Manifesto winner

 The amazing story of 

Polly the plastic doll and Hope the little girl

Our students will  create the collaborative story of Hope a girl who finds a doll on a beach and names her Polly. You will follow the journey of Polly up to and through the ocean and you will discover more about plastic pollution and the goals for a cleaner and healthier future.

Elianna is a tiny and delicate twelve-year-old girl. She is good-hearted, playful and delightful. She likes learning new things and gaining new experiences. She enjoys drawing and swimming. She cares about the environment.

Hope is a sensitive and friendly 11-year-old girl who lives in the slums of an African village.

Daniel, Hope's father, is a hard-working man and loving dad. He works for the Plastic bank.

There was a girl, Elianna, who really wanted a lot of toys, but her parents could not afford buying new toys. She was very creative and playful, so she decided to make a doll using a plastic bottle. She went to her recycling bin and gathered material that she could use. She created her own doll. She was excited and proud of herself! She played with it and then when she grew up she kept it on the shelf above her desk. 

One day, Elianna wanted to change the decoration of her room. Her mum thought that Elianna would not want the plastic bottle doll anymore, so she threw it into the recycling bin. 

While the rubbish collectors were gathering the recyclable waste, suddenly a sharp item cut the rubbish bag and the plastic doll fell onto the street.

A lot of passengers went by but nobody picked it up for a long time. The doll was there at the street.

One day, a girl picked the doll up and took it on a trip with her family. They went to a beach. She played all day with the doll. In the evening, the weather got really bad and it started to rain. The family wanted to leave the beach quickly and go back home. The girl was in a hurry and forgot her doll at the beach.

At night, the wind was fierce and the doll was pushed here and there all over the beach. After a while, a huge wave led the plastic bottle doll into the sea. The doll was pushed by strong waves and its journey in the ocean began.

The doll travelled to a lot of countries. It explored the ocean and life below water. 

First, the doll travelled to Alaska. There it saw some frozen plastic ducks floating on the surface of the sea. They were some of the plastic ducks which had fallen into the sea at the shipwreck in 1992. 

After the Arctic ocean, the plastic doll headed to the Atlantic ocean by an ocean current. A diver found the doll and he put it in a plastic bag to give it to his daughter. But it fell into the sea. 

Another current headed it to the Meditteranean Sea where a caretta-caretta sea turtle saw the doll in the plastic bag and mistook it for a big jelly fish. The turtle bit the bag and the doll, which got water inside it, went to the bottom of the sea. It rested there for a lot of days until one day a pufferfish lanced it, the bottle lost all its water day after day and went up to the surface again.

Unfortunately, the doll was caught into a huge plastic soup where it kept going round and round together with other plastic bottles, caps, bags, cans, plastic toys and microplastics. Luckily, a seagull grabbed it and took it far away from the plastic soup and threw it onto a shore of the African continent. 

One morning, Daniel, a thirty-year-old man from Africa, who works for the Plastic Bank, took his daughter, Hope, with him to help him. While they were collecting plastic things, the girl saw the plastic bottle doll. 

She liked it so much and ran towards her dad.

"Look, daddy! I found a doll!"

"Oh, wonderful! You can keep it."

Hi, my name is Polly and I am a doll made with recycled  plastic.

Polly remembers... 

For some time I lived on a small island, in the Pacific ocean. Here the plastic is everywhere on the coasts. Despite poverty my life there was happy. After school children played a lot of games with me and we had fun together.

But one bad day a tzunami came and destroyed everything. 

All because of global warming!

I was overwhelmed by the waves and swept again  into the sea. I don’t know what happened to the children.

Then I spent a long time floating in the ocean, pushed by the stream, until I arrived on this beach.

During this time I saw many sad things and I had many encounters I would  like to tell you…….

The Seahorse's Story

Polly met the seahorse in the sea because she was lost. She saw that it was very sad and asked him why and the seahorse told his sad story: 

It was a quiet day and the seahorse went swimming with his three brothers.They were always together and they swam in the same direction, but that day they went to the opposite way, a dangerous way. The seahorse wouldn’t change and said no but it was forced by its brothers. During the way they found a lot of plastic.

 While they were swimming they saw a shark and they decided to hide.

 When the shark went away the seahorse tried to find his brothers but they were trapped in the plastic, but suddenly the shark came back and instead of killing them, it helped them to break the plastic, and it freed them. Unfortunately, while they were coming back home, his brothers were trapped by a fishing net and it never saw them again.

The doll heartened the seahorse and it gave her a beautiful white pearl and told her the way to an island. 

THE Story of Polly  and the White shark

One day Polly was floating in the Atlantic Ocean and she got trapped in a plastic island.  A white shark that was hunting there saw her and he decided to free her.

White Shark: What are you doing here? It’s a bad zone for you because there is a lot of pollution.

Polly: I know, somebody put me in a trash bag but a sharp object took  me out of the bag and the wind carried me into the sea, and I arrived here.

W. S. : Do you know how to get back?

P : No, I’m lost!  

W.S. : Then I’ll take you to the Mediterranean Sea!    

During the trip he explained many things to her about pollution. For example:  one day a friend of his died because he ate a lot of plastic.

The trip lasted several days and every day he told her a different story of some friends who died from pollution.

He was very happy to have found a new friend but at the same time sad to have lost others.

 Once they arrived at the Strait of Gibraltar the great white shark went back and Polly arrived in Africa

where she met her new friend Hope.

THE BLUE WHALE AND POLLY THE DOLL

Polly the doll had fallen into the Atlantic Ocean and had been carried away by the stream, when she met the Blue Whale.

The Blue Whale was a gigantic cobalt blue whale; but she had so many harpoons stuck in her back.

