By Pixy Norman
Littering is everyone’s worst nightmare. When it comes to Indonesia, as an individual who was born and raised in this country, I have been taught at school how not to litter and keep our environment clean. But it is another story to get it embedded in our daily life. It has been proved to be a ‘not so easy task’. Personally, it took me years to understand the value of the nature and to respect it. Having to live in Cornwall, England for 3 years made me realize how different it is from where I come from. To me Pacitan is as beautiful as Cornwall; the scenic beaches, the green roads, the hills. But Pacitan is dirty and here we don’t really care about our garbage management.
It is proven that there were huge east Java scout campers. They arranged their pitch and tents in a very attractive manner while there is not a single trash can in sight. We managed to spot one away from the campers but not one within reach of those little hands of junior scouts. We are sure of their management system of organizing big event but the shameful fact of not educating those pity little generations is a disgrace to their own motto. Aren’t this camping weeks supposed to be a media to educate Indonesias future generations?
The irony is that this scout organization, which clearly understands and knows about the big problem of littering in our culture, has done nothing in order to change this embarrassing behavior. I have been reading through their professional website out of curiosity and I clearly found it written down in their guidelines that we should love, respect and embrace the nature. The campers stayed for nine days. Our frustration came on day one and lasted until day nine when I realized that being angry was no solution but instead doing something about it.
Witnessing the last few days there is clearly plenty of room for improvement. I just can not wait to start this project and hopefully gather everyone and talk about things which matter for the future of our environment.
Project Child has just started the Sekoah Pantai project in Pacitan and the program will emphasize on environmental education. These programs aim to raise environmental awareness especially among children in a school age.
