Herni
She believes kids are the key to a cleaner future.
Meet Herni. She fell in love with environmental programs while working at the Centre for Environmental Education in Indonesia and is passionate about encouraging the next generation to reduce their plastic consumption.
As the Education Program Coordinator at Bottle for Botol, an organization focused on reducing single-use plastic through environmental education, Herni developed a curriculum that inspires students to change their consumption habits. She believes students are more likely to make positive changes if they can have fun while they’re learning.
“Learning about environmental issues should be fun and cool! Children learn better when they are happy and cheerfully enjoying the learning process. Even if we are talking about sad fish trapped in plastic bag in the deep blue sea, when children are in a happy mood, they listen and feel better.”
When asked why she thinks youth are central to the future of the planet, she had this to say:
“Youth will grow up one day and rule. They will be able to take action and make decisions for their life, their family, their neighborhood, and their country. If they learn to be kind to each other and nature and to take positive action, the future will be better than today.”
But first, she says:
“I have to motivate myself to act! This is the most challenging and probably the hardest part about my job. Slowly but surely, what I do will motivate the teachers, and they will motivate their students. Children do what they see. Their behavior is formed from what they see and learn from their surroundings. If we keep setting good examples for children, they will act better than we do.”
“I have learned not to underestimate children. They can be smarter and wiser than we think!”
In her favorite conservation lesson, children follow the “trash journey” by picking one item they have used and drawing where it came from, how far and how it traveled, and where it goes after they are done with it.
“This lesson teaches us to have self reflection — every single one of us contributes to the trash problem. The concept “I contribute to the trash problem” will help a child think about what he or she can do as an individual to reduce waste in their community.”
Donate to Bottle for Botol to support educational programs like Herni’s.
This is a story from GlobalGiving’s Voices from the Crowd series.