Actually Polly the doll, as soon as she had seen the whale, had thought of the whale from Moby Dick, so she asked if she was her. Instead the whale was not what she thought, on the contrary, she began to tell her why she had so many harpoons stuck in her back.

They were signs of fishermen who,  illegally, continued to hunt whales.

Polly wanted to know more about the risks that whales ran at sea, and so the Blue Whale told her the episode that had marked her life the most.

It had all started when she had decided to explore her own area further; so she went far away until she found herself in the famous "plastic island".

Suddenly she was trapped, and an envelope covered her nose and mouth.

She could hardly breathe, but fortunately she managed to free herself from the other bags and swim away from the plastic island.

This episode had affected the whale a lot and it affected Polly too: she promised herself to try to do her best to protect the whales and to improve the situation, to prevent such episodes from happening again.

The sea otter’s story

One day, the sea otter was swimming in the Atlantic Ocean when it found a plastic island. In the middle of the plastic island there was Polly  talking to the sea otter: 

Polly: How did you get here?

Sea otter: The currents carried me here. What's this?

P: it's a plastic island 

S.O.: What's a plastic island?

P: It's a collection of plastic waste 

S.O.: It's a horrible thing!

P: Yes, it is

Polly then led the sea otter back into the clean ocean. 

While they were swimming, the sea otter's tail got caught into a fishing net and came off. Some fishermen saw it and took it. Then they took it to the vet and the vet healed the wound and the sea otter returned happily into the ocean.

The swordfish

A swordfish named Simon was swimming peacefully when he was suddenly caught by a fishing net.

He fought a lot to break the net which fortunately broke, but from this accident he remained very injured and tired. 

He continued to wander the ocean in search of food and wandering he met Tortoise, a turtle with a broken shell and they made friends. 

While wandering happily in the ocean they found a plastic bag and mistook it for a jellyfish and the turtle tried to eat it but luckily he didn't swallow it. Simon got very scared and tried with his sword to remove the bag from the turtle's mouth and he  succeeded.

While they were going in search of food, behind a rock they saw a human face…

Slowly the man approached them, confused they stared at him and the diver revealed himself a hunter who, armed with a harpoon  shot an arrow that hit the turtle killing it.

The swordfish Simon shocked by the fact ran away as fast as he could to escape from death.

At one point he stopped and Polly fell from a rock that emerged on the water and asked him why he was so sad and scared. 

He replied that a hunter had killed his friend. 

They became friends and from that day on they never separated  again.

  Polly and the yellowfin tuna 

Polly is lost in the Atlantic Ocean and carried nowhere by currents. Looking for someone who can help her, she sees a yellow dot in the distance. She thinks :”it will be some garbage, it's full here, oh here's one!” , but that yellow dot gets closer and closer until it takes the shape of a fish. Polly starts screaming to get his attention, after a while that fish finds itself in front of her and she exclaims:

Polly: A yellowfin tuna, that's why I saw something yellow!

The Yellowfin tuna : Yes I am a yellowfin tuna and my name is Sun. I heard some screams, was that you?”

Polly: Yeah, I got lost and I saw something in the distance I thought it was rubbish but then you approached and it looked like a fish so I tried to get your attention. Did you see me?. 

Sun (replies a little embarrassed): Not really, you know I don't see very well from afar, I only approached you because I heard you.

Polly: I forgot, my name is Polly and I'm made entirely of plastic.

Sun (studies her amazed and asks): Can you help me in any way to see better from a distance?.

Polly: Yes, of course. Do you have any idea how to do it?

Sun: No, that's why I asked you. 

Polly starts thinking about a possible solution and she suddenly exclaims:

Polly: We could make glasses using the waste in the sea! 

Sun: Good idea, but with what?

Polly: We could look for the bottom of a glass bottle  for the lenses, and straws for the temples of the glasses.

Sun: Brilliant! Come on then, let's go! 

The two set off looking on the seabed for what they needed. Even if it was full of waste, they found nothing suitable. They found a broken bottle but without the bottom, a straw but it was not whole, and a piece of glass. After a bit of research they found two straws even if they were of a different colour and then the bottom of two glass bottles.

Sun:  There is a problem, how do we put the pieces together?

Polly : “We can take some wire or pieces of net

Sun: It might work!

They immediately find what they are looking for and after various attempts they manage to build the glasses. 

Done! (they exclaim). 

Polly gives Sun the glasses and he wears them. The fish gasps and says: 

Sun: I have never seen so clearly what surrounds me.

Polly (laughing says): You are so funny with these glasses!

Sun: Better to be funny than not to see at all!

Polly: Now I know where I am, I hope to see you again!

Sun: I hope to meet you again too. Bye Polly.

Polly: Bye yellowfin tuna.

Remember: waste can be recycled!

 The turtle, the octopus, and new friends

Angel, was a Caretta caretta turtle swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, sad and alone, near Faro (Algarve), Portugal, looking for new goals for her life. She missed her cousins who had died somewhere on a Mediterranean beach while trying to lay eggs. And on the way he met Polly, who was traveling with Simon, the swordfish he had met during his last oceans voyage.

Polly: Hello, what's your name? What are you up to?

Angel: Hi, I'm Angel, a Caretta caretta turtle. I'm looking for new goals to stop the pollution of the oceans. 

Angel: I'm tired of losing my friends due to plastics flooding the seas.

Polly: I am Polly and my friend is Simon. We also care about the sustainability of the oceans and we will help you.

Angel was swimming with her family one day when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a huge quantity of plastic bags. They looked like jellyfish, and thinking it was food, they ate their fill. After a few days they got sick and died.

Angel was the only one who didn't eat plastic and survived. That's how she ended up alone.

Polly: That's very sad.

Angel: Yes, but I'm okay now. So I want to find solutions to end all the plastic in the oceans. But how?