Kids for Earth

Climate change week is finally here, happening on the 19th June. Our official Billy the Plastic Bag book will be launched along with the opening of our ‘Bring Kids For Earth to your school’ Workshop. If  you want to take part, contact me at raphaelletseng@kidsforearthasia.com. You have to get a team of 4 or 5 kids from the ages 10 to 15 to come. 19th June is a Saturday and the workshop/launch will start at 11.00am. Hope to see some of you guys there!

Oh yeah, there is also going to be an eco bazaar running throughout most of the day. Kids For Earth will be selling bags and books there.

Astro TVIQ organised a workshop in SK Sri Petaling and made plans for Kids For Earth to present our Billy the Plastic Bag presentation. Isaac, Gautam, our newest member Idris and myself, stayed the whole morning and took part in some of the activities. At the end of the workshop, the members of Kids For Earth judged sketches of why not to use plastic bags and how to ban them. We all learnt about how a proper workshop should be run and this gave us some ideas for future workshops.

Issac Lee, Raphaelle Tseng, Idris Bin Azim, Gautam Jethwani

On Saturday 13^th March, Kids For Earth departed to Raub to take part in a day long, anti-plastic bag workshop with the Raub Leo club.

Arriving there, they quickly organised ourselves in order of birthdays as a simple icebreaker. Somebody, (not mentioning any names!) completely misunderstood the game and ended up saying the wrong thing (well, it was in mandarin so…).

Being special guests, members of KFE were not sorted into teams, unlike all the other teenagers. However, they decided to participate in the games anyway, all of Kids For Earth being one team (called Kids For Earth, obviously!).

George, Gautam and Gabriel all attempted (and nearly succeeded) to present the Billy the Plastic bag presentation in both mandarin and English. With the help of a translator, they managed to pass the message through and thoroughly entertained everyone!

After that, they took part in a game  about degradation   where they had to match up how long something took to degrade with its object. The best part was that the 100 PLUS, Chewing gum and banana hadn’t been eaten yet!

Afterwards, Aurelie, the organiser of the day, gave her presentation, again with the help of a translator, about plastic bags and why they where no good. Having looked at the quiz answers in the car, Raphaelle spotted all the fun facts that would be in the quiz such as:  The Great Pacific Garbage dump is 4 times the size of Malaysia.

Then, Kids For Earth brought a group of kids downstairs to have the eco-quiz. It was awesome and some of the answers were VERY surprising!

At 12.00, everybody raced to be the front of a long queue. The delicious aroma of nasi lemak drifted around the cafeteria. Everyone gobbled up his or her lunch, all finding that the sambal was EXTREMELY spicy!

At the end of lunchtime, Aurelie asked Kids for Earth to hide pieces of paper around Chong Ching School for the scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, all the teens upstairs were doing a word scramble, earning points for their team.

Next, Raphaelle presented her presentation on Eco-Schools and how to become one. Mandarin subtitles where already on her power point so there was no need for a translator.

Students announced three things they could do to make the school eco-friendly before they had the scavenger hunt.

THAT was a great success and everyone was running around the school, (in the 100*C heat!)  searching for well hidden bits of paper while Gabriel, Gautam and George fanned themselves in the shade.

To cool down, Aurelie had organised a 1 hour Art session where everyone had the choice to either design a poster against plastic bags or create a bag out of plastic bags. Both Kids For Earth members and the committee of the Leo club judged the winners.

At the end of the day, everybody was awarded a new Leo club grocery bag and a bookmark. The Leo club members all took a picture.

On the way back to KL, Kids For Earth stopped at a famous ice-cream shop on the road and had some delicious homemade ice-cream (although peanut flavour was very interesting…).

They arrived back home at 7 pm, having spent 12 hours out of their homes. __________________________________________________________

Kids For Earth had a fantastic day and would like to say a special thanks to Aurelie who organised everything, Gautam and George for coming and the members of the Leo Club for participating.

