How do you highten the awareness of children to the troublesome state of the forest and Nature that surrounds them? One way is to draw… solutions.
People that reside in close vicinity to the Borneo rainforest play a major role in protecting it. Especially young people have great potential as standard bearers in the fight for Nature. Therefore, part of the work we do in Borneo together with our Indonesian partner organization BOS Foundation is about educating the young people in creative and fun ways.
In February, the BOS Foundation held a poster-drawing competition among school and high school students in the Samboja Lestari forest area. A forest area which is under severe pressure from deforestation, and which will soon be a neighbor to Indonesia’s new capital.
“The hope is that we create fascination and understanding of the nature that these young people live close to. And that the new generation ultimately will push for more nature protection in the future,” explains Marie Sigvardt, who is program manager at Save the Orangutan.
The students were given three hours to unleash all their creativity and draw posters showing environmental destruction in forest or water ecosystems. Afterwards, they had to present their posters. It gave both shy and more confident students an opportunity to practice speaking in public.
There was plenty of good atmosphere and enthusiasm, and there will be many more similar events in the future to strengthen the bond between children and young people and their rainforest.
The drawing competition was part of a project supported by the Civil Society In Development (CISU).
