Releasing 200 Birds With 50 Children

Rianne Brink – Netherlands

Malang- Today, the 5th of November, we released 200 birds in front of Tunas Hijau office with 50 children from different schools. It was part of a program about saving flora and fauna. At 2 pm all the children were coming to the office to see the birds. After Nizam gave an introduction and told them what they were going to do, the cage with the birds was placed on the road in front of Tunas Hijau office.

It was great to see the birds flying away after Nizam opened the cage. They were happy to be free. Also the children were excited. Journalists were asking the children questions and they also didn’t forget me. I had to tell them about my project ‘Go Green’ and about the environment in Holland. Photographers were making pictures of the children and the birds. After all, the event took less than half an hour and at 3 pm the children were going home.

Nizam had a talk show for the local radio at 4 pm and I joined him. We sat together in the studio with headphones en microphones. After Nizam told the woman of the radio about Tunas Hijau and their projects, she asked me questions about the event of today and about the environment in Holland. I told her the environment is becoming more and more an important issue. We’re afraid of the global warming and that we’ll lose our seasons because of this. We’re trying to recycle our garbage, save the energy and create more green area’s around schools.

We even have a Green Party in the Parliament which is trying to make all this things happen. Although the environment is not yet as important as in Indonesia, it’s becoming one of the most sensitive topics in Dutch politics. She ended the show with asking about the upcoming events of Tunas Hijau. Nizam talked about the events in November and gave her the address of Tunas Hijau in case people wanted to know something about the NGO and their activities.

After all, I had a great day. I saw the birds flying away, free to go, the children were happy and I felt almost famous because of my part in the talk show and my answers on the questions of the journalists in the newspapers.