Empower Kiribati has received support from Irish Aid under its In Country Micro-Projects Scheme (ICMPS), and the new project will let the organisation work directly alongside the Environment and Conservation Division (ECD) of the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agriculture Development on the Ara BikeMarawa Rerei (ABM) campaign, which ECD leads as part of its ongoing effort to keep Kiribati's shorelines clean.
The partnership moved from paper to practice within days of the announcement, when Empower Kiribati and ECD brought local group leaders and shoreline champions together for an opening workshop at which participants explored how communities can strengthen the campaign on their own stretches of coast. Because the people best placed to change habits on a beach are the ones who live beside it, the project will rely on these local champions to raise awareness and carry the work back into their villages, with the wider aim of a cleaner environment that protects biodiversity and supports healthier living.
The support fits Irish Aid's focus on long-term programmes that tackle environmental challenges and reach the communities furthest behind first. Empower Kiribati thanks Irish Aid, the Environment and Conservation Division and every leader who joined the first workshop, and will share further updates as the campaign develops.