Let's Do It Mediterranean!

Don't you mean Baltic? No, despite Suderbyn's long-standing work in the Baltic, now we are as well working in the Mediterranean. "Let's Do It" is a virally-spreading global initiative that started in Estonia 2008 and thanks the the Global Ecovillage Network began to spread and now encompasses 100 countries. Having got 96 countries and 7 million people to make waste clean-up actions in 2012, the movement turned its sights on more complex tasks. The visionary Rainer Nölvak, one of the founders of Skype, felt that Let's Do It could unify the 25 countries of the Mediterranean in a one-day action to clean up the sea and beaches of waste, particularly plastics, before they are broken down and get into the food chain. RELEARN Suderbyn was involved in the discussions and because only Suderbyn had links to the Anna Lindh Foundation, Suderbyn was asked by Let's Do It! to apply for funding from ALF to coordinate the Mediterranean clean-up 2014. The Anna Lindh Foundation based in Alexandria, Egypt has now granted 30 000 EUR support to the 37 500 EUR project. But the campaign is bigger than the project and its blog can be seen at www.letsdoitworld.org/mediterranean.

 
The campaign will encourage spontaneous bottom-up initiatives around the Mediterranean to clean the sea and beaches on 10-11 May 2014. A practice clean-up is planned for 13-15 September 2013 to test the interest and gain experience. The main event for the Suderbyn-led project will be to train NGO trainers from all Mediterranean countries in Alexandria in October 2013 in the methods of organizing huge participatory clean-ups using smart phone apps, internet-based mapping and web page registration of groups.