We recently had a community beach clean and outdoor cinema event. Below is a pie chart of the beach waste we picked up from the clean. Of this plastic waste, we are able to recycle the plastic bottles, plastic cups and plastic lids, which equates to around 40%. The rest is sadly burnt.
Chance Encounter Results In A Meeting With Mentawai Bupati
We got chatting to a couple of Mums waiting for their children to finish their English classes. One of the Mums said she could help us as she is related to many of the Heads of the government.
Since then she has helped us to organise a string of meetings with the government offices including the Head of the Environment Department, the Secretary State in charge of all the government offices and then, last week, we went to the Bupati’s (Mayor) house and had a 1 hour meeting with him and his wife.
It was a great opportunity to network and develop positive relationships with key players in the community.
It has been a busy few weeks for our Environmental Programme
Awera Resort have continued their support with our programmes. It was good to sit down more informally with their staff and chat about some of the environmental issues that the Mentawai Islands faces. Aimar and Mikael, the owners, say they are keen for us to continue so we look forward to a lasting friendship!
We remembered Paola’s (from Ecobali) advice to find a small group of committed individuals and focus time and energy on them. With this in mind, we have found a nearby private school, Santo Petrus, that has been very welcoming, well organised and has a very inspiring Principal.
Every Saturday morning we go to Santo Petrus School to run sessions with different groups of students. We were pleased to see that, in our most recent trip, they had done a big plastic clean and collected 8 big sacks of recycling!
By continuing our workshops we really hope to develop this programme further. If it works, we hope to take the programme to the Education department and into other schools.
Online Auction Success
Thanks to everyone that supported us in our recent online auction! We managed to raise AUD$18,600. After a few expenses deducted, these funds will assist in developing our recycling and waste management program and continue educating remote global regions about the importance of reducing plastic waste and protecting their environment and our ocean. Special thanks to all our supporters, especially Kandooma Resort, Six Senses Laamu, The Perfect Wave Maldives, Villa Mentawai, S-Resorts Bali and Chaos Surfboards for donating prizes.