Meet the young environmentalist sending children to school in Indonesia

euronews (in English)

In partnership with Media City, Qatar

Transcript

00:00 I would describe Bali as a tropical paradise.

00:05 There's usually crabs and sea urchins, oysters, bright blue fish, bright orange, bright purple fish.

00:16 Everybody's nice here.

00:18 You'll basically know everyone in the street or they will know you.

00:23 The downside is there's loads of plastic everywhere you go.

00:27 My name is Joseph Widjaya. I'm 11 years old and I collect recyclables to pay for kids to go to school.

00:35 A long time ago I was playing with my friends. They were collecting recycling to sell.

00:55 They would mostly pick cables because it's the most expensive kind of recycling.

01:00 Some of the money they would give to their parents, some of the money they would keep for themselves to buy snacks.

01:07 After a while I thought it's not fair that they have to collect to survive.

01:13 I felt bad for them. They couldn't go to school because they had money issues.

01:19 I was thinking how can I make a positive solution so I could make Bali a better place.

01:28 I set up Joseph Recycling.

01:38 Its mission is to pay for kids to go to school, to shut down single-use plastic and figure out a way to eliminate all plastic in the world.

01:46 My project does weekly pick-up service.

01:50 I have almost 100 clients.

01:54 Mostly restaurants. I just put a recycling bin there.

01:59 They put in the recycling. I collect it.

02:03 Every week I pick up four times in different areas.

02:12 In Joseph Recycling there's my mum, dad, Pak Gusti, Lisa and Eddie.

02:17 My mum does the social media, like the Instagram.

02:22 Pak Gusti helps me to do the pick-up sometimes, same as my dad.

02:30 Lisa and Eddie do the sorting in the storage.

02:36 The things that can be recycled, there's like plastic bottles, glass jars, glass bottles, and cardboard cans, metal, electronics.

02:46 Bottle lids I turn into key rings.

02:52 First I wash them, dry them, melt them.

02:56 I just use a panini press.

02:59 Or just take gloves and twist it around to make marble colour.

03:03 Put the cookie cutters in and then flatten it again.

03:08 Wait for it to cool and then put the key ring bits on and done.

03:13 I sell my key rings at Sunday markets and festivals.

03:24 I do it from 9 to 4.

03:27 I usually count the money, put it in my bank.

03:30 After a few months or more, see if we have enough money, then we pay for more kids to go to school.

03:37 It costs $400 to pay for a kid to go to school for one whole year.

03:45 I have sent 24 kids from the orphanage to go to school.

03:51 Even before I started this project, I would go to the orphanage with my mum and dad.

03:58 We'd usually buy lots of food and stuff they needed and we'd just bring it there and we'd just play there for a bit.

04:05 It feels really good having the satisfaction that I can do good in the world.

04:10 From the very first moment I've heard of Junk Stuff's project, I know that this project is going to create an impact.

04:19 It's a project by a child.

04:22 Joseph is encouraged to be part of the solution by taking trash, recycling them,

04:30 and also helping other children to get an opportunity to have an education.

04:35 Thanks to people like Joseph, we are seeing changes in Bali.

04:40 Children are motivated because they can see there's Joseph, like their own age, that can do this stuff.

04:48 The advice I would say to someone that is trying to do what I'm doing is to start from zero,

04:55 learn bit by bit how to do it, and also try and have fun.

04:59 I love watching and seeing Joseph's evolution and growth.

05:10 Recently, I've been seeing him more in the public space, creating greater awareness,

05:16 creating partnerships with similar-minded initiatives.

05:20 My friends inspired me, and my goal at June is to pay for 20 kids to go to school for a whole year.

05:31 I hope in the future that I can be successful.

05:35 I will have loads more clients, be paid for hundreds of kids, and also have the proper machines to do my work.

05:45 I want to help all the kids go to school in Bali.

05:49 [Music]

06:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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