BEACH CLEAN-UP AT PORT DICKSON

January 17 2017-we had a beach clean up in conjunction with Beach Clean Up Day. All this came about after my family and I had a little holiday in Port Dickson in October 2016. I was walking along the beach with a small garbage bag picking up the plastic bottles and other rubbish brought in by the tides and suddenly I saw something rather unusual. It was a turtle-a dead turtle washed up on the beach. I was shocked with the find and also sad about its fate. I was very very upset about it that my mom told me if something upsets you find a solution to the problem. So I researched why turtles end up dead and one of the main culprits is RUBBISH in the waters. The rubbish not only destroy the marine life it also has a impact on ours too. Fish, birds, marine mammals, reptiles, and other animals can become entangled in discarded plastics.Plastic is also mistaken for food and is eaten  turtles, and even whales. This can choke them, or make them think they are full with this "food" and starve to death because plastic cannot be digested.
I have never walked on the beach without slippers because there is lots of broken bits from bottles. 

Where do these rubbish on the beach come from? They could be from people who have picnics on the beach. These could be rubbish from our streets that has been washed down into drains and flows into rivers and finally into the ocean and it gets washed up again on the beach.You get the picture?

So I wrote an email to the general manager of THISTLE HOTEL PORT DICKSON as it was in that beach stretch that I found the turtle and all the rubbish. I explained to him my wish to have a beach clean up and gave him my reasons. I was surprised to receive a reply and Mr. Samm -the General Manager agreed to my request and the planning was underway.

I invited my home school friends to join me in the beach clean. Mr.Samm and Ms.Irene Wong invited the Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd (SWM) and Majlis Perbandaran Port Dickson (MPPD).

Tuesday 17th January arrived. 49 home-school  friends and their parents joined me and staff of Thistle Hotel Staff for our first environment responsibility of the year. There was excitement and we had beautiful morning air blowing in our faces. We started at 9am with some exercise. My favorite part of the exercise was the Chicken Dance. After the exercise we were served coffee, tea, orange juice.We were divided into 6 teams and allocated a section on the beach to clean up. We were given gloves, garbage bags, rakes for the clean up.

The 3 teams with the most rubbish was in for a surprise. 

The whistle blew and off we went to our sections. There were a flurry of activities along the stretch of KM 16. We had half and hour to collect as much rubbish as we could. We collected twigs, leaves, sea weeds, plastic bottles, plactic bags, tikar, styrofoam, straws, cans, bottles and broken bottles. We gathered the bags at the starting point and we had a little talk from the staff of SWM who explained to us how to separate the rubbish.

So we separated the rubbish we collected into organic waste, plastic waste and other waste. The total rubbish collected was 232.5kg

-60kg of plastic waste, 92 kg of organic waste and 80.5 kg of other waste. 

The winning 3 teams received food hampers which we divided among everyone that come, the staff and workers from MPPD who carted away all this rubbish.We even received a certificate of appreciation from the hotel for our effort in the Beach cleanup.

After that we were served and early lunch of mee goreng, nuggets, fries, hot dogs and hamburgers that were cooked on the spot for us. 

To cool off from all that hard work my friends were allowed to use the pool and they were given 3 rooms to change, keep their bags and have showers. 

At 3 pm we were again served evening snack of mee goreng, nuggets, fries hot-dogs and hamburgers and cordial.

Some of my friends stayed till 6 pm before they went home. 

I was very tired after an all day out on the beach and pool but I was happy that my friends and I did do our small bit for the environment.

This is not the end of it. Me and my friends still have a lot of cleaning up to do but in the meantime we will have to 'educate' others on the dangers of rubbish and change the attitude towards littering.We have to reduce the use of plastic and there should be stricter laws to punish litter bugs. So look out for a group of kids who will be armed with garbage bags and gloves cleaning up not only beaches but parks too and we will not be happy if we catch you littering.

TURTLE HATCHERY PORT DICKSON

On JANUARY 10, 2017, with the help of my parents I managed to organize a trip to the TURTLE HATCHERY at GLORY BEACH RESORT, PORT DICKSON. 
There were 70 of us in total & all of them were my home schooled friends.

I wanted to learn more about these beautiful creatures after I found a dead hawksbill turtle on the beach in Port Dickson in October 2016. I was very curious about these creatures and why they were known as endangered. 

