“WE first became aware of Ecoteer’s work on the Perhentian islands when we were planning our Sixth Form Community Trip. We wanted to support a charity working within Malaysia and were impressed with the work being done by Ecoteer to protect turtles and help the local community.

Our group of seven students and two teachers offered a week of our time last year to support the charity. We were particularly impressed by the collaborative nature of the work and Ecoteer’s aim of encouraging islanders to get involved and educating them on the importance of marine conservation.

To help preserve Malaysia’s wildlife and natural world, we spent much time simply cleaning the beaches. Pollution is a growing problem at Perhentian and it often seemed to be a never-ending task. Many of us grew up in Malaysia, and we feel very strongly that it is important for us all to help preserve our local wildlife, particularly as tourism to Perhentian increases.

Ecoteer runs a weekly Turtles Need Trees club for the local children and our focus for the week was to design and paint the classroom used for this club. Two A-level Art and Design students in the group created designs on sea life to promote the importance and beauty of marine conservation. They also incorporated into their designs positive messages of ways to protect the surroundings, such as “Don’t litter”, “Don’t touch coral” and “Don’t poke the fish”. We were hugely pleased with the finished result and hope that the bright surroundings will create a positive learning environment for the club.

In the year leading up to the trip, we participated in various events to raise money for the project. The money went towards buying the paint to decorate the classroom and the Ecoteer Community House, and to create some community murals. Ecoteer also bought games and activity materials to be used by the children in the Community House, to combat concerns of growing substance abuse and anti-social behaviour amongst youths on the island.

It was a wonderful experience to be involved in the project and one from which we learnt a lot. – By Nick Collins and Alasdair Chadwick, Year 13 students from the Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur

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