Leuser Nature School, Sumatra

The Leuser Nature School continues to engage local children to learn to care about nature and biodiversity. The thirty children from neighbouring villages have been busy tending the permaculture plots which border the school grounds.

Permaculture is a regenerative form of agriculture which promotes natural balance and natural inputs so that nature and biodiversity can thrive alongside the crops being grown. The school children have planted a variety of plants outside their classrooms including rosella bushes. Rosella is a flower related to hibiscus, the flower heads are picked and dried and made into a tea which the children can drink at break times. The tea is an amazing blue colour and high in vitamin C.

The classes also planted watermelons in the larger vegetable patch and had a lot of fun harvesting these together. As well as keeping some to eat, the watermelons will be sold in the market to generate an income for the school.

Teaching the children how to plant and tend their crops, and how to use them for nutrition and for income are key tools for learning. And of course the central message about how to grow crops in harmony with nature helps to connect them with their land and learn to care for it in a way which supports wildlife and provides benefits for people too.

This report is brought to you courtesy of Juang Solala Laiya, a communications and anthropology expert who recently visited Leuser Nature School. He had these beautiful reflections to share:

"What I admire most about Leuser Nature School is the educational concept that seeks to make the school a "bridge" to reconnect humans with the nature that surrounds them. This concept is reflected in the elements used to construct the existence of the school, both in its existence as a physical infrastructure, as an educational institution, as well as as an inclusive and non-discriminatory ecosystem. As a physical infrastructure, the school was built using a combination of local raw materials such as bamboo, wood, palm leaf roof, and clay brick walls. These materials make this school building very organic and blend with the natural surroundings. As an educational institution, the school program combines a formal teaching program with a nature-oriented knowledge program, such as introduction to the forest environment and organic agriculture. As an inclusive and non-discriminatory ecosystem, life at Leuser Nature School is built by interactions among individuals who come from different ethnicities, customs, religions, genders, and age groups that respect each other. In a wider network, life at the school is constructed by interactions between humans and the diversity of plants, animals, and the natural environment (soil, rivers, forests, etc.) which are an integral part of teaching and learning activities at the school. This concept presents a kind of counterculture to the myth of modern culture which tends to narrate the world as separate elements that compete with each other for dominance."

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