Against the backdrop of World Tourism Day 2021 – held under the theme of “Tourism for Inclusive Development” – the United Nations specialized agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the former Chelsea and Côte d’Ivoire footballer. 

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Un post condiviso da World Tourism Organization (@unwto)

The agreement recognizes that both sport and tourism can play a key role in advancing many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including through promoting cooperation and understanding, as well as through creating frameworks for inclusive economic growth. It also recognizes the shared goals and values of both UNWTO and the Foundation.

Didier Drogba is one of the most celebrated and decorated athletes of this century, and the work of the Didier Drogba Foundation is true to the goals of UNWTO – to provide opportunity to the women and youth of Africa and build a better future for the continent

Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Secretary-General

Didier Drogba was appointed a UNWTO Ambassador for Responsible Tourism in October 2019. In this role, he provides a bridge between tourism and sport – both sectors with the power to bring people together and promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding.

L’article UNWTO and Didier Drogba partner to boost opportunities for African youth est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Kouame, who is 26, turns flip-flops into works of art that cost up to 850 euros. He cuts the rubber and plastic soles into the pieces for large-scale collages.

This is the trash that people have thrown into the sea and that the sea brings back to us, because it doesn’t want it

Aristide Kouame

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A post shared by Aristide Kouame (@aristide_kouame_peintre)

According to Reuters, Kouame carves shapes, letters and faces on the rubber soles he brought from the beach. With the colorful scraps that are left over, he makes his own paints. The technique he uses is both cheap and ecologically sustainable.

Waste plastic and other materials, including large quantities of lost or thrown away flip-flops, litter most urban beaches in West Africa. Garbage discarded in city canals is washed out to sea and then washed back to shore when the tides change.

I make art with used shoes. It’s a way to give life to objects that pollute the beaches

Aristide Kouame

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A post shared by Aristide Kouame (@aristide_kouame_peintre)

About 13 million tons of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans every year, according to the United Nations. Two of Africa’s major polluters, Ghana and Nigeria, share the same Atlantic coastline as the beach where Kouame will collect the raw materials for his work.

My goal is to get people to question their environment in order to create a better life

Aristide Kouame

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A post shared by Aristide Kouame (@aristide_kouame_peintre)

In just a few years, Kouame’s original methods have caught the attention of the art scene in Ivory Coast. Some of his works have begun to be exhibited in galleries in the country and abroad. His signature works range from large portraits of politicians and leaders of civil rights movements, such as Nelson Mandela, to abstract works that evoke societal problems, including climate change, Covid-19 and the unequal distribution of wealth.

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A post shared by Aristide Kouame (@aristide_kouame_peintre)

L’article Ivorian artist finds discarded flip-flops at the beach and turns them into art est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.