By: Andhiani M. Kumalasari

Last Friday morning (20/2), the WWF-Indonesia Papua Program Office had special guests. They were the students of SD Kristen Permata Sentani, Papua. No less than 20 4th grade students accompanied by 2 teachers came to the WWF Papua office to learn and get to know more about renewable energy.

The activity started exactly at 9 o'clock, beginning with an introduction games. After that, the students were briefly explained about WWF-Indonesia's work program. The core program was filled with explanations about renewable energy as the energy of the future using poster media. To make it easier for the children to understand, a game of "take all the candy you want" was played.

In this session one of the participants, Evan, suddenly interrupted. ""Sis, are there any examples of renewable energy in Papua?"" Evan's question was answered by showing a documentary about the implementation of Micro Hydro Power Plant (PLTMH) in Wambena District, Jayapura Regency, an assistance program from WWF-Indonesia Papua Program. The session was closed with a question and answer session about renewable energy and things that children can do to be wise in using energy.

The children were then given the opportunity to visit the library. This activity seemed to be of great interest to the students as they immediately picked up various books on the shelves and read them while sitting down. Kak Yola, the Library Staff of WWF-Indonesia Papua Program, also selected interesting books to read. Due to time constraints, the reading session had to end. But the students were not disappointed because Kak Yola gave some WWF publication books that they could bring for the school library collection.

The next event was to tour the office and listen to an explanation of the "Green Office" concept implemented in WWF-Indonesia Papua Program. Each room in the office is given an open area so that sunlight can enter and provide natural lighting so as to save electricity. The tour of the office ended with the distribution of guava fruit harvested from the tree that grows in the office yard.

The short but fun visit that day was initiated by SD Kristen Permata itself. This is one proof that the campaign themed "Renewable Energy-Future Energy" initiated by WWF-Indonesia Papua Program last year has increased public awareness about energy and resources, especially for school learning.