Two hundred people, including members of ASEZ WAO, students from different colleges, Bacolod Sectoral Youth Affairs and Bacolod City Police collected 5,000 kilograms of trash through a cleanup activity
ASEZ WAO, the Young Adult Worker Volunteer Group of the World Mission Society Church of God (General Pastor Kim Joo-cheol, hereinafter the Church of God) carried out the Blue Ocean project (cleaning up rivers and seas) in the Bacolod area on December 1.
This activity was more welcomed as the coastal area of Magsungay was plagued by trash left behind by six major storms, including Super Typhoon Man-yi, which occurred in November, causing widespread damage.
ASEZ WAO is an international volunteer Group. The group name ASEZ WAO stands for Save the Earth from A to Z; We Are One Family, which means ‘Let us save the world from the beginning to the earth, as one family.’
The coastal cleanup activity was conducted at Magsungay in Barangay Singcang-Airport, where over 200 participants, including some members of ASEZ WAO, students from different colleges, Sectoral Youth Affairs and Bacolod Police, worked up a sweat. At 8 a.m., the cleanup activity began with the presence of Barangay Singcang-Airport staffs appreciated the volunteers
Scattered along the coastline, the volunteers picked up trash for about two hours. At the end of the activity, they gathered back with garbage bags full of collected trash in both hands. The trash collected that day filled 350 sacks (50L each), weighing a total of 5000 kg. Each sack was filled with all kinds of trash, including discarded plastic items such as disposable cups and detergent containers, as well as discarded fishing gear, nets, styrofoam, and clothes.
A representative from ASEZ WAO said, I hope our young adults’ environmental concern and action will help beautify our community. Protecting our planet and enriching people’s lives are possible through the ongoing implementation of community care initiatives like the ‘Blue Ocean’ project. On the same day, the Green Earth project (cleaning up streets and parks) was carried out in Iloilo, and the Mother’s Forest project (planting trees) in Cagayan de Oro.
ASEZ WAO has been carrying out multiple volunteer activities all over the Visayas. In addition to the Blue Ocean project, ASEZ WAO has been actively conducting the Green Earth project aiming to clean up downtown streets, parks and forests, as well as the Mother’s Forest project aimed at contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions and the enhancement of biodiversity. ASEZ WAO has planted trees in Iloilo, Tacloban, Santa Rita, and Baybay, and has also carried out environmental cleanup activities to protect terrestrial and marine ecosystems in Bacolod, Consolacion, Alangalang, and Lapu-Lapu.
Its tree-planting activities to combat global warming have attracted widespread attention across the country. ASEZ WAO has worked hard to restore forests in cooperation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), by planting 300 saplings in Cagayan de Oro, 2,000 in Davao, 2,000 in Pagadian, 300 in Quezon City, 1,200 in Santa Rita, and 200 in Baybay.
ASEZ WAO also spearheads efforts to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment through environmental forums, seminars and campaigns. In August and September, ASEZ WAO conducted a series of forums in Quezon City, Las Piñas, Tacloban, Ormoc, Digos, etc.*