Our first talk venue was in Jalan Bellamy, the Alice Smith Primary campus in Kuala Lumpur. I think we did great! We got lots of positive feedback from the teachers, and I offered the children a grocery bag design competition where they could design their own bags. The response for that was also really really good! Here’s the presentation I showed at JB.

Slide 1: shown as people come in. Introduce Kids For Earth. Introduce plastic pollution

Slide 2: … and to tell you more about plastic pollution, I want you to meet my good friend, Billy the plastic bag.

Slide 3: As a young bag, Billy had a very fulfilling life as a plastic bag. He caried the groceries from the shops to his home.

Slide 4: Billy was a happy plastic bag.

Slide 5: But then, after being used for just fifteen minutes…

Slide 6: … he’s thrown away!

Slide 7: Poor Billy…

Slide 8: But soon, Billy realised he was not alone

Slide 9: In fact, there were trillions of others just like him! But what happens to these trillions of plastic bags? I’m pretty certain they don’t just dissapear. Well, lets imagine we are the trillions of plastic bags. I’ll need three volunteers for this. (To first volunteer) You are the lucky one! you will be recycled into a more permanant grocery bag! (If possible hold up recycled plastic grocery bag) (To second and third volunteers) You two aren’t so lucky. You will be reused and reused and reused until you look like this (Hold up torn up plastic bags) and then, you will join the rest of us in the garbage truck, with Billy.

Slide 1o: (Look at screen) Oh wait! Not with Billy: He’s fallen out!

Slide 11: Blown by the wind…

Slide 12: He falls into the sea.

Slide 13: Being plastic, he doesn’t sink: he just floats about and follows the currents, where he meets many animals, such as Mr Jellyfish and Mr Shark.

Slide 14: But Billy isn’t a happy plastic bag anymore.

Slide 15: In fact, he’s downright angry! He can’t understand what he’s done to deserve this! Billy wants revenge!

Slide 16: And so, Billy becomes the most known serial killer in the seven seas. His name sends shivers down animal’s spines. All over the world, he commits brutal murders: he kills a swan in Asia, a turtle in Melbourne, and in the middle of the ocean, he hangs onto a dolphin so it can’t swim.

Slide 17: Billy’s well into his list of killings. He’s killed penguins, seals, albatrosses, and even cows!…

Slide 18: When he begins to break up! He gets smaller and smaller, but he remains a plastic particle. He never becomes part of nature.

Slide 19: Billys abit lonely, so he joins the POP gang. The POP gang is made up of chemicals that don’t belong in the ocean. More often than not, they were dumped there by man.

Slide 20: They find their ways into the food chain, which is where they become a problem, as some POPs are poisonous. And as one scientist said: what goes into the oceans goes into the animals,…

Slide 21:…which goes onto our dinner plate.

Slide 22: But don’t feel bad for Billy; he ended up on one of the many plastic beaches littering our world’s shores.

(Animation 1) Such as this one

(2) Or this one, in Hawaii

(3) And Billy’s friends can wait to degrade on these coral reefs

(4) And finally, this beach. Notice the date (5): 2006. Since then, plastic pollution has increased tenfold. That’s this beach’s pollution doubled. And that doubled, and that doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled. Imagine this beach today.

Slide 23: And when Billy wants to go for a swim, he has the whole ocean… but most of his friends are here, in te Great Pacific Garbage Dump. An area that reaches from Hawaii to Japan, nearly completely devoid of life.

Slide 24: So what can you do?

Slide 25: Well, the easiest step is to bother and bug and pester your parents to stop using plastic bags and to buy grocery bags. Over and over again, reming the, and I promise they will listen.

Slide 26: And after having bought the grocery bags, please don’t leave them at home. Keep them in your car, or folded up in your rucksack.

Slide 27: Every year, 100,000 of sea birds and 100,000s of marine mammals get entangled in plastic pollution, and if you stop using plastic bags, you will help save them. So on their behalf, thank you.

If you would like to show this presentation in your school or workplace, please contact me at gabisayshello@gmail.com and will do my best to help you.