Simple initiative inspires volunteerism
A mere hop, step and a jump away from the Wellawatte beach, Shehaan Taahir has lived his whole life being surrounded by the sea. Last November, after a long hiatus from visiting the beach due to commitments, Shehaan started coming to the beach to work out and noticed its dismal state with trash littered. That is when Shehaan realised something needed to change.
Pix by M. A. Pushpa Kumara
Posting a picture on his Instagram account, Shehaan called out for volunteers to come help clean the Wellawatte beach. Initially not much of response was received, but a lot of interest was garnered as Shehaan himself stuck to his goals and cleaned the beach daily.
“I didn’t really get a response as I had a small Instagram following, I still do,” Shehaan tells us adding that he told himself that he would hold himself accountable as he planned to make half an hour of cleaning part of his daily workout routine. That was just the beginning and as his friends joined in on the second and third day, Shehaan noticed they were building momentum.
With time co-founder of @itswellabeach, Shenelle Rodrigo used her platform on social media as a content creator to reach out to more people.
“It really helped that Shenelle’s audience is very mindful and a conscious audience, who are concerned about stuff like this. They were already aligned with this (cause), and they understood the importance of it,” shares Shehaan.
“It was when I realised that there were a lot of people who were interested and wanting to do something with it and wanted to get involved,” Shehaan tells us. It was through the lure of social media that Shehaan created the movement of #itswellabeach.
Creating an Instagram account under the handle @itswellabeach, Shehaan uploaded videos of the Wellawatte Beach being cleaned up by the Police Department which he joined in as well. The day after the major cleanup, there was once again trash washed in by the ocean which showed followers that active participation is needed to keep the beach clean.
Motivated to keep up with the traction generated Shehaan understood that a longer, sustainable approach needed to be thought of involving the community who were the stakeholders of the beach.
By making the beach a tourist hotspot in Colombo; Shehaan realised the environment, the community and those visiting the beach can all benefit. An ongoing journey to this goal, Shehaan tells us about the three-step programme he put together.
“We broke it up into three areas with the first being a clean-up programme, second being beautification and the third being getting the message out. We are actually now in the third stage which is pretty crazy. I don’t know how exactly we got here,” Shehaan tells us as he looks around in wonder.
From companies organising beach cleanups and mere groups of friends spending their weekends in a conscious manner, bin installations and more, the clean-up programme has been quite successful. Shehaan is grateful to the cleanup partners who aided them thus far namely being Cleantech Abans, Mindful Travels, Pearl protectors and the Rotaract Clubs of Sri Lanka.
Shehaan
As part of the beautification process; thirteen walls belonging to the Kinross club were painted and given a facelift by talented local artists spearheaded by Geshany Balder and Nuzhath Karim with the financial support of Asian Paints, Glitz and Arana Yala.
The ‘instawall’ is a colourful show of creativity and skill as each artist brought to life their depiction of ocean wellness.
A great buzz has been created on social media about the ‘Insta Beach’ with both locals and foreigners alike coming to visit the beach; either to take pictures with the wall, clean up the beach or just to enjoy an evening with your friends and family.
Alongside the ‘Wella Beach’ project, Shehaan is also involved in a Youtube talkshow called ‘Trash Talk’ where he interviews prominent personalities of Sri Lanka whilst they pick up trash.
This initiative has had the likes of Harpo Gooneratne, Dileep Mudadeniya, Otara Gunewardena speaking out on the importance of community involvement cleaning up the environment.
Tomorrow, itswellabeach will host a major collaborative plogging (jogging while picking up trash) event with the World Health Organisation. The event will help raise awareness for the project and cause. Everyone is welcome.