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:
| Interviewee | Question | Answer |
| Arnav | General Bio
(Year, student/teacher, how many years in GET) |
G11 Student
Current Finance manager Joined this year |
| What interests you about the ocean or conservation? | Its importance to the world’s ecosystem and its dynamic nature | |
| Why did you choose Gili Eco Trust GC? | It is sadly one of the only environmental GC’s at our school and I was passionate to contribute to the cause of the environment | |
| What do you bring to the group? | My finance abilities and being able to keep track of things in an organised manner | |
| Why did you apply for your position? | I was highly motivated to help make a difference in the GC by using my abilities and past experiences in helping with finance and selling products to help us fundraise and keep track of our products
Refer to our inability to do so in the past |
|
| What progress in the group are you most excited for? | Our ability to acquire new stuff that we can actually sell to raise money for our cause of saving the oceans!! | |
| Iman | General Bio
(Year, student/teacher, how many years in GET) |
-G11 Student
-Current Chair -Joined in G8 (3rd Year) |
| What interests you about the ocean or conservation? | -Coming from Malaysia, I have first hand experience regarding the effects of neglecting ocean conservation | |
| Why did you choose Gili Eco Trust GC? | ||
| What do you bring to the group? | ||
| Why did you apply for your position? | ||
| What progress in the group are you most excited for? | ||
| Arjun | General Bio
(Year, student/teacher, how many years in GET) |
I am a grade 11 student and am the current co-vice chair of the GC. This is my 6th year of Gili eco trust after I joined in grade 5. |
| What interests you about the ocean or conservation? | The ocean and marine life in general has always been a passion of mine ever since I was young, as my family introduced me to the wonders of the ocean through snorkelling at a young age. This has grown into a hobby of mine in snorkelling and diving. Having glimpsed what the ocean can offer, and knowing that it is at risk is what brought me to GET, as I wanted to help in any way I could. | |
| Why did you choose Gili Eco Trust GC? | I chose Gili Eco Trust over other GC’s that I was looking to join in grade 5 firstly due to my passion for the ocean, but also because after some research I found that their methods of combating coral destruction were fascinating. The concept of sinking a metal structure under the water and running an electric current through it to accelerate coral growth is still something I get excited about I am explaining it to someone. And Gili being able to convert a local society that once made it’s living off of dynamite and cyanide fishing into one that promotes ecotourism has benefitted both the environment and the lives of the individuals that live there. | |
| What do you bring to the group? | Some things that I bring to the group are that I have a commitment to this GC that I place very highly, and am able to lead and direct other students to work in a more effective manner. I offer ideas to groups that are struggling with their tasks and move around trying to help whenever I can. | |
| Why did you apply for your position? | I applied for this position after being logistics manager for 2 years, in both grade 9 and 10, as I felt that I could use my skills that I developed while in that job, as well as my dedication to the GC to try and help lead the GC into a place where we can take initiative to make as much of an impact as possible. | |
| What progress in the group are you most excited for? | What I am currently most excited (and worried) about is the introduction of new products to the GC, for the past 5 years we have been taking GC made products from Bali sharks and GET and selling those, and now we have an opportunity to find and sell a different sustainable product. | |
| Mr. Brooks | General Bio
(Year, student/teacher, how many years in GET) |
I have been working with the Gili Eco Trust GC for 5 years, and am now entering my sixth year here. I teach IB Physics and Theory Of Knowledge. |
| What interests you about the ocean or conservation? | I have lived by the ocean since I was 12, so I have a very personal connection to the sea. Initially, I was interested in general conservation and climate change activism and was looking for an environmentally focused GC. Reducing my carbon footprint is very important to me. | |
| Why did you choose Gili Eco Trust GC? | Gili Eco Trust was the only environmentally focused GC available at the time, and it was focused on things that I care about; like the climate, environment and animal conservation. | |
| What do you bring to the group? | I am the supervisor of the group. I kept it going when, one year, it almost died out. I’ve been the supervisor for 5 years now, and have kept it going since the very start of the group. | |
| Why did you apply for your position? | ||
| What progress in the group are you most excited for? | Trying out a lot of events, but now swimdonesia is huge. Gili trip saw the NGO. uwc reef* horse work, the island has no cars, no fresh water NGO is working on education. Work with the products | |
| Ms. Davies | General Bio
(Year, student/teacher, how many years in GET) |
I am a Science teacher, teaching IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences, IB Biology, and IB Environmental Systems and Societies) |
| What interests you about the ocean or conservation? | I’ve always lived by the sea, and so in University I got a degree in University. I have a personal connection to the ocean. | |
| Why did you choose Gili Eco Trust GC? | In my second year at UWC East, I joined Gili Eco Trust because it was a way to relive University days and stay connected to the ocean. | |
| What do you bring to the group? | I’m very practical, and I like to make new ideas or facilitate them in students. At events, I oversee the finances and make sure things run smoothly. I also bring my scientific knowledge and grown-up perspective. | |
| Why did you apply for your position? | ||
