Visiting SDN Petemon 13, SMP 37 and SD Al Muslim

The first school visited was SDN Petemon 13 Surabaya, which is a public elementary school. The children showed me the art they made with recycled material which was very nice to see. The school has the students bring their own cups and plates for the drinking water and for their lunch, which is very environmentally friendly. They are also composting the organic garbage they make, which they use to fertilise the plants they have planted around the school.

The second school visited was SMP 37 Surabaya, which is a public junior high school that has been working with Tunas Hijau since February 2009. They have tried to start composting and separating the trash into organic and non-organic waste. Unfortunately it has not been successful with separating the garbage, the non-organic garbage is still being mixed with the organic garbage. The composting has only been used very little and could be used a lot more. One thing that was noted was the amount of straws used. Perhaps the school could not use straws or limit the amount of straws used because it adds to the inorganic garbage. I also discussed with the students a little bit about the conference that I will be help organise on carbon footprint. I will prepare some information for them next time I visit.

The final school visited was SD AL Muslim in Sidoarjo. They have organic gardens at the entrance into the school property, which were very nice to see. On the wall along the driveway there are murals about the environment that were painted by the students and are very impressive. The school itself has plants on the inside that the students water and tend to. The school has no lights inside and uses almost no air conditioning. The design of the school allows for use of natural lighting and keeps the school cool which limits the need for air conditioning.  The school also has three bins outside the classrooms; the bins are for plastic, paper and organic material. All of which looked like they were being properly used.

One initiative that I would like to get started is a teleconference between the schools in Surabaya and schools in Canada. I would hope that the schools would be able to share with each other what they are doing with the environment. I believe that both the schools in Canada and the ones in Indonesia can learn from each other and can help gives ideals on how they can improve the environment. I would like to get this started next week and have the teleconference the week after. (Curtis Deschambault)