14 February 2023

Lev Horodyskyj

Founder

We’ve just returned from a site visit to Ternate, Indonesia, where we worked with our colleagues at Khairun University for ten days to take a look at how projects have developed and to discuss future directions for our collaboration.  Check out more information below!

Fundraising Opportunities

Greenworks Launch Fund, 200% Matching Campaign, March 6-19 through GlobalGiving (icon rocket with Earth launching to the left, with Greenworks gears emerging from the back as exhaust)

Coming up next month, we have a major fundraising opportunity through GlobalGiving.  We have a $10,000 matching grant that will be used to match your donations at 200%!  These funds will help support student environmental stewardship and related engineering projects through the Greenworks program for the next year.  Projects will take place in Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Ukraine, and the US.

Map pin that looks like a globe

Additionally, we are developing a partnership with Pindle, a social media app that’s a cross between Google Maps and Instagram.  We post photos of our projects on a map, and if you like what you see, you give us gems that we can cash in for donations.  Check it out!

Memorandum of Understanding – Khairun University

Ten people standing in a row, with Indonesians wearing yellow coats
A student stands in front of netting draped under a bridge that is trapping plastic bottles and other waste near the ocean murals off to the left

We signed a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding with Khairun University while we were in Ternate, Indonesia, earlier this month. During this collaboration, we will utilize the Greenworks program to support student environmental stewardship projects on Ternate and surrounding islands. We will also work with all eight faculties in training teachers in project-based learning, which includes the faculties of marine sciences, agriculture, medicine, engineering, law, economics and business, culture science, and teacher training.

Greenworks 2023 Cohort

We began our Early 2023 cohort a few months ago, but met with our students in-person while at Khairun University to better understand how they were working in the program.  We took the opportunity to connect with Ukrainian students who are also working in this cohort.  Students are progressing through the curriculum to construct well-formulated project plans.  We also began recruiting new faculty into the program who are observing how the project design curriculum is built and implemented.

Five Indonesian students sitting at desks in front of a screen showing the image of a student in Ukraine

Greenworks Project Updates

While in Ternate, we took the opportunity to check in on the projects that the Greenworks program has previously sponsored:

  • Composting Business (2021):  This project has become intregrated into Khairun University’s agricultural program.  KU sponsored the building of a composting house where the business currently resides and acts as a training program for new students.  Currently, the students are working to expand the business into organic farming, selling produce to local AlfaMidi stores (which are located all over the island).  They are also working to expand the sale of compost to local farms.  (photos below of students with signage for sales and preparing compost for sale)
  • Upcycled Trashcans (2020):  This project is currently defunct, but we visited Runy’s School to discuss how to resurrect it and integrate it into the Composting Project.  (photo below of kids at Runy’s School)
  • Canal Project (2022):  The beautified canal has become noticeable to locals.  Unfortunately, the netting to catch garbage ripped recently due to extremely high rainfall and flooding.  We’re working on how to better trap garbage in the area around the canal.  (photo below of canal art project)
A view of the canal mural, showing an unhappy sweating Earth, a whale swimming in garbage, and hands holding an ocean setting with the words "Save our Earth", followed by a scene of scuba divers exploring a reef and two clownfish in a reef. Steep stairs to the left lead from the canal up to street level, and a bridge over the canal is further to the left. Random bits of garbage litter the canal.
Six students hold a sign showing how much they'll pay for organic waste in front of a building for composting with the signage "Pusat Pengelolaan Limbah, Fakultas Pertanian"
Lev on the right with many Indonesian school kids smiling and giving peace signs and thumbs up
Three male students to the left pouring compost in a bag and weighing it, two female students to the left crouching and labeling the bags of compost, two male students further to the left handing the female students labels for the compost bags in a room filled with bags of compost

Future Collaboration Fieldwork

We took a one day excursion to the nearby island of Halmahera to explore native beekeeping, a project of importance to our colleagues in Brazil.  This connection will allow us to develop a collaboration between Khairun University (Indonesia) and the University of Campinas (Brazil) to sponsor future Greenworks projects in sustainable agriculture and beekeeping.

Pictured here is an Indonesian meliponario.

A building in a densely vegetated landscape, filled with beehive boxes

Global.Science Season 2

Two women in hijabs (Lily and Mar) on the left of a laptop logged into Zoom, with Lev to the right

While in Indonesia, we took the time to sit down with our colleagues to begin recording discussions about teaching in Indonesia.  We’re expecting to premier season 2 of our Global.Science podcast in May.  So until then, catch up on Season 1 through your favorite podcasting app!

This season, we will try a few new formats, including student discussions and school visits.  Plus, we’ll talk with a lot more international teachers!