TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Environment Caring Family and Children Forum (Fokal) is collaborating with environment NGO ‘Friends of the Environment’ (Shalink) of the Friends of the Earth Indonesia (Walhi) in Yogyakarta, is recruiting children to run campaigns in their family and school environments.
In the annually held recruiting event, the two NGOs are targeting to recruit 200 children starting October.
“The number of child environment ambassadors is decreasing. From hundreds of children, there are only 20 to 30 children remain,” said Lilis Eko Wahyuni, a member of Fokal.
The decrease, according to Lilis, is due to the fact that many of the children have grown up and they got reluctant to join the younger kids in the community.
The recruitment event will be packed in a singing and drawing competition themed ‘Singing for the Country’. The children are invited to participate in environment-themed singing and drawing contest, planting mangrove, visiting the sea turtle conservation in Samas Beach, also practicing to reduce, reuse, recycle and replace unused goods.
Desi Tomasouw, a mother whose child Xonia (10 years old) has been an environment ambassador for four years, expressed benefit of her child’s activity.
“The child’s behavior teaches parents to also care about the environment,” said Desi.
PITO AGUSTIN RUDIANA