By Christine Parfitt | Founder and Managing Director
122 students have finished our 8 lesson education program on Nusa Lembongan island!
On April 24, Herni and Saras visited all three primary schools on Nusa Lembongan who have been taking part in our education program and the students were eager to start using their bottles. We donated water stations to the schools during the teacher workshops and the teachers have been using their bottles so that the practice of bringing bottles to school and refilling them at school is encouraged.
SD 2 Lembongan is located across the yellow bridge on Ceningan Island. We were looking forward to meeting the students and teachers as we have received a lot of communication from them, including feedback about the lessons and photos from their classes. The really interesting thing about this school is that a different teacher taught each of the eight lessons making it a whole-school approach - a great way to get good outcomes! This was amazing news for us as it is the first time a school has taught the program in this way. We loved meeting these teachers and students.
We asked the teachers at SD 2 Lembongan what they thought the most interesting part of the program was and what they thought the students found most interesting, they were interested to learn more about how to reduce plastics and they thought the students enjoyed the audio visual materials. One teacher said they were shocked to learn that plastic can’t biodegrade. The teachers said they learnt new information in the lessons and added their own explanations about how to use leaves to wrap food instead of using single use plastics. Here is some feedback from the teachers at this school:
"...the material taught is very interesting and the students are also so enthusiastic to follow the lesson. In each lesson there are also some videos so students can more quickly understand the material being taught."
We donated 34 bottles to the year 5 & 6 students who looked so happy and proud to receive the bottles.
At SD 1 Lembongan, the teachers have taught our program to all the students in year 5 and 6 and plan to continue teaching to the younger students. We have almost finished creating an education program for years 1-3 and are excited to roll it out at this school in the coming months. The bottle ceremony was simple but unforgettable. The teachers at this school said they most enjoyed Lesson 2:
"There is a comparison of the environment before, now and in the future. Children can appreciate through each painting."
The teachers also said they found the lessons interesting because of the mix between hands-on activities and short films:
"The lesson is interesting because it is interspersed with documentary film. Children are enthusiastic about dealing with plastic items that are part of their daily lives."
A total of 38 bottles were donated to the year 5 and 6 classes who had completed the eight-lesson education program. “We hope the younger students will get the bottles soon too” – said BfB teacher.
At the third school, SD 3 Lembongan, we have had some problems and we are unsure about the capacity of the teachers to teach the program. Despite our best efforts to try several different ways of communicating, we have received minimal information about how the classes have gone at the school. We expect that with more teacher training and the support of the principal we can improve the participation of this school and gain better outcomes for everyone. The three primary schools are physically very close to each other, the students know each other, and talk about the programs at their school. Although we would not normally donate bottles without joining the lessons and communicating with the teachers about how the lessons were progressing, we decided that we should maintain our commitment to the students and donate the bottles at the same time as those at the other two primary schools. We have arranged to meet with the Principal in the coming months, we will discuss various options for the school, their capacity and whether or not to continue the program.
Next, we need to sign MOUs to continue working with different year-levels and begin teaching the next intake of students how to reduce plastic pollution.
Earth Day Celebrations!
April was a really happy month for the BfB team. Herni and Saras were able to travel to Lembongan Island where our three GlobalGiving schools are located. Moreover, it was the third time that we joined the annual Earth Day Celebrations with Bali Hai, Coral Triangle Centre (CTC) and other partners.
On April 22, we all gathered in the Bali Hai open area. We had 60 students join the event, some from GlobalGiving sponsored schools. The celebration started with a beach clean up followed by an environmental education activity with BFB team.
For our activity, we created a giant spider diagram on six sheets of A3 paper. We collected single-use plastic items that had been littered on the streets of lembongan (including straws, plastic bottles, snack packaging, aqua cups and plastic bags) and encouraged students to think of ways to reduce these items on the island. We got some fantastic ideas off the students!
Reducing Straws:
Reducing Plastic Bags:
Reduce Plastic bottles and cups
After our activity, students learnt to make art from plastic pollution and then watched Wayang Samudra - a puppet show about Marine Education.
Thank you so much for your support. We're really excited to share this news.
The BfB Team
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