Our Island, Pulau Harapan

“Pulau Harapan, Pulau Kami” (“Our Island, Pulau Harapan”) is a pilot project we started in 2017, as a response to the concerning reality of marine trash impacting the small island with a beautiful name, Pulau Harapan (“Island of Hope”), Kepulauan Seribu, 2 hours away by speedboat from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

The marine trash that bombards the Islands in certain seasons is dominated by single-use plastic wrappers originating from Jakarta Bay and Lampung. It has been damaging the mangroves and the coral reef.

According to an FGD we conducted with the locals on the island, we found out that fish had been decreasing in the sea around the island for the last 10 – 15 years, causing the locals to change their livelihood. The best quality fish is reserved for the tourist or made into fish crackers for income. The wave of vendors from Java selling fried snacks has become common on the beach, with many small stalls selling drinks to snorkelling tourists at the island’s National Ocean Park and Turtle Farm.

The children’s nutrition and family health becomes a problem as the price of shipped goods from the mainland of Jawa becomes expensive for the Islanders, making it difficult to fulfil the basic need of protein, vegetables and fruits, and also made worse from the lack of knowledge of a healthy diet.

This problem is a timebomb. The wrappers from consumer goods have now polluted the island.

Waste has become a real problem.

We cannot wait till the ocean becomes clear nor wait till the fish flourish again.

We believe children’s development cannot wait any longer.

Therefore, basic nutritional needs and skills to prepare healthy food are our priority in this pilot project. We plan to continue working on developing the school canteen management and vegetable garden as a showcase for a simple healthy food source, followed by waste management and the empowerment of the Island’s economy that is eco-friendly.

For that purpose, we collaborated with Gemass Indonesia (Gerakan Makan Sehat Anak Sekolah – Healthy Children School Meals Movement) and started the first stage of “Pulau Harapan, Pulau Kami” by educating the teachers, students and parents on nutrition.

The initial result was promising as many mothers participated in the cooking contest, making non-fried fish with children and chefs as the judges to conclude the program. Our hope is to build self-confidence and encourage them to take turns in helping provide school lunches at the canteen.

Thank you to ACP (Association of Culinary Professionals) Indonesia and PT Nutrifood Indonesia who have helped us support the first stage of several cooking training programs given by chefs on the island.

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Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are temporarily suspending our program, but we hope to be able to continue supporting and giving new hope to the island.

 

Our objective is simple:

We want Indonesia to have a successful role model with a solution that can provide examples for other islands faced with the same problem, so they can be self-sufficient and prevent a lost generation due to malnutrition.

May the Universe support our cause, with the help from friends of Mata Cinta wherever they are.

 

Let’s collaborate!

matacinta.id@gmail.com