Referred to as Buz Prohibit Boys, a bunch of most commonly younger pros and tradespeople are riding a fresh current of civic accountability in Ghana, selecting up brooms and shovels to scrub up the mounds of garbage which can be an eyesore in towns and cities around the nation.

Their initiative has gained the astonishment of native celebrities and politicians – or even stuck the eye of a few UK youngsters who flew to the capital, Accra, to fix the clean-up.

“Our goal is not just to clean the streets but to change mindsets,” Buz Prohibit Boys chief Heneba Kwadwo Sarfo instructed the BBC.

“If we can make people understand that keeping their environment clean benefits everyone, we’ll have a cleaner, healthier, and prouder Ghana.”

About 12,700 tonnes of cast wastefulness is generated in Ghana every future, with simplest 10% disposed of correctly.

Uninterested with the grime and spillage it reasons, Buz Prohibit Boys proceed round Better Accra two to 4 instances a generation to cloudless clogged drains and gutters, pavements and roads, in addition to to decrease over-grown grass.

The selection of volunteers will range, relying on who has supplementary occasion that future.

A civil engineer, Mr Sarfo shaped the gang in July 2023 with simply 5 community. He referred to as it Buz Prohibit Boys, figuring out the title would resonate with the community.

“The rich and poor, everybody knows what a bus stop is,” Mr Sarfo stated.

His small-scale initiative has now blossomed right into a motion, with greater than 40 women and men – from midwives to carpenters to army officials – becoming a member of.

“Social media has been key in getting more people to join our movement,” Mr Sarfo stated.

“Through our videos, we’ve been able to change the mindset of some people, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

It additionally resulted in a bunch of UK scholars visiting Ghana all through their summer season crack to assistance with a clean-up operation in Ablekuma, an department in Accra infamous for its wastefulness disposal problems.

Mr Sarfo noticed their discuss with as an inspiration for extra locals to get entangled.

“Don’t sit back at home and say you don’t care. One thing is key, without [the] environment we are useless, we are nonentities, and we can’t survive on this planet,” he stated.

Usual musician and human rights activist Sister Derby has thrown her weight in the back of Buz Prohibit Boys, praising the activists on her Instagram and X accounts.

She instructed the BBC that she have been touched by way of their “pure selflessness”, and he or she and her brother had one future joined them to scrub a stretch of a boulevard marketplace within the middle of Accra.

Dancehall megastar and businessman Shatta Wale has additionally rallied in the back of the gang, serving to elevate 30,000 cedis ($1,830, £1,415) all through a reside TikTok.

“These boys are the real heroes. They are doing what most of us are too busy or too proud to do. If we all helped them, imagine how beautiful Accra would be,” he stated.

The donations were strengthened by way of the ones of politicians.

Former President John Mahama – who’s creating a unused bid for energy by way of contesting elections due in December underneath the banner of the opposition Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) – donated 50,000 cedis, year Delivery Minister Asensu Boakye – who comes from the ruling Nationwide Patriotic Birthday party (NPP) – gave 10,000 cedis.

Welcoming the donations, Mr Sarfo stated the money used to be worn to charity their actions – together with paying for garbage disposal and purchasing gasoline for his or her tricycle to move garbage to a deny web site.

Politically non-partisan, the Buz Prohibit Boys’ sole center of attention is on realising their seeing of a cleaner Ghana – one boulevard at a occasion.

“Individuals should take up initiatives because waiting for government hasn’t worked over the decades and the records also show that in the event of an environmental disaster we as citizens suffer the most,” Mr Sarfo stated.

“It is therefore important for us to rise and help ourselves.”

Mark Wilberforce is a contract journalist based totally in London and Accra.