Northern Ireland’s largest community and civic pride initiative, Live Here Love Here, is calling for volunteers in County Fermanagh to play their part in cleaning up local blue spaces such as rivers and lakes this Saturday and Sunday (September 18 to 19).

The big weekend event marks the start of its annual Healthy Oceans, Healthy Minds campaign, in partnership with Belfast Harbour, which promotes the health and wellbeing benefits of a clean blue space environment.

Helen Tomb, of Live Here Love Here says:“People know they feel better when they’re near the sea, but the benefit is hugely reduced by the presence of litter, which upsets people and makes them really angry. We’ve seen that taking direct action enables people to channel those feelings positively. Volunteering, even for a day, enables people to do their bit, meet new friends and gives everyone a real lift. It’s tremendously satisfying. After last year’s lockdown and virtual format for our campaign, it’ll be really exciting to see people in person this year!”

The clean up is the first date in a calendar of activities and events, which will run until 28th September and is timed to coincide with the annual increase in blue space litter after the summer season. It forms part of a coordinated global volunteer effort to remove and record litter from local lakes, waterways, beaches and the sea. Ocean Conservancy, the marine campaigning charity which is spearheading the International Coastal Clean Up initiative is keen to remind potential volunteers of the central role the world’s oceans play in all of our lives, saying ‘the ocean produces half the air we breathe every day, the food we eat and the water we drink.’

To get involved, volunteers should create a profile and register their events on the Live Here Love Here app and the first thirty registrations will receive a free Coastal Health ‘Adopt A Spot’ kit containing litter picking equipment. The 2021 Healthy Oceans, Healthy Minds programme will offer a schedule of informative and community events. More information can be found at liveherelovehere.org