The 1st Drawing Bin Party

CHILDREN may still lack understanding in responding to the garbage problem in the city, but their involvement in the environmental party on Al Azhar Islamic elementary school yesterday, showed concrete participation in the city’s problems. Their innocence in expressing their talent in painting on garbage bins can act as motivation to adults in the city in solving the garbage problem and other environment problems.

The children are our only hope to preserve the environment in the future,” said Dita, the Program Director of Tunas Hijau Club, the environmental painting party organizer. He said that environmental knowledge and its preservation would be better introduced as soon as possible, and it should be taught to our children at home.

“Parents should teach them how to appreciate the environment, by giving examples, such as keeping the environment clean by throwing garbage in the bin. And it should be conducted continuously,” said Dita. He further said that starting with their own environment, the family, the children could get used to the habit of loving their own environment.

“The world we are living in today will be different from the world that they will live in someday, and they can decide what is good for them,” he added. The painting exhibition yesterday chose Melly Samantha, 10 years old, fourth grade students of Petra 4 elementary school, as the winner of the painting exhibition on garbage bins. Her acrylic painting displayed a picture of hospitals and the city full of garbage.

“Her painting described the current situation of the still unsolved city garbage problem. The hospitals which are supposed to clean and must be sterilized, were full of garbage in her painting,” said Dita. The criteria of painting exhibition’s winner was the painting that has the biggest point of interest that could persuade people to throw garbage in the garbage bin, besides the painting’s color variety.

“That was a must. Because we are going to put more garbage bins in public places in the city,” he said. There are about twenty garbage bins from the painting exhibition that will be donated and put in the Kenjeran Beach. Its bright colors may influence people to come and see the children’s paintings and be attracted to throw their garbage in it instead of in other places like in the river, Dita said.

He further said that the effect on our daily lives may be small, but the children need to start with small things before they learn to do bigger things like preserving the earth. “There is only one Earth. Let’s save it,” said Dita about their environment party’s motto.