| What progress in the group are you most excited for? | I would really like to see the group expand beyond just fundraising; I believe we could have work more on raising awareness in the community. Firstly in the school community (including teachers and parents) and then maybe our greater Singapore community. | |
| Oscar | General Bio
(Year, student/teacher, how many years in GET) |
I am currently a Grade 11 student at UWCSEA and I have been a part of both the middle and high school GC for a little more than 3 years. I am currently co-vice chair. |
| What interests you about the ocean or conservation? | I would prefer to use the word worried rather than what interests me about the ocean and conservation as I have pretty much always been worried and increasingly so in my teenage years about the environment due to the importance and significance it has on humans and our lives. The ocean has a big impact on our lives, and many of us, live in coastal cities and our diet consists of seafood especially where I am from in Sweden. | |
| Why did you choose Gili Eco Trust GC? | I chose Gili Eco Trust because I wanted to join a GC in middle school, however, Gili Eco Trust was the only GC that had its main focus on the environmental sustainability which is why I joined. In addition, I had been to the Gili islands and was also a diver and like to swim, so despite it being the only one, ocean conservation like many other areas of environmental sustainability was a deep worry of mine, especially the coral reefs which is what we are working on to maintain and in fact grow at Gili Eco Trust. | |
| What do you bring to the group? | Although quiet and sometimes unconfident, I have always brought my dedication and commitment to the GC as well as my organised and productive skills. | |
| Why did you apply for your position? | I knew that I wasn’t able to become chair, mainly due to my unconfidence but I still wanted to improve my confidence and communication skills, so vice-chair seemed the perfect fit. | |
| What progress in the group are you most excited for? | So far, it is the swimdonesia event. In grade 9 when we joined the event with surf aid and Jakarta street kids, the event was not exciting, but now it is quite a big event especially for primary school and even middle school. |
Bio-rocks is a relatively new technology that allows corals to regrow into coral reefs. These structures are an essential part of the projects that Gili Eco Trust invest in to rebuild coral reefs in the Gili islands that have been damaged by boats dropping anchors and fishing practices.
Here is a diagram of a bio rock:
Bio-rocks are man-made structures that through electric currents and electro-accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater, stimulate the growth of corals. There are 127 biocoks in gili making it the second-largest program in the world.
Gili has credited their bio rocks to “Marine scientist Wolf Hilbertz in 1974 was researching seashells and coral to find out how they grow. He found that by passing an electrical current through seawater, the salty water electolyzes causing calcium carbonate to combine with magnesium. Chloride and hydroxyl ions slowly form on the cathode and this eventually coats the electrode with a material almost as strong as concrete. Over time this material hardens further, growing and becoming stronger as long as the current flows as much as 5cm per year. It can even heal itself if it were to be damaged and due to it’s high levels of dissolved oxygen it is particularly attractive to marine organisms The superfood for our coral reefs! ”
Students can come to Gili to work on the project and is mainly aimed at gap year students, people on career breaks and anyone interested in more than just a normal vacation. Volunteers can come along to the island and help out on new Bio Rock projects, work on maintaining existing ones or even sinking their very own brand new Bio Rock. Other activities include how to create and maintain a coral garden, learn about environmental threats and coral biology, and how to survey coral gardens.
Gili Eco trusts also offer their very own coral reef awareness course and bio-rock PADI dive course
Here are some of the many bio rocks at the Gili islands:
Bio rocks can look really different and creative like this on in Bali creating interesting landscapes and coral reefs:
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.
Coral reefs are situated between 5-60 meters deep and come in three types. Fringing reefs (near the coast), barrier reefs (situated between a lagoon or deep area of water) and atoll (sort of like an island surrounded by a coral reef)
Coral reefs form around the reef crest, reef flat and fore reef (on a hill underwater.
As many knows, coral reefs are important ecosystems, and these fishing techniques are damaging and terrible for coral reefs
Below is a diagram of threats to coral reefs, mainly overfishing techniques:
Many fishing techniques are destructive to these delicate habitats and ecoystems — particularly vital fish breeding grounds like coral reefs and seagrass meadows. Below are some examples of these fishing practices, which happen mainly in south east asia, but have happened in places like Australia
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.
Every year groups from each GC visit their NGO of origin and work and build relationships with them in order to maintain a connection between the NGO and the GC at school. This is crucial which is why this year (2020), two groups consisting of 5-6 people will be helping out and building relationships with Gili Eco Trust at the Gili Islands in Indonesia.
In Gili, the two groups will be joining the green team, a team that organises cleanups. The groups will also help out in the recycling centre on Gili Trawangan, performing and organising beach cleanups, and helping out with the bio-rocks. Gili is split into two teams, the green team, which works on sustainability on land, and the blue team, which works on sustainability on water. The two groups will do a mix of participating in both teams. Gili Eco Trust calls its volunteers it’s Eco Warriors and below is an example of a schedule that most volunteers work on. Bank Sampah is the recycling centre.
