Amdalat Taiwo Pedro
Amdalat Taiwo Pedro na widow wey dey pick waste for di streets of Lagos, Nigeria to survive and to put food for her table.
Cost of living don dey high for di Nigeria and pipo dey resort to plenti odd tasks to survive.
Amdalat wey be widow since 10 years tell BBC Pidgin say she don dey pick trash for over seven years and counting.
“Many pipo bin dey abuse me wen I dey pick plastic but now dem don join me and we dey pick trash togeda” na so she tok.
She narrate say moni wey she dey make from her usual business no dey enough for am and her family, na wetin make am begin pick plastics, say recyclers dey pay dem for for di quantity of trash dem pick.
After loosing her husband 10 years ago, Amdalat son later die leaving her wit two grand kids. Her daughter inlaw return to her parents house.
She say “I dey use di moni dey take care of my grand pikins as nobody dey to support me’.
Di 63 years old grandmother say moni she make for di trash business, she dey use am feed her pikins, pay for dia school books and even pay rent.
‘Di smallest moni wey I don make na 20,000 Naira, di biggest moni wey I don make na up to 120,000. I dey wake up by 5:00 am in di morning, do house chores, by 7:00am I don comot to enta street to pick trash’.
She say her grand children dey help am pick di plastics and move dem to di trash collect centre.
How dem dey convert trash to moni
Amdalat subscribe to di trash collect package of Lagos based Street Waste Company Initiative SWCI.
Di company na one of di major trash recycling outfits for di Nigeria commercial capital.
SWCI get plenti subscribers like Amdalat wey dey make small-small moni from picking trash.
Dem dey collect di trash wey di subscribers dey submit and give dem moni in return based on di quantity dey pick.
Some of di subscribers say even though di moni no too much, but e dey help dem survive daily as tins don dey hard for di kontri.
SWCL dey encourage less privileged pipo to venture into di trash picking initiative as a means to add to moni dem dey get for work.
High cost of living mata
Nigeria and plenti kontris around di world dey complain say hard times dey.
Many pipo dey reason how to cope wit buying of food items as di rising cost dey tear dia pocket.
Dis wahala reach even for kontris like Britain, United States of America, France and Germany.
Nigeria follow join for di palava. Some sabi pipo say di current global economy situation dey linked to di Covid 19 palava and di Ukraine-Russia war.
Inflation for month of July 2022 reach 22% for Nigeria and research show say averagely Nigerians dey spend about 59% of dia salary on food monthly.
But some experts tok say lack of beta economic policies na also big reason for di high cost of living wahala.
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