Introduction to: THE CLEAN BALI SERIES

Education is the key to environmental awareness, and language is the vehicle that endows us with the ability to learn and understand. Once, story-telling was a tradition in Indonesia, and now slowly the tradition of reading books is starting to fill the vacuum left by the transition to a modern lifestyle which allows much less leisure and family time with our children.

Creating a story for children in three languages for Bali, the group of concerned individuals - writer, illustrator, story-teller, architect, environmental activist and publisher - who came together to create the “Penyu dan Lumba-Lumba” (Turtle and Dolphin) book, each drew upon their own particular skill, hope to provide an educational tool to Balinese children that will have far-reaching effects.

“This is the first in a series of three books, telling the stories of birds, animals and children who are experiencing the life-threatening problems caused by plastic waste and rubbish which is dumped in the rivers and ends up in the sea on the island of Bali” says writer Maggie Dunkle.

The Clean Bali Series has a mission to educate through having fun. As the children learn to deal with the rubbish they also discover their social responsibility. Together, they will be able to make a change.

Working with Balinese story-teller Made Taro who is well known on the island for his passion in keeping traditional children’s games and story-telling alive gives this team a special understanding of how children learn by playing together. Today’s children are often solitary and lacking in social skills, their main source of out-of-school learning being television and video games, sometimes violent, and rarely educational.

As well as the bright and beautiful full page illustrations by Margiyono, the team has created a game at the back of the book (plus a separate game-board in a bag) and a song composed by Komang Dhananjaya Wishnuputra that children can learn and expand their own words to. These elements of creativity, playing and having fun, are what make this first book in the series so very special.

Distribution of this first hard-cover edition will start a new precedent – due to the generous sponsorship of many individuals, plus that of Metro Department Store and Cerebrofort Kalbe Farma, 3000 pre-purchased books will be given away free to local schools, with a focus on reaching those in coastal areas first, where environmental degradation due to rubbish is particularly serious. Another 2000 books will be distributed for sale in the bookshops of Bali, and the proceeds from these sales will go into funding further editions.

It is hoped “Penyu dan Lumba-lumba” will become a handy teaching tool. To make sure the teachers are able to make good use of this book in their classrooms, the Clean Bali Series team and the publisher, Saritaksu Editions, have chosen to work with Yayasan Gelombang Udara Segar (GUS) to distribute to schools. Their current educational program in schools, to teach children about the environment, has already reached about 15,000 children in more than 200 schools and is ongoing.