After teachers finish delivering our eight-lesson Environmental Education Program, we visit the school for a short interview with the teacher, so that we can evaluate the program and learn how to improve it in the future. 
 
Below is an interview by Saras, our Research Officer, with Pak Hindu Komang, the Year 6 teacher at SDN 15 Dangin Puri who has taught three classes from the BfB Education Program to date, and is currently teaching the fourth!

Written by Dode Gargitha, BfB School Communication Officer

​On Saturday, October 8th 2016 I joined Lesson 1 of Bottle for Botol’s Environmental Education Program at SMP Wisata Sanur. Saturday is the day for extra-curricular activities for most schools in Bali. One of the extracurricular activities at SMP Wisata Sanur is environmental education. This year 45 students from year 7 and 8 are taking part in the BfB program, the students are all members of the student leadership club. Pak. Ida Bagus Suardika, who is one of the religion teachers at this junior high school, is teaching the BfB classes.
During the lesson Pak. Ida Bagus Suardika discussed Tri Hita Karana. For Hindu people in Bali Tri Hita Karana is a basic concept of life. It consists of Parhyangan (good relationships between humans and our Gods), Pawongan (good relationships between people) and Palemahan (good relationships between humans and environment). We believe that if we have a good relationship with our Gods, other humans and our environment, we will live prosperously.
Pak. Ida Bagus Suardika started the lesson by introducing BfB’s Environmental Program to the students and giving them an overview of the lessons to come. He was very confident in giving the lesson so the class ran very well. The students were very active in answering the teacher’s question and presenting their opinions and points of view

Figure 1. Pak. Ida Bagus Suardika discussing Tri Hita Karana

Written by Alice Sainsbury, Masters of International Community Development

Between July and October 2016, I volunteered with a small social enterprise in Bali for the professional placement component of the Master of International Community Development at Victoria University. My connection to Bali, and love of the natural world, was the inspiration to enroll in the Master and undertaking the placement there was a clear choice. When I was a baby, my surfer father and I moved to Bali, returning to Australia in 1999 just after the Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia and in time for me to attend high school. I’ve read that home is not where you are born, but where all your attempts to escape cease. Bali has been incredibly special to me in this way, and as soon as I could afford it, I came back. I was aware of the pollution problem as a child, but it was not until I returned as an adult that I recognised the enormity. With every visit, the rubbish, the excessive use of plastic and apparent lack of waste management was getting worse and worse.
 
The environmental landscape in Bali, both physically and politically, has changed dramatically in the last 15 years. The widespread environmental problems are no secret to those who have visited its unique shores. Locals and visitors see the rubbish piling up in the streets, on beaches and riverbanks; they wade through it in the canals and swim surrounded by it in the ocean. It can be smelled burning all over the island, in remote and urban areas alike. Landfill sites are over capacity and Indonesia is the second largest contributor of plastic pollution in the oceans (Jambeck et al. 2015; Herder & Larsson 2012).

​Written by Dode Gargitha, School Communication Officer BfB

​Several Australian teachers have visited and joined classes at their partner schools in Bali, Indonesia. These include teachers from Alphington Primary, Aitken College and Billanook College in Victoria, as well as Pacific Pines in Queensland.

Congratulations to the new year 6 class at SDN 15 Dangin Puri and their teacher Pak Komang Hindu! On Saturday, the 27th of August, 34 students received their Bottle for Botol bottles. By bringing their bottle to school each day these students will prevent more than 180 plastic cups or bottles from entering the waste stream every week!

Congratulations to the 55 year 11 and 12 students who have just completed the Bottle for Botol program at SMA Negeri 2 Kuta (Kuta's second senior high school)! At this school our program was run with the environment club students, known as SISPALA DUTA BHUANA (student ambassadors for the Earth). BfB provided each student with an education book, as well as powerpoint presentations with videos and music for each lesson. Between October 2015 and August 2016 the students took part in eight BfB lessons. These lessons were largely student led, with the support of their teacher, Pak Nyoman Sutarma. Students studied the lessons on Saturday afternoons. 

The SISPALA team at this school is very active, they also grow mangrove seedlings and plant them at the local wetlands, have search and rescue classes, orienteering and mountain climbing. The students also clean-up rubbish while mountain climbing and planting mangroves.

We are very happy to learn that in August 2016 the number of SISPALA DUTA BHUANA students has grown. More than 80 year 10 students have just joined the SISPALA DUTA BHUANA team and area ready to begin the BfB program this semester! Great work by the year 11 and 12 students, who have inspired the new year 10s to join in these activities!