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Clean Up Jakarta Day

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On Sunday November 10, we hit the streets behind our school to join in the Clean Up Jakarta Day campaign.  About 40 students, teachers and parents worked our way up the back lanes of our school to pick up the stray plastic bags, water bottles and of course, the millions of cigarette butts covering every surface of this country.  There is nothing really enjoyable about standing over a drain and pulling at congested plastic and hoping it doesn’t come flying up in your face, but it certainly felt right to be making even a small gesture in helping to clean up this place we call home.

The locals were certainly amused at the strange mixed bag of people with their cleaning gloves and recycling bags as they became theTukang Sampah (rubbish person) for the day.  In the end we collected 16 bags of rubbish and sent them off for recycling.  Hopefully it at least stopped the flooding of the drains for one day.
Next year, we hope even more people get involved in the campaign and that the government can start to make more of an effort to reduce the waste in this place, and to educate people about where to put that waste.  I was thinking this as my ojek driver threw his used plastic bag onto the street and I imagined that plastic bag making its way eventually into the belly of a fish, and it made me sad about what we are doing to this planet.  So many people in Jakarta exist more in a survival mode, rather than one of flourishing so it’s okay if there is rubbish everywhere, or if you burn plastic and inhale the toxic fumes, or sit behind a bajaj blowing poison in your face, or toss your rubbish into a drain; there isn’t a chance to make a connection between a toxic environment and bad health when you are on survival mode.  But something has to be done fast for this place and Clean Up Jakarta Day is certainly a good beginning.

The amazing team from AIS Pejaten! (Photo courtesy of Talisa Tulip…. Thanks so much!)

Students cleaning the streets surrounding Australian International School (AIS). (Photo courtesy of Talisa Tulip)

Amazing work everyone!. (Photo courtesy of Talisa Tulip)

Cleaning drains around the school..  (Photo courtesy of Talisa Tulip)

Awesome job! Well done everyone at AIS.. super effort by all those involved. (Photo courtesy of Talisa Tulip)

NOTE:  Also a HUGE THANK YOU to Angela Richardson at Jakarta Expat Magazine for starting the Clean Up Jakarta campaign, now in its second year.. well done in being active in making positive changes in Jakarta!

3 Responses to “Clean Up Jakarta Day”

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  1. Angela says:
    November 22, 2013 at 5:14 am

    Thank you guys for participating and making a difference! Small baby steps will become strides! 🙂 x

    • Tani says:
      February 11, 2016 at 3:47 am

      Wow great job guys!! Im so proud of the AIS students as I am from AIS myself alumni class of 2003. Id love to participate this year and maybe get the others folks from my year to join the stride!? 😀

      • welovejakarta says:
        March 10, 2016 at 6:26 am

        Hi Tani! Thanks so much for taking the time to write us a note and how great that you are also AIS alumni 🙂 I just took a look at the Clean Up Jakarta website to see when the next clean up day is and it’s October 2016, but registration is in April 2016, so that gives you plenty of time to round up some friends and join in the fun! If you want further information on it, check out http://cleanupjakartaday.org/en/ or maybe you can contact AIS and see if you can go along with the current students to help out?

        Either way, thanks so much for caring about the city enough to want to help make some positive change. Well done xoxo