I remember on the day I gave birth, I was both tired and happy. The long journey was over. Even though I was dog-tired, motherhood was calling as my son had to be attended to. To breastfeed him and to change his diapers among other things. Even though the clinic provided an extra hand to help I had to start doing some of these chores myself. The midwife would come in the mornings to clean the babies. Out of curiosity to see how its done, I joined her at her at the basinet area. I had given birth the previous night, so I was still in pain, but I told myself I wouldn’t miss this. I engaged myself in a conversation with the midwife. We discussed my son’s birthmarks, his looks and I did mention how fragile I felt he was. During dressing time, I mentioned how diapers were more convenient because he had done his first poop – meconium – so it meant no washing to be done. The midwife agreed with me that diapers help she felt they were damaging the environment as some mothers were not aware of how to properly dispose of them.

When I got home I realised that surely disposable nappies are convenient but I faced, and am still facing challenges with disposing them. To start with the City’s refuse collection vehicle does not pass directly outside our own gate, they instead use the main road that links our road. This means if I want to engage in their services I have to take my rubbish to a neighbour’s gate, which is rather unreasonable because if they do not turn up what happens to my rubbish? So that option has been totally cancelled. Burning used diapers is not an option either as they are hard to burn completely as well as the dangers involved in burning rubbish. At the end of the day when the diaper plastic bag is nearing full I find myself stressed as to how I have to get rid of it.

Talking to mothers out there, they shared the same sentiments that disposing diapers can be a stress especially in areas where the City’s refuse collection is not yet in its full functionality. These same challenges were experienced by a couple in Harare living in a medium density area. Being environment conscious they couldn’t join the rest of their neighbourhood mothers/families in throwing their rubbish (with diapers constituting the large proportion) out in the streets where dogs would come and strew the diapers all over the place. It is this same couple that is going to bring change to mothers and families out there who face similar challenges, by offering diaper disposal services. For a minimum monthly charge one can subscribe to these services and have their used diapers collected once a week.

Some mothers can echo that they are already paying for these services on their water bills to the City and forking out an extra penny towards works, which the City should be doing, is not so appealing. But at the same time considering the dangers mothers and families pose out there to the environment by not properly disposing of their diapers, the need for the use of these services then should be recommended. It takes us to change the communities we live in, and living in a clean and safe environment is a top priority on our must have list. So personally I would recommend the use of these services.

If you want to be a responsible citizen contact Valerie on 0772 979351 for proper diaper disposal.

In our last Kubatana newsletter (subscribe by writing to info [at] kubatana [dot]  net) we mentioned some very cool street art being done by activists in Nairobi. You can check out the article here. And then we got an email from Margret who shared some photographs of the Nairobi graffiti with us. So thanks to Margret for joining and contributing to the conversation. As she said in one of her emails to us, there are such endless examples of how consciousness is created through info activism.

Go on, make your mark.

Letter to the librarian

You are the heart where arteries of knowledge congregate
The root that binds fibres of worldly wisdom
A rock where intellectual imbibers chisel and curve their creative granules
Bring me, the IPAD to connect to the universe

Bring the search engine to sieve juices of life
You are the nutrition of psyche.

Bring books from Tolstoy, DH Lawrence, Jon Donne, Maya Angelou
The poetic, the academic, the scholarly

Mr and Mrs Librarian where minds meet
Mrs and Mr Librarian my mental fodder
Mr and Mrs Librarian my intellectual drumstick

My soapstone for my wisdom sculptor
My oozing oasis for my PhD
My running river for my dissertation
My rich spring for my Communications assignment.

Your womb vomited, presidents, poets,
Ministers, medics, bishops, engineers, mothers
Your womb vomited our past, our today and our future

You are the inspiration that break with sun
To the world, let our guns and swords be books

Mr and Mrs Librarian, This is my letter to you

You are cemetery with live skulls of knowledge

Mbizo Chirasha aka The Black Poet