Tribute to Phoebe Edalatpour

The Ecologistics team is mourning the loss of a really bright star that has left our galaxy.  In 2022, we were approached for fiscal sponsorship by an enthusiastic 26-year-old dynamo who had a great plan.  Phoebe Edalatpour had worked in Tihune, Sierra Leone with the Peace Corps and discovered a serious problem.  People there were burning plastic waste and were becoming ill from the smoke.  She devised a solution that paid unemployed women in the village to gather the plastic and compress it into blocks to create building materials.  This provided a quadruple win – employed the women, removed the trash, stopped the burning and built housing.  How often does that happen?  Phoebe raised funds for this new nonprofit, Wi Yone Plastik, and moved to Tihune to run her program.  All was going well until she called us in 2023 to say she had become ill and was returning to the US for treatment.  We were stunned when in May 2024 we were contacted by Phoebe’s father, Tim, to say she had passed away.  How could a young person who was doing so much good in the world be taken from us?  With Tim’s help we were able to reach a representative of the Tihune villagers and transfer the rest of the raised funds so that Phoebe’s work could continue.  We wish the villagers of Tihune and Phoebe’s family the very best.  She will always live in our hearts.