My name is Petricia Andini Hutasoit, I am Education Staff working in Borneo Nature Foundation’s Education Programme. Last month I received a scholarship to participate in the Green Educator Course 2017 at the Green School Bali. The course was held for five days, between 16 and 20 October, with the theme ‘Implanting the Concept of Environmental Sustainability in Teaching and Learning Process’. It was the first time the course was held in Bahasa Indonesia as it was aimed at Indonesian educators.
There were 16 participants from across Indonesia (Gersik, Jombang, Lamongan, Aceh, Maluku, Pontianak and Palangka Raya). For five days, we learnt about sustainability, zero waste management and permaculture. We not only had discussions, but we had practical sessions too and joined Green School programmes, such as ‘Trash Walk’, and we visited a local Balinese school with their Kembali team.
We also had the opportunity to share our work and ideas from our own education programmes to support each other and help build cooperation for future collaborations.
Some activities I particularly liked were Kembali tour to the local school, learning about permaculture concept, Compass Education Model, From Garden to Table programme and Kul Kul Connections. When the course came to an end, the organising committee kindly gave us some useful resources to help develop our education programmes.
The Green Educator Course gave me opportunities to improve my capacity as an educator and gave me lots of ideas to help develop Borneo Nature Foundation’s Education Programme, especially our Anak Sabangau Programme. I will plan with my team to start sorting any waste into six different types in preparation for recycling, we will make a permaculture garden in the village of Kereng Bangkirai, where Anak Sabangau is based, and we will use the Compass Model to help plan our lessons each month.
I believe through education there are many things that we can change, including people’s perspective and encouraging positive behaviours toward the environment.
