As the month of March turned over, the Ismaili Civic volunteers took to their localities around Australia to clean and conserve the environment. Better together, they contributed around 160 hours towards the Ismaili Civic 15K pledge.

On the first day of March, Ismaili Civic volunteers came together with the aim to make a positive impact on the local environment, in particular, picking up litter to reduce the amount of waste present in parks, beaches, waterways, bushlands and roadways. With 2.5 million tonnes of waste recorded across Australia each year, every effort to remove and recycle rubbish makes a sizeable difference in keeping our environment protected and looking beautiful.

In Brisbane, the Ismaili Civic volunteers made up of seniors, youth and community leaders contributed a total of 60 hours towards the Ismaili Civic 15k pledge. As the hosts, they joined forces with local community groups, schools and leaders, with students from Brisbane Grammar School and their teacher, Ms Beate, as well as the “Art of Living” community group, everyone pitched in enthusiastically removing rubbish across local parks and streets.

The event was also attended by Federal Liberal National Party MP, Trevor Evans, State Liberal National Party MP, Pinky Singh, and Brisbane City Council councillor, Vicki Howard – all keen to lend their support and build strong community relationships.

The Ismaili Civic volunteers in Adelaide rallied to the cause hand-in-hand with the Golden Grove Rotary Club. Together, they did their part in Baymor Reserve in Modbury, with 17 community  volunteers and members of the rotary club while clearing as much waste as possible. The result was a sparkling clean park and new friendships formed with those young and old.

In Perth, Ismaili Civic volunteers who came together for the first time contributed to 52 hours of service added to the Ismaili Civic 15K pledge.

The collective efforts of the volunteers across the nation for the Clean Up Australia Day 2020 movement totalled a noteworthy amount of 160 hours of service towards the 15K pledge.

Clean Up Australia Day is the country’s largest community-centred environmental event, held on the first Sunday of March every year, to achieve the vision of the crusade’s founder, Ian Kiernan, who decided something had to be done about the amount of rubbish floating in the world’s oceans.

The organisation’s mission is simple: to inspire and empower communities to clean up, fix up and conserve our environment and is designed to encourage people of all ages to do their part to keep our natural surroundings clean and reduce the amount of waste.

Since its inception, Clean Up Australia Day has become an occasion that is firmly embedded in Australian culture – and now also the Ismaili culture. Each year, the event brings together members of the Ismaili Civic volunteer network together with local neighbours and communities, to clean streets of rubbish and to protect the environment.

The Ismaili Civic Volunteers have pledged to contribute 15,000 hours of community service in 2020 to put our ethics into action and to contribute to improving the quality of life of others and build a sustainable planet.