What happens when a group of people who like to tell stories to children and who are concerned about the environment come together?
They will definitely create something. A book, for instance.
Clean Bali Series is a local nonprofit organization that has given itself the inspiring mission of cleaning up the planet by educating and empowering children. Their method is to create books that both entertain and educate kids.
Clean Bali Series launched its second title in the series, Seagull and Heron, at Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) Resort in Ubud, Bali, on Saturday.
"Our main aim is to develop awareness about clean environments in kids' minds so that they act as agents of change for their neighborhoods to maintain cleanliness," said Clean Bali Series chief manager Etha Widiyanto.
Like the first title in the series, Turtle and Dolphin (released in November 2007), the book greets readers with its enthusiastic "let's-clean-up-Bali" spirit and beautiful paintings, which lack childish nuances.
For this book, Australian author Maggie Dunkle, who has been living in Bali for four years, and Indonesian painter Margiyono created Seagull and Heron as the main characters. Dunkle and Margiyono are collaborating on all the Clean Bali Series books.
The story begins with Seagull and Heron having trouble finding nice and tasty fish near their favorite mangrove forest. Instead, rubbish - empty snack packets, plastic bags and bottles, and even an old shoe - pops up everywhere when the tide comes in.
In search of answers, the seagull travels to many places.
She flies from the beach to a dirty big city, drops by a park with trees and a water fountain but few birds, views rubbish floating down the river - not to mention ignorant people who don't pay enough attention to the hygiene of their home environment. These are all scenes that explain why her own habitat is now a sad place to live.
In the second part of Seagull's journey, she tries to find ways to end her troubles with rubbish. First, she spies a group of schoolchildren cleaning up their yard and putting the rubbish into yellow bags before handing them over to a yellow truck emblazoned with the words "Recycling/Daur Ulang".
Seagull hears one of the boys say that the yellow truck would come every week and take away the rubbish for recycling.
His village would not have rubbish and water flooding the road when it rains, the boy adds.
Given this, Seagull thinks that her habitat might free from rubbish.
As Seagull leaves the clean village, she flies above beautiful rice fields with green rice plants and golden brown ones. There she again meets Heron.
While Heron finds an exciting spot to find frogs as his tasty prey for the day, some men clear rubbish from the water dykes.
The rubbish floats downstream before piling up, blocking the gates of the dykes.
After witnessing the sources of the rubbish, which later ends up in the ocean, Seagull and Heron can only hope that people will become more concerned about their environment.
Dunkle told The Jakarta Post that she had never failed to include a moral lesson in her stories.
"I've always wanted the kids to get something *in the story*, which they can share with many people," she said.
"I want them *children* to learn one simple thing from my stories, which hopefully could guide them in the future," said Dunkle, who has written 20 books relating to environmental and children's issues since the 1980s.
The 56-page second title of the Bali Clean Series is written in Balinese, Indonesian and English. The publisher has printed 5,000 copies. The book is available for free or from local bookstores around Bali.
Etha said they hoped that, by using three languages, the book's message would be accessible to everybody in Bali.
"Old people of Bali can still understand the essence of the book by reading or hearing the story in Balinese. The young people can also help the old, who don't speak Indonesian or English, to learn those two languages," she said.
Clean Bali Series will release its third title in April next year.
"But before the third title, we really hope to be able to launch a teacher's guide book; currently, we're still working on it," said Etha, adding the teacher's guide is designed to give teachers at schools or any other learning institution information about the environment and ideas for educational games to play with their students.
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