Eni's story since attending COP13 in Bali in December 2007

There are so many thing that I have gained after attending the UN climate change conference in Bali last year.

One of them is to have the chance to speak in an international forum. Other than that, we also had the chance to see the negotiations that took place by the delegates around the world in the forum. We even had the change to ask questions to the delegates on the affects of the changing climate to children rights all over the world.

From this experience, I realize that even the smallest things that we do can make a large impact to our environment.

Climate change is a global issue that has a huge impact in our daily lives. Most of the people where I live in Indonesia are farmers. Right now, our farmers are puzzled in determining the time to plant the rice. Climate change has indirectly caused harvest failure and thus reducing our income. For example, my mother right now is having difficulties in paying my tuition.

From above example, one question that comes into my mind is “Can we just sit still and not do anything?”. Choosing to be silent or not doing anything while watching this is the same as to make this thing last forever and make things worst. It is true that our government, I think, has not yet shown that it can tackle climate change. But, I will not just sit still and wait.

Couple of things that I have done after the Bali conference is:

1. Socialization of Climate Change to my friends.

Minimum knowledge of my friend’s around climate change issues is still a challenge that we faced today. For that reason, me and my friends conducted socialization on the danger and impact of climate change to our families, friends in school, friends in the village, and also my friends in the youth groups. The main point is to invite them to do something for our environment.

2. Tree plantation

Socialization without positive action is nothing. I and my friends organize a tree plantation activity in a sub district called Pulokulon. We selected this village because there is a water spring that is used by the surrounding communities for clean water, with population of more then 100,000 people that is benefiting this spring. We did this to protect our source of water for us and generations to come.

3. I also trained 15 children in 3 villages to reuse their waste and convert it to other products that we can use, such as dolls and photo frames. They also commit to reduce their plastic consumption to minimum.

From the small things that I have done, I believe and positive that it can leads to greater things.

Eni