Katana children's wonderful water spinach
"Tabea...Majou Hidora, Homa Ko Dora, O Alam Ha Paliara! (Hello! Harmony for us, for the world, for nature)," Katana children shouted in Tobelo language. Katana is a village located in East Tobelo, North Halmahera.
It is not just a common greeting shouted by children here, but they try to apply this greeting to real life too. The mainly primary school students learned how to plant water spinach from the Child Learning Group (KBA) that they attend every Thursday at 3 p.m.
"I'm happy because our water spinach could grow well," said Reflis, 12.
At first, it is not easy to assemble 40 to 70 children to take care of water spinach plants since they are restless and distracted.
However, their character slowly changed when the planting competition was held.
Children were divided into seven groups, with one leader who was responsible for the plot. They were assigned to record information, water, and trim the plants regularly. Each group also has its own book, pen, and ruler to measure the plant.
In the first week, they were trained to plant water spinach and take care of it. They worked together to make fences from bamboo and short boards. Although there was no rope to bind the fence, they used bark instead.
In the second week when the seeds turned into water spinach buds, they had to record the details about their plants including the numbers of leaves, the height, soil condition, etc. The children also drew water spinach plants in their books.
This learning process of nature has taught the Katana children to preserve Halmahera nature. This activity is worth their patience. Water spinach grew so well that the children harvested it three months later. From their crops, they earn Rp. 300,000. The sales revenue will be donated to build Integrated Post Service (Posyandu) building where they could join in KBA once a week.
*Written by Hestin Klaas (Community Development Coordinator) and Roni Waigeu (Development Facilitator), Wahana Visi Indonesia at North Halmahera operational office