She makes crafts from environmental-friendly materials

Story; Zakaria Abdul Hakim Cisse || Sanatu Zambang SDGs Live Report

From Nijmegen in the Netherlands, Loes Van Mullekom is a special creative artist at the Pompestichting private foundation for Forensic Psychiatry who helps people with physical disabilities to find themselves again. The foundation treats people who are or will be dealing with injustice. Treatment, care, and security are aimed at crime prevention and safe functioning society. It provides the right balance between safety for society and a new opportunity for patients to change their lives.

On January 16, 2020, Loes arrived in Karimenga and will be staying there for six weeks. As a creative artist who uses her art to help patients out of depression and bettering their future by channeling their minds towards a new direction; she has soon realized that she has a lot of impacts to make in Karimenga before she leaves Ghana for the Netherlands.

Loes Van Mullekom

Staying at the ‘the greenhouse’, she is experiencing the African experience and has been amazed by the hospitality and kindness of the people.

To feel the true African spirit, Loes and her colleagues do not wait for someone to cook for them. They cook by themselves and do laundry as well.

Loes realized that almost everywhere, there are plastics often from ‘pure water’ sachets thrown away by people. As a challenging issue today, she has started recycling all plastics and other materials such as clay, sticks, old cloths, leather, etc. to make handy crafts from them.

This she hopes will boost the craft shop of ‘the greenhouse’ as she will be putting them there to attract more patronage and empower the people.

She says she wants to help people in a way that will inspire them because, she cannot solve all the problems nor put money in people’s pockets, but she can change people’s mindsets.

She uses natural materials that are ecofriendly to make the products.

Loes has so far made a cloth package for cheese, a cap made from cloth, honey stick, wooden package, etc.

Her colleagues save the sachets each time they drink water, so she can get enough to make her crafts.

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