Pre “By Kids For Kids” Environment Workshop At SD Kristus Raja And Pre Planting Mangrove & Trees At SMP 27

James Ogilvie – England

Surabaya- We visited two schools in Surabaya today to prepare the children for next week’s activities. This morning we went to SD Kristus Raja to prepare for next week workshop, where children from the other school will come to Kristus Raja and the children will present to them about how to run environmental activities in their school. We have four activities that they will talk about and demonstrate to the other children; these are organic farming, composting, biopori and recycling paper. Today each group practiced their presentations with the other children so they are ready for next week.

Before we started the workshop we went to the garden to water the new spinach seeds, as we do not want these ones to fail as well. The children came out to help and then practice their presentations. They had made large posters with writing and diagrams to help illustrate each task, and were all very enthusiastic about the process. Hopefully the children who come to Kristus Raja next week will learn a lot from the children there, as they seem to be very interested in the environment.

After leaving Kristus Raja, we got in the car and headed to SMP 27, a junior high school at the other side of Surabaya. It was very grey and cloudy there, although still very hot and humid, and for the first time since I have been in Surabaya I thought it might even rain. We came to SMP 27 to prepare for next week where we will plant new trees in their school and new mangroves in the coastal waters near their school.

We also talked about what programs the children want to run in their school, and the school council met to discuss this. The main thing they discussed was separating rubbish into organic and non-organic and the problems with trying to get the whole school to participate. I think the discussions were positive and everyone seemed to be hopeful that they can make the school nicer by running several environmental programs there.

At the end of the day we returned to Kristus Raja to water the spinach seeds again; we have to make sure that they grow into spinach plants this time!