30 streets in 30 days: Ottawa man aiming for clean sweep during holy month
Jamal Alsharif is setting out to rid his neighbourhood of trash during Ramadan, and others are pitching in
Jamal Alsharif is on a personal mission to clean up Ottawa, one street at a time.
Alsharif started the initiative a decade ago. During Ramadan, he challenges himself to pick up trash along 30 neighbourhood streets in 30 days.
It's about, "doing our part for keeping our environment, keeping our city, keeping our neighbourhood clean," he said.
To prepare, Alsharif prints out a map of his Riverside South community, then picks one street each day, checking them off when he's done.
Typically, he finds a lot of coffee cups, plastic and glass, but he's also found eyeglasses and even knives. This year, he's picking up a lot of discarded masks — 20 of them in a single day — as well as bottles of sanitizer.
Inspiring others at home and abroad
Alsharif's 14-year-old son often grabs a garbage bag and pitches in.
"I try to teach my son that we live in a community that we have to protect. If we want to change the world, we have to change ourselves," Alsharif said.
Alsharif, who identifies as Palestinian-Jordanian, was born in Libya and came to Canada in 2009. He's currently the president of a non-profit called Humans for Peace Institution.
Alsharif said word of his cleanup campaign has spread through his social media channels, and people have picked up the challenge everywhere from Gatineau, Que., where he started the initiative, to Jordan and Morocco.
When he's out cleaning his neighbourhood, Alsharif said passersby often stop to ask what he's doing. Sometimes they even offer to help.
"We have to stand together, we have to clean our community together," he said.
