Children never see a green Jakarta

Children never see a green Jakarta

"Let us be your friends whose foliage shall provide you with
shade and fresh air. Plant us along your boulevards, your town
squares, your desolate hills and fields -- and not instead, fell
us with your chainsaws."

Such were the words of a poem titled Tree, by Syechna Meutia
Flohrianti, 8, a fourth grader from Bekasi.

In another poem titled River, Syechna told of rivers that
would unleash their wrath of floods if they were littered, while
in Flower, she portrayed a beautiful world filled with flowers.

The an anthology had earned Syechna the 2004 Young
Environmentalist of the Year Awards (YEYA) for the junior
category, an annual event held by water company PT Thames PAM
Jaya to promote awareness of the environment among the young.

Meanwhile, for Rhendy Akbar Hilman, 14, winner of the event's
senior category, his way of expressing environmental was by
making a black-and-white comic strip book titled "Heroes for
Earth", about two teenagers who encouraged their community to
clean up their environment which had been polluted by a factory.

The works of Syechna and Rhendy will be submitted to YEYA's
international level, organized by the Young People's Trust for
the Environment and Nature Conservation in the United Kingdom.

Chairman of Kehati foundation's board of advisors and former
environment minister Emil Salim, who was the event's honorary
guest, said it was important to promote an environmentally
friendly attitude among children.

"This is because some 20 or 30 years from now, it will be
these children who will take over the earth from our hands and
manage it," he said.