B

ooks, mangroves, trash, and cube stone; what do they have in common? Ask the 700 participants of Gabung Mulung Tidung 2. They would immediately know the answer. On a sunny and hot weekend over Sept. 17-18 on Tidung Island, these metropolitans worked charitably to make the island a better place rather than going to malls to make themselves look better. Instead of purchasing new clothes, they found new friends. Rather than the bistro’s steak, they ate fresh fish.

Hundreds who had donated books were brought from Jakarta to assist the island’s Nyiur Library. Along with the books, event organizer KakiGatel provided bookshelves and air conditioning in a collective effort to encourage people living on the island, especially children, to read. Joining the initiative were Greenpeace activists who installed solar panel lamp at the small three room house library. The program supported the idea of the event’s tagline “My Clean Tidung, My Clever Generation”.

“In the first Gabung Mulung Tidung, our concerns only regarded the island’s cleanliness. Now, with more people participating, we would like to expand our engagement toward more community development,” said coordinator Nofian Husein. It is indeed a progressive event which will be conducted from time to time. In answer to how long the commitment might last, fellow coordinator Bartasan Wauran answered, “Until Tidung is completely clean.”

Garbage has always been an issue for Tidung as sea currents bring trash in their direction from all of Jakarta’s thirteen river streams. Tourists also leave rubbish in random places.

Other sustainable programs include planting mangroves and setting cube stones in replacement of anchors. Mangroves are being planted with the intention of preventing coastline erosion, whereas cube stones are fixed to avoid coral destruction. Some 700 volunteers were split into more than 20 groups — each of which has their own assignments. Some have committed their time to picking up trash.

Others are concentrated on developing the library. Others still are focused on planting new mangroves. Each group received additional support as hundreds of local students also gave their volunteer time. As for the cube stones, a snorkelling team set them up the very next day.

After all of the sweat and hard work during the day, volunteers deserved Saturday night entertainment. It started with traditional dance performances by local girls, games and a blues music show from Break Time Community Jakarta. Encouraging participants to perform, they played other music ranging from rock, R’nB, dangdut and Indian. The day closed merrily with fireworks.

More excitement came on the second day. Two hundred people enjoyed a snorkeling trip to neighboring islands,
while the remaining five hundred were invited to join the Holi Festival and beach baseball game. Holi is an Indian festival of color where people cover each other with various colored powders. The festival was introduced by Bittle Singh, an Indian volunteer, who has been a participant since the first Gabung Mulung Tidung.