By: Annisa Ayu (VolunteerPanda Mobile)

"Does anyone know what an elephant's trunk does?" asked Mecca, one of Panda Mobile's volunteers. The children, who are still in kindergarten and play group, answered enthusiastically, "To get food and drink water!"

The dialogue about the elephant trunk took place during the visit of WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile to Istiqlal Kindergarten located at Istiqlal Mosque, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday (30/01). The activity themed "Save the Sumatran Elephant" was attended by around 180 kindergarten students and 100 Play Group students. The activity aims to introduce Sumatran elephants to the students.

After the Panda Mobile team introduced WWF-Indonesia, Kak Ryan and Kak Biyong told a story about the Sumatran Elephant. Using a guitar and animal puppets, Kak Ryan told a story about an elephant who was sad because he lost his friends. The elephant was then helped by a tiger to meet the rest of the elephant herd. The story about the elephant was warmly welcomed by the students.

After listening to the story, the students were divided into groups to participate in other activities that were already available at several posts. Each post was accompanied by a volunteer who would provide explanations. The first post was a movie watching activity. Two movies were screened, "Quartet at The Crossroads" and "Tiger Hunter". The volunteers also explained about the natural conditions and the animals in the movie.

In the second post, the students were very active and happy while playing animal-themed cricket and snakes and ladders. In between games, the volunteers explained about the unique facts of elephants. In the last post, they were invited to color. Each student received a paper with pictures of six animals: Sumatran Elephant, Orangutan, Javan Rhino, Tiger, Whale Shark, and Turtle. They followed the coloring activity with great joy.

After visiting all the stations, the students rested in the center room. Activities with Panda Mobile made the children very enthusiastic, especially interspersed with quizzes with prizes. Various questions asked by the volunteers were answered well by the students. "Thank you Sister Panda Mobile for visiting!" they exclaimed at the end of the event.