By: Muhammad Maharoem Novansyah (Volunteer Panda Mobile)

My name is Muhammad Maharoem Novansyah. I am not an environmentalist nor am I wise enough to teach someone well about environmentalism. At least I have my own realization, if I always harbor my talents or ideas, I don't get anything in return. I started my action in a small way. I love animals even though I'm afraid of cockroaches. I often carry a handful of cat food that I pack in vegetable plastic. When I see a cat struggling to find food on my way to or from college or just eating meatballs on the side of the road, I feed it. Although not all cats I feed due to certain conditions.

I really like cats and like interacting with animals, even with ants. My awareness of the environment made me think that extinct animals will bring disaster because of the damage to the ecosystem. I initially thought of protecting animals by explaining to the public and educating them. This was realized when I was accepted as a volunteer Panda Mobile WWF-Indonesia Batch 2018 Period II. But at WWF, they taught me ideas of environmental education that I had never thought of before.

Alhamdulillah, I was accepted as part of the WWF family. After struggling with approximately 410 people to apply to be a volunteer in WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile program, I was accepted to be part of the WWF family. I was proud when my name was clearly displayed on the WWF website, but also embarrassed because there were still so many things I had to learn.

I think it's a big stepping stone for me because I'm not a very ambitious person when it comes to any kind of environmental action and sometimes I still violate it. I feel very guilty about that. But for me, WWF opened up my horizons that used to be narrow to be very broad.

Last Saturday (04/08), WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile held a training for new volunteers. What came to my mind was a very rigid job training that requires me to dare to express opinions and express all thoughts with people who are already very expert in protecting the environment. It turned out that my view was wrong. My fellow volunteers told us, the new volunteers, that here we all learn together and protect the environment together.

Training began with self-introduction of each member starting from name, occupation, busyness, and background. After that, we were introduced to what WWF and Panda Mobile are in detail, starting from the work programs carried out by WWF, nature conservation, and others. It was very enjoyable for me personally because I actually gained knowledge from new friends who have different backgrounds.< br />

out of the box questions. It turns out that WWF is very serious about teaching the smallest things from an early age such as about water that must also be well preserved and learn how to care for the environment by saving water, not littering into the river, distinguishing which water is clean and which is not. We were also trained on how to teach children about water quality using Panda Mobile's mini water lab facility.

Then there is also the knowledge about hydroponic plants that we have to convey when we are involved in Panda Mobile activities. Here we were taught technically how to convey how to grow hydroponic plants interactively. Aside from that, we were also asked to be creative in a unique activity of making totebags from used clothes. In my opinion, this activity was strange but funny because of the unusual shape of the totebag. And one thing for sure is that we were taught to pass on how to utilize our surroundings for recycling to our little friends later on.

Another knowledge we gained was how to convey implied and explicit messages by providing quality shows about nature conservation. In essence, we were taught to be friendly to young children as well as to people who are the target of conveying conservation messages.

During the breaks between trainings, I exchanged a lot of ideas with new friends. I heard many thoughts about the world from different perspectives. After the break, we were also given educational simulation games to become good and spontaneous public speakers. One of them was by presenting items around us that could be a threat to environmental damage. In the presentation, we also had to provide solutions to the problems in an interesting way. During the initial presentation, I was very nervous. But considering that the goal was good, I had to throw that away.

Freshwater Program. At first I didn't care because it was too complicated and complicated, but I slowly understood what this program was all about. Presented by Mr. Agus Haryanto, with his smooth tone, I enjoyed what I didn't understand. I even heard some opinions and questions from friends about water conservation issues, especially freshwater. It's really sad to see that the rivers in Indonesia are polluted. I feel lucky because I can teach people around me how much the environment needs more care. I was also able to explain the relationship between protecting watersheds and conserving wildlife around the watersheds.

After the closing ceremony and photos, we tidied up the place. We went home with new knowledge that can be applied to our daily lives that can help the Earth become even better.