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.
Planning Swimdonesia: (reflection on planning)
Right from the get-go, we organized an event called Swimdonesia with Surf Aid GC and Jakarta Street Kids GC to raise money for our respective GC. This was a big event in which various games were played in and around the pool, and the usual food and beverages were sold. 
Our ex-chair and ex-vice-chair (now chair) with our MCs for Swimdonesia
Kids of all ages can’t wait to try the Destroyer.
The Destroyer, the blow-up obstacle course we organize every year for Swimdonesia
Aside from the first session, most of our time has been dedicated to Swimdonesia. Because it was on the 12th of October, we had very little time to get organized as a group before we had to rush to prepare for it. However, our leadership team and some members of our GC did attend some sessions concerning the logistics of the event, finalisation of ideas with all three GCs (Gili Eco Trust, Jakarta Street Kids and Surf Aid) and the final plan.
Gili Eco Trust GC members working
In our second session, we split up into groups to work on various activities that would occur at the event, such as a quiz, games, and ticket-selling. However, a lot of the fun activities got cancelled. This is because we realised we didn’t have enough time to plan them properly, and we were told by Mr Hannah that we did not have enough people to plan the event. Indeed, many on our team couldn’t or didn’t go to Swimdonesia – but all of us helped in planning it. The challenges in organizing the event can be seen in more detail in our SWOT analysis post.
However, the hurried planning for the event has helped us to practise prioritising tasks and quickly analyse the logistics of events we may hold. It will help us in organizing another of our events coming up, the Holiday Fair on the 12th of December.
Leadership Positions:
After finishing Swimdonesia planning, our chair and vice-chair have stepped down. Our new chair is Iman, and our vice-chairs are now Oscar and Arjun. Other leadership positions so far include: Head of finance (Aarnav), and Communications Officer (Ashima).
Goal Setting Document:
On October 11th, 2019, we, along with Jakarta Street Kids and Surf Aid hosted the Swimdonesia event of 2019. This event went considerably better than last year, as we were more prepared and improved on our mistakes from last year. However, there were still issues and problems we faced. To reflect on this, we can use the SWOT Analysis or Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
Strengths:
Time was utilised effectively by cleaning up early
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
Threats:
In order to improve we need to:
Gili Eco Trust is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) that was created in 2010 with a mission to protect the coral reefs around the Gili Islands in Indonesia from destructive fishing practices. It is based in Gili Trawangan and is also known as Yayasan Ekosistem Gili Indah. Here are links to their Website and Facebook Page. There used to be a lot of cyanide and dynamite fishing which is both destructive for the corals and the coral reef ecosystem. After a terrible El Niño event in 1997-1998, an agreement was soon established between the fisherman to end the destructive fishing practices.
The mission of the NGO is to create a sustainable island as well as “to promote ecotourism and provide a healthy environment for working animals. To restore our coral reefs and to replenish our natural fish populations. To ensure that all waste created on Gili T is reduced to minimum levels and managed and separated properly for recycling projects where materials can be transported off the island.”
In addition, they have several goals:
On the 14th of March, UWCSEA East campus hosted the annual Family Festival. Gili Eco Trust participated in the event by selling merchandise and helping out the zero waste stall by washing dirty dishes and leasing out plates, bowls and cutlery. This was aimed to reduce waste at the event.
This was one of our best years at the event as we were able to sell a lot of our merchandise. However, it is still important to constantly strive for improvement which will be presented in the following SWOT Analysis.
1) Strengths
-The addition of primary school students and teachers to our stall helped to appeal and sell to a younger audience
-The organised nature of our stall in terms of student allocation
-General products sold: Including low performers such as the Glitter and T-Shirts
-Active advertising: High School students successfully managed to actively attract parents
2) Weaknesses
-Organisation of the various clothing that we sold during the event: The boxes they were in were not organised making it more difficult to find the correct sizes
Opportunities
-Selling the glitter: Due to more appropriate pricing
-We managed to get rid of our excess stock of reusable bags
Threats
-The reliance on a single finance person: Iman was there for the whole time and managed the stall
-Next time brief everyone on money collection
Below is our SWOT analysis for the zero waste stall
1) Strengths
-We managed to reduce the waste at the family festival by not using non-reusable tableware.
-Able to lease out plates effectively and efficiently
-A constant flow of leasing and washing.
2) Weaknesses
-There was limited organisation before the event as the timings and roles were decided too late
-The roles and responsibilities were not kept at times.
Opportunities
-Connect our environmental sustainability with zero waste and our aims of our GC
Threats
-We did not have enough change to give back to the customers as many used 50 dollar notes to pay for the leasing.
Iman – Chair: mohd66080@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Oscar- Vice-Chair: landg76129@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Arjun – Vice chair: bharg10421@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Arnav – Finance: agarw76727@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Ran – Media: mccle51104@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
Ashima – Communications: nivsa101000@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
