If we educate the youth in the right way we can raise a whole generation of change makers. This is why Earthbound focusses so much on visiting schools to raise awareness about the global issues we face and empowering people to make a change happen. We hope to inspire them through presentations and workshops but also through games, art, and music as a way to break the language barrier.

Last week while we were in Sumatra we had the chance to meet up and hang out with the kids from the local elementary school called SD Negeri Balai Lutu. When we arrived there we were engulfed by a bunch of happy screams and warm hugs. The kids here were so eager to get started with whatever we had to offer for them. We started off by standing in a large circle with all of the students their ages ranging from five years old to 13 years old. We played some drama games with them to break the ice and it was so great to see how cheerful and excited they all were. Although some of the students were really shy at the beginning they all broke through the steel and it was a really pleasurable time.

playing games with the kids – photo by Roxy Mcdonald

After a bit of the fun, we had a conversation with them about the plastic problem and what the situation was in Sumatra. Many of them said that they used a lot of plastic in their everyday lives and would often throw away their plastic after just one use.After hearing about this we decided to do a bit of a clean up around the school to show the students how big the problem was and what they could do to stop it by showing them the solutions such as the alternatives to plastic and recycling what they already used. Then we resumed to playing games such as soccer and broke up into smaller groups to made drawings on what we love about the earth and exchange our songs we learn from around the world and learn some of their traditional performances. The thing I loved most about this part was that in the smaller groups you could really get to meet some individuals and learn more about them on a personal level.

Cleaning up the school – Photo by Roxy Mcdonald

I really love going to schools – especially primary schools – because you can really see the raw passion that the youth have and can capture it in the right way through education. We hope that we have made even the smallest change in their community and have motivated them to make change happen.