Written by Ina Christina (BNF Education Staff)
Our Youth Education Programme delivers environmental education activities for young people, in local schools and communities, from kindergarten age right up to high school. Due to the high number of participants in our Education Programme, BNF cannot implement all the activities alone. We need support from volunteers who are passionate about environmental education and protecting the environment.
BNF Education Volunteers come from many different backgrounds from the local area, including government, NGOs and universities. They help BNF’s Education Staff to run our programmes and assist as facilitators, such as organising the children and leading games and activities. Currently, there are 14 volunteers who join the Education Programme every week.
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Education Volunteers joined Gibbon Goes to School program, a storytelling session for children in Palangka Raya.
Photo by Duncan Murrell | BNF
BNF also helps volunteers to build their own experience and capacity by improving their key skills and gaining new knowledge. There are regular meetings every month to discuss and learn more about BNF’s environmental education programmes (Anak Sebangau, Conservation Class, Sebangau Rangers and Gibbon Goes to School) and new learning material, related to environmental education, is shared with the volunteers. Material like ‘Ideal Volunteer’, ‘Ideal Facilitator’ and ‘Learning through Play’. For example, during the ‘Ideal Volunteer’ meeting, the education volunteers discuss what an ideal volunteer is for them and how they can achieve it.
They also have the opportunity to participate in field trips to Borneo’s rainforests and learn more about local biodiversity – an additional advantage for the volunteers.
Through this programme, BNF hopes the Education Volunteers will gain more experience and knowledge that they can apply not only in BNF’s programmes but also in their daily life. So, they can be the agent of change across the community to help protect the environment.
Do you want to hear about the volunteers’ experience during a field trip to the Sebangau National Park forest?
Check out my next blog!
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Volunteers regular meetings every month with BNF’s Education Team. Photo by Dwi Riyan | BNF
