed out that with the Wilberforce community engagement, they were able to get heads of households in all the residents and they were able to onboard them.
He said they targeted the head of households because they are the decision-makers and they pay for all the services.
He said engaging them was meeting their target audience and getting what they have been trying to achieve all these while, during their Town Hall meetings.
“The engagement was successful because we were able to onboard 30 households on the App and FWT is now partnering with six waste collectors that are working within the Wilberforce community to service the target audience we met there,” said FWT Project Manager.
The team started the house-to-house Waste App engagement from Wilberforce Roundabout (bottom mango) to Wilberforce Village market where statements were made by FWT and partners.
The house-to-house engagement is part of FWT’s preparedness ahead of the launch of the first DortiBox Mobile Waste App in Sierra Leone.
At first, FWT targeted waste collectors in Block covered areas like Aberdeen, Wilkinson Road, and Lumley for the Beta testing of the DortiBox App as one of the pilot Blocks.
Wilberforce Village Market Women Chairlady, Nannah Kamara spoke about the challenges they are facing as market women to dispose of their wastes after the close of market day.
Suggested for emergency help to clear the outside garbage before the official launch.
Naomi Swarray one of the community women’s leaders at Wilberforce Village breathed a sing of relief for the coming of FWT and team and the introduction of the DortiBox App to them.
Naomi described it as a true transformation in the making and an easy way of solving the waste crisis in their community.
Councilor of Ward 436, Mohamed Dabour called on his audience to continue to work hand in clove with FWT for a clean city.
He said Wilberforce used to pay for their waste and they will continue with the DortiBox App.
