BACKGROUND

Since the pollution on this planet and the effect on our ocean, reefs, animals and beaches are getting worse, i want to become active and organize action, involve people and create awareness. I have done similar smaller projects in Nicaragua and Ecuador before and look forward to creating something sustainable that i can come back to set up longterm connections with locals, involve people from my community, plus inspire others to get involved. 

Inspired by my teacher Tina Nance to do a GIVE BACK TO BALI project, i started with research, connecting and networking with several different parties around the Bukit peninsula in Bali and was amazed by the motivation of many different people including:

  • Mega Semadhi, head of the local Boardriders community
  • Watra Welley, who is working for the government and together with Mega has connections to NGOs and other foundations 
  • The teachers and students of the local school SD2 in Bingin 
  • Curtis Lowe from projectcleanuluwatu.com and manager of the Drifter and his team 
  • Cristiana owner of the Temple Lodge 
  • Tania Serrano an activist to protect nature from Portugal, a group called the Community Creatives
  • Kim from UtopiaRote 
  • The team of the Cashew Tree 
  • The local surf schools and several other locals, Warungs and hotel owners in the area. 
  • My husband Chris creating footage with the drone & camera. 

OBJECTIVES / GOALS

Sustainable steps towards making a difference in the pollution problem in Bali and the effect on our ocean, reefs, animals and beaches by: 

  • Raising awareness by involving local influencers from different communities, hotel/restaurant owners, government, school teachers and especially the children, since they are the ones that will take over! 
  • Informing and educating of ways for sustainability like using less plastic, about water filtering and how to divide trash and why.
  • Creating awareness on a bigger scale by:
    • Creating video footage and photos of the event to use in the community group, articles and the movie that will be created.
    • Writing an article for the website globeseekers.com and the Facebook group plasticfreeuluwatu that we created together with the locals involved.
    • Using social media to share, inspire and involve people for this and future events.
    • Inspiring others to do something, even if it seems like only a drop in the big ocean. 
  • Setting up a program that can be repeated and continued and a community group that can be joined by others, to coordinate events, inform and involve.

DEMOGRAPHIC AND LOCATION

Many of the people i met up with in the Bukit area, want to do something against the increasing pollution and for creating awareness and have done a bit, but there is not a regular program in place or a community group that involves, connects and informs the different parties in the Bingin/Uluwatu area. 

When i suggested to approach the schools they liked it and said they wanted to involve the school, but they did not have a program for it. Starting with the children creates an impact for the future, it is important that they understand why we want to do something against the pollution, plus the children will create a ripple effect when telling their parents and people see them being active.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The challenge was to involve the schools and children and have them understand why we do this and for that create a program, that was more than just a beach clean up, but included program points that educate the young ones and also would engage them during the excursion day plus had potential to be continued and repeated on a regular basis with a good reason for it.

To create something sustainable and a program that can have regular events and activities we met up with a group of people and started with deciding on a name for the group and page, so that we can build on that and create awareness and a community around it.

The name we decided on is plasticfreeuluwatu, since it explains the topic and the name uluwatu is known on a bigger scale. I created a Facebook group for it and already more than 500 people joined it in these first days. Then i created a Facebook event for the planned educational tour & beach clean up.

We are working together with people like Curtis from projectcleanuluwatu.com and ‘The Community Creatives’ will make a movie out of what we did so far, using the footage Chris, my husband shot with the drone today to create awareness and also spread the word.

EDUCATIONAL TOUR

On our educational tour we took 70 students plus a good number of other people involved. This is the program of the tour, we translated to Indonesian and gave it to the school:

7:30 Start at the school to hand out trash bags and gloves, explaining the program and rules. The students started collecting with great enthusiasm from the moment we left the school. (We left the 1. and 2. grade at the school and just took 3., 4. and 5. grade for this first tour.) 8:00 First Educational stop at Drifter: Exercise dividing the trash & demonstration of the natural waste water filter and explaining the drinking water filter. Giving out cups to the kids to try the filtered water fountain.  

8:40 Pass by Temple Lodge for first drop off & arrival at the beach.

8:45-9:30 Second educational stop at Bingin Beach: Continue clean up at the beach and big circle with all involved.   

Game with big pile of trash in the middle & reward brownies from Temple Lodge.

9:30 Walking up to Bingin main parking for drop off trash bags, collecting was organized by Mega Semadhi, head of the Boardriders Club. 

10:00-END Third Educational Stop at the Cashew Tree Collection: 

Start with digging 4 holes in the garden and placing one sign for each category, then start a competition and educational game to teach them the difference between the materials and how they degrade differently over time in the ground: 

1. Plastic 2. Paper 3. Organic 4. Iron/Metal                                

  • Divide the 70 kids in 4 groups and name the groups after the four categories.  
  • Let them call out the name of the group loudly a few times to engage them.  
  • Let them choose one or two group leaders that will be supported by the other group members in their task to choose the right materials  out of the pile of trash they collected and that we laid out in front of the four holes. 
  • When they chose the material they were asked to place it in front of one of the four holes.
  • After each group leader had chosen, we had a grown up play the „trash police“ and check if everything was sorted the right way as it was explained in our first educational stop.
  • It turned out that paper and metal were the two groups that did not get the full points, because some paper had plastic on one side, or in a paper carton we found plastic inside and some material that they thought was metal turned out to be hard plastic!
  • Finishing the game by celebrating the two winning groups.
  • Closing the tour with a quick fun game with Trainer Jake with training ropes from the Cashew Tree and yummy watermelon drinks for the kids.
  • Leaving towards the school in cars, to have the children be picked up by their parents on time!

The school will be going back to reveal what we were digging into the four holes a few months later and from then every few months to see how the different materials change over time. The children and schools are allowed to come back any time to do another game and educational tour. The Cashew Tree is ready for another visit and we have exchanged the contacts between them and the school teachers.  

We will share different educational tutorials in Indonesian on this topic into our community group that the teachers are part of and the Drifter or Cashew Tree might be able to do a movie day in the future. 

I also have a few videos in english i will share in the group, for example the one with the whale that died of 30 plastic bags inside his stomach.  

I am in contact with the main team involved and will for sure come back to meet them and help again, plus engage others to support them in the future. 

CLOSING STATEMENT

Thank you again for this opportunity, i was amazed by the motivation and drive of the balinese involved and we are all very happy to have created and started something that can be continued on another level in the future!  I hope the images included speak for themselves! 

Thanks Tina for inspiring me to GIVE BACK TO BALI and thanks to everyone involved for being so open & motivated!

With Love, Denise