The eager competitors were gathered into seven groups and the importance of clearing up rubbish, (and, more importantly not creating it in the first place!) was explained, along with the rules of the game.
When the starting signal was finally given each group set off to gather as much rubbish as possible, with the group collecting the most winning a prize.
The children eagerly raced to pick up bits of rubbish and placing it in piles before putting in sacks.
Andavadoaka beach is over a mile long, with often a large amount of rubbish strewn across it. Yet with a few hundred excited children and several volunteers it took less than an hour to strip the beach of all man-made products. Some enterprising and highly competitive children even gathered rubbish from their own houses as beach pickings grew slim.
In total over ten rice sacks of plastic and other rubbish were collected. However who won the competition is a topic that is still being highly debated, as teams were fairly dynamic and fluid, with group sizes fluctuating greatly.
Not surprisingly the group that ended up with close to 100 members brought home the bulk of the spoils, and their photos now take pride of place on the village notice board!
