What a busy start to the month with our students at the Mentawai Education and Conservation Centre, doing their part and collecting more bags of plastic waste ready for recycling!! It’s great to see how excited these children were to be cleaning up their local beach and making a real difference to their own community.
Our aim is to operate and sustain our own recycling collection facility, while also promoting responsible disposal of waste throughout the Mentawai Islands. We recognise that education is at the heart of finding sustainable solutions to the islands’ current environmental issues, therefore we have been busy with our young students educating them particularly on plastic pollution and the increasing problem of plastic marine debris in our oceans.
Just this week, Indonesia has pledged up to $1 billion annually to clean up its seas from plastic debris and other waste over the next eight years, getting rid of 70% of the plastic waste in the ocean. The average Indonesian uses between 0.8 to 1 kilogram of plastic bags every year, most of which end up in rivers, streams and the ocean making Indonesia the second largest plastic polluter in the world’s oceans after China according to a study published in the Science journal in 2015!
We love getting visits to our Centre here in the Mentawai Islands, especially from enthusiastic young people. This group from a local High School enjoyed practicing their English with us and we are looking forward to visiting their own school soon and sharing our environmental program with them.
Our surf girls program continues to flourish and it has been great to welcome some new faces to the group. It’s also amazing to watch the more experienced surfers coaching the newbies.
Without your ongoing support, we wouldn’t be able to sustain our programs and growing classes so thanks to everyone that participated in our recent online auction.
We managed to raise AUD$17,500 which have enabled us to launch our recycling and waste management program as well as getting us a step closer to our new multi-purpose Education and Conservation Centre!
Special thanks to the following sponsors who donated prizes – Six Senses Laamu, Macaronis Resort, Kaimana Royal Charter Boat, Qamea Resort and Spa Fiji, S Resorts Hidden Valley Bali, Cokes Surf Camp Maldives and The Perfect Wave Maldives.
Marie Gray
Director/Sponsorship Manager
A Perfect Foundation Charity Ltd