Japanese students have helped clean-up Glasgow to thank the city for coming to the aid of earthquake victims.

Around 20 students braved the wind and rain to collect litter in the West End to thank generous city residents who donated to their Glasgow For Japan appeal.

Noriko Tanishima (31) is studying for a Phd in Nursing at Glasgow University and helped organise the clean up.

She said: “We wanted to thank the people of Glasgow who have donated to the Glasgow for Japan appeal. I saw the Clean Glasgow campaign and thought it would be a great idea to do a clean-up as I used to do them in Japan when I was in elementary school.

“We wanted to give something back to the people of Glasgow who helped the earthquake victims and also to encourage more people in the city to take part in Clean Glasgow litter picks.”

Glasgow Community & Safety Services (GCSS) and Glasgow City Council’s Land and Environmental Services (LES) department are key partners in the Clean Glasgow campaign. GCSS helped the students organise their litter pick around Glasgow University. Japanese people who study and work in the city were joined by other international students. Despite horrendous weather, they spent two hours (last Saturday, 21st) collecting 25 large sacks of litter.

The Clean Glasgow Campaign is the city’s award winning project to reduce the impact of grime crime and make Glasgow a better place to live, work and visit. GCSS recruits Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteers to take action to clean up their area. Last year, 6000 people took part in Clean Glasgow activities.

Councillor Jim Coleman, Chair of GCSS and Executive Member for LES, said: “This was a wonderfully thoughtful gesture by the students who were keen to repay the kindness and generosity of Glasgow’s residents. I hope their actions inspire others to organise a community clean-up or to sign up to become a Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteer.”

Glasgow University laid on sandwiches and hot drinks to revive the weary workers.

Anyone interested in organising a clean up can log on to www.saferglasgow.com or phone 0800 027 7027.