Our Projects of 2022

In the Gili Eco Trust Global Concern, we have been working on a multitude of projects to help Gili Eco Trust in the Gili islands with their efforts in supporting the community, raising awareness in UWCSEA East about various issues on campus, and working with other services to bring exciting ideas to raise funds. 

Our fundraising group, which includes Victoria, Sonu, Zehn, and Diya, are working on a sustainable lip balm to raise funds. Currently, they are finishing their proposal to send off to service. To gather more data on the product, they will be sending a form to each grade to gather greater insight into the viability of such a product to be sold on campus. A sustainable product that people are willing to pay for has been challenging, but the group is persevering. 

 

Our On-Campus action group, including Jaime, Tarana, and Yoko, has been working on a multitude of projects. At the start of the year, they were working in collaboration with other services groups to plan the art event. They are now working on a project to reduce the paper waste that comes from classes, e.g., paper booklets and blue booklets. They have worked on a form in which they will be able to gain some data and make a presentation off of that. Through their research, they want to find a sustainable solution to the waste of paper currently being produced in UWC.

For direct action, our service has been collaborating

with our NGO partner to support schools in the local communities on the Gili islands. Akshat, Liliana, and Aarushi have been working on a video about sustainable living practices and will be translated to Bahasa and sent to the NGO so students can learn more about how they can help reduce their environmental impact.

As for raising awareness on campus, which includes Aryan, Aanya and Ken, has been interviewing members of our school community regarding their knowledge about marine life and has been collating them into short videos. This will be shown in mentor time or in an upcoming assembly as a lightning-up activity to raise awareness about the service and marine life.

 

We have our collaboration with other services group. Tara, Sunny and Aryana are very helpful in this domain. They have made an action plan for an upcoming art event, they want to get approved by the service department. It is very creative as they want to take old trash and make it into some lovely artwork. They are currently awaiting approval from the service before going ahead with the event.

As for our chair, Roberto, he has been supervising the various groups, helping them when needed, and ensuring GET continues to be an effective Global Concern in the school’s service department. Throughout the weekly meetings, he will hop in between groups to check-in and assist in any new tasks/issues brought up.

In conclusion, our Gili Eco Trust group has been very successful and productive over the last couple of months. We have worked hard to meet all of our goals and ensure that everything that needs to be done gets done.

2021 – Recent actions in Gili despite the COVID pandemic

Gili Eco Trust has recently been working with other NGOs to help the environment the best they can.

One of the NGOs they have been working with is “Treevolutions”, volunteers and Suparman members have gathered together to plant trees around the Island. They managed to plant 20 banyan trees which were supplied by the government and 80 Flamboyant trees. They have had multiple treevolutions in 2020-2021 and they even organized a special Valentine’s Day tree planting. How thoughtful of them!

Gili has constantly been collaborating with the Treevolution organization, planting new trees all over the island

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Gili T Collects 10,000 Plastic Bags At World Clean-Up Day

 

19th September 2020 was World Clean-Up Day, a global movement around 180 countries to rid our planet of the waste and trash that is suffocating its wildlife and natural wonders. This year was the third year that the worldwide movement took action, with more than 11 million people from 165 countries contributing to the greening of our planet. The people in Indonesia did not hesitate to contribute. With the theme of “United for Clean Indonesia”, they took a step further from just sorting and cleaning the trash at home to uniting the country for a day of deep clean up.

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Family Festival Cancellation

Unfortunately, due to the 2019-nCoV situation or Coronavirus, the school has decided to cancel all gatherings of over 40 people until August 2020. This was decided by the Singapore government in support of international crisis management. It is quite disappointing as the Family Festival is an exciting and important opportunity for us as a GC. The implications include:

  • Major finance and fund opportunity lost
  • A lost opportunity to sell our products

Destructive Fishing Techniques (Dynamite and Cyanide Fishing)

 

As part of Gili Eco Trust, we strongly discourage and look down upon fishing techniques that do more harm than good such as dynamite fishing and cyanide fishing in which other fish and corals are damaged or killed unnecessarily. Below are two examples of what happens when for instance cyanide or dynamite fishing techniques are used:

Coral reefs are important marine and aquatic ecosystems that have huge biodiversity supporting many species. Coral reefs are found around the equator so mainly in tropical regions between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer or 23.5 degrees north and south of the equator. The ocean here is mainly calm, warm and not much wind. Coral reefs also help neighbouring ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass beds and deep-ocean ecosystems.

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Project Week

 

As the culminating outdoor education experience at UWCSEA is Project Week in Grade 11 when small groups of students plan their own trips that combine adventure and service, and they travel to a site in the region unaccompanied. South-East Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia are the most popular destinations. 

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Turtles are finding their way back to Gili Trawangan!

Huge changes occurred on Gili Trawangan when the government took to the beach and ordered the clearance of all buildings and structures on the sandy side of Trawangan’s main path.

The government informed all the businesses to take structures, tables and sunbeds off the beach. Although they are still clearing the rubble and foundations, our beaches are now reverting back to their natural state. You can actually see the sea from the main street and the beach isn’t littered with little jewellery stands and restaurants. A true tropical paradise is reviving! Continue reading “Turtles are finding their way back to Gili Trawangan!”

2019 Gili Strong Triathlon

The 6th Sporting event to take place in Gili Trawangan, the Gili Strong Triathlon was a big success. The registration fees collected from 28 teams and 35 individuals amounted to 10.6 million rupiah, with all of it going towards the NGO. This is because the local government provided the prize money, and local businesses provided prizes. A raffle was also held, which raised another 12.8 million rupiah. Also, their pop-up eco market stall was at the Gili Festival (a 3-day event after the triathlon) and in total it made 3.7 million rupiah. Continue reading “2019 Gili Strong Triathlon”

Initial Reflection and Moving Forward for 2019/2020

November 12th, 2019

It is now the 6th session of Gili Eco Trust in the 2019 – 2020 academic year, and a lot of the initial set-up has been completed. 

Our first session on the 10th of September involved a basic overview of both the GC and the NGO. The leaders summarized their aims and their methods. For example, they explained what biorock is, and why helping the Gili islands is so important. They also gave us the link to the Gili Eco Trust NGO website. Continue reading “Initial Reflection and Moving Forward for 2019/2020”