Bawah Reserve News and Blog

Notes from the Anambas Foundation: Reflecting on the Second Quarter of 2022

Written by Dian Arthen, Anambas Foundation | Oct 18, 2022 1:42:03 AM

May through August 2022 has been another busy period for the Anambas Foundation team - particularly around our Below and Beyond programs.

We  welcomed  Andi Maulana as the new Administration and Finance officer, a position that was previously held by Lilian Dewayani. Lilian remains close having taken a position with Bawah Reserve resort. 

We also had two new members join the marine conservation team.   Interns Rehyan and Ariqa from Jendral Soedirman University in Central Java, will be staying in Kiabu, working alongside the team there for three months.

Read the full report here.

 

ABOVE. BELOW. BEYOND. 

A quick highlight of our accomplishments during May-August 2022.

 

BELOW

Marine Conservation

 

 

In June, we celebrated World Oceans Day with a three-day event for the school children in Kiabu as part of marine conservation’s KELAUT activity. The event featured games, a coloring activity, and a beach clean-up on Hiu Island. Not long after that, the marine conservation team had a small gathering with residents of Kiabu to present the progress and achievement of the program and to hear the community’s feedback on our work.

 

Key Stats:

● 51 Coral Spiders, 1200 BPCs, and 1 coral tree deployed in Semut Island: 2,285 coral fragments transplanted.

● Fragments survival rates of coral spiders at 87% and Bored Pile Corals at 87%.

● Total rehabilitated area: 1,251 m2.

● 2022 Reef Health Monitoring and 2021 Marine Debris data reports submitted and presented to LKKPN Pekanbaru.

● 4x marine debris data collection in Kiabu: 98 kg of plastics and 18 kg of waste glass collected.

● 2x marine debris data collection training to 5 students of SMPN 1 Kiabu and 2 interns.

 

 

BEYOND

 
Women’s Empowerment

The women’s group in Telaga meanwhile was busy making traditional chips such as peyek and banana chips for Bawah Reserve. With the re-opening of Bawah, we can expect that the village women will receive more orders for chips and organic crops in the coming months.

 

Integrated Waste Management

We entered the second term of 2022 with the exciting news that we had been selected by the Honnold Foundation to receive a $52,159 solar energy grant for our waste management facilities in Kiabu, Candi, and Langir. Installation of the solar technology started in Kiabu, then followed by Candi and Langir. Everything was done by the communities with assistance from a third-party installer from Batam.

The waste bank activity is now available in four locations within the Anambas Islands, three are in the aforementioned villages, and another is in Telaga. Through this activity, we’ve so far received more than nine tons of recyclables from villagers, and in return, the villagers have earned more than IDR 10 million from regularly delivering their waste to the waste banks.

With more waste banks, more trash bags were needed so we asked the women’s group in Kiabu to make 120 more bags that we then bought for the price of IDR 15,000 each. These bags will be shipped to the four villages in the next term, each will be getting 40 bags to be given to customers of the waste bank

 
 
Digital English Club (DEC)

Digital English Club (DEC) in Tiangau did an evaluation to better improve the program implementation in the village. We saw a decrease in student attendance so we had a meeting with the parents to discuss this matter. Amid the poor internet connection and frequent power outages, the Genting Pulur chapter of the DEC held 20 online classes throughout the second term. Prior to the official launch, we did an assessment of prospective students before we grouped them based on their English skills.

 

Organic Farming

The organic farm in Telaga was  being taken care of by Pak Zairul and his family and our village facilitator. Moreover, Pak Zairul and our village facilitator, plus two members of KWT (women’s group) practiced organic home farming in their homes. There were also seven farmers who grew seasonal crops such as chili, and corn in their own yards. Meanwhile, the green house still housed regular organic vegetables. All crops harvested were then sold to Telaga villagers.

 

 

We look forward to continued progress in the next quarter of 2022.  If you would like to support our programs, you may make an offline donation using the bank details provided. HERE

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