There are 7 different species of sea turtles in the world. In Malaysia we have 4 types. They are the Green turtle, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Olive Ridley, 

They are endangered because they are caught for their meat,eggs and shell. Some die because of the pollution in the sea or get caught in the nets and drown.

Glory Beach resort has a small turtle hatchery jointly managed with the Department of Fisheries, Malaysia. Mr.Isaac Raj, the General Manager of the resort told us that it is part of their social responsibility awareness program to help save the turtles. Since 2010, hawksbill turtles have been landing on the beach (Tanjung Gemok) to lay their eggs. The hotel makes the effort to collect these eggs , incubates them, hatches them and releases them back into the sea when they are matured enough to survive. Most of the time the Resort buys these eggs at RM 2.50 to hatch them safely at the hatchery. The reason they do so is because the survival rate for the turtles is 1% so that is why so many eggs are needed to keep the population of turtles going.


Mr.Ramesh ,our guide knew a lot about the turtles and he was entertaining to listen to. He showed us the eggs, baby hatchling of various ages. We were able to hold them in our palms . 

We also 'met' two very beautiful turtles. One was a hawsbill and the other was a green turtle. The hawksbill had a narrow head, and sharp bird like beak The hawsbill shell was beautiful, like  a beautiful art piece. No wonder it is 'hunted' -to turn the shell into jewellery. The green turtle was bigger.  It was not green at all.It is actually black and more brown in color. The green is not on the shell but on its underbody and it was very light green.

We could see claws on the flippers so were careful not to get too close. The flippers are strong and powerful.The turtles reach maturity after 15 to 20 years so we were not able to tell if these were male or female turtles just yet.

This green turtle opened its mouth I could see that they had  'teeth' like a saw  and I was careful not to put my finger near it. Green turtles are herbivores and eat sea grass , seaweeds and algae while hawksbills are omnivores and eat sponges. 

After that we visited the Turtle Hut where baby turtles were swimming merrily and later to the hatchery where the eggs are hatched.

The highlight of the evening was releasing 3 baby turtles into the sea. I got to release one of them.We wished them all the best and hoped they would come back all grown up to lay their eggs and to keep the turtles population going.

                                     Me and the turtle I was about to release into the sea

                                     My friends Awwal, ,Adelene and myself with the turtles
                                     we were going to release into the sea.

                                Me with my dad,Mr.Isaac Raj, Ms.Yayi and Mr.Ramesh and who are the Turtle Savers

Why do we have to play our part in saving the turtles?

• Sea turtles are part of two vital ecosystems, beaches and marine systems. If sea turtles become extinct, both the marine and beach ecosystems will weaken
•  
• Sea turtles (leatherbacks) eat jellyfish, preventing the large “blooms” of jellyfish – including stinging jellyfish – that are increasingly wreaking havoc on fisheries, recreation and other maritime activities throughout the oceans.
• 
  
• Herbivores like the green sea turtle are important for maintaining the health of coral reefs. Without them eating algae, corals can be overgrown and die from the algae which out-competes them.
• 
  
• Sponges contain spicules (glass-like spines) and toxins which the hawksbills immune to, making less competition for this food source. They are also particular about the types of sponges they eat which gives rare sponges an opportunity to grow creating greater diversity on the reef.
• 
  
• If sea turtles go extinct, it will cause declines in all the species whose survival depends on healthy seagrass beds and coral reefs. That means that many marine species that humans harvest would be lost.

PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE PROJECT

I have an idea: a very simple idea. 
I need more people to help with my idea.
It is called PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE PROJECT. 

PLAN: I set aside RM10.00 from my monthly pocket money towards 'charity'
1 person sets aside RM 10.00 per month 
12 months = RM 120.00
           
If I can get 150 people to contribute minimum 
RM 10.00 per month = RM1,500


RM 1,500 will help feed my Street Friends at the PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE once a month. It is a small difference but it is still a difference. 

Once a month you can volunteer your time at the PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE and help with the food service.

You have to commit RM 10.00 every month for 12 months.
Will you help?

My art pieces

DANCING UKULELE (2016)

TIGER CUB (2016)

KAMPUNG HOUSE ON WATER (SOLD) (2016)

JAGUAR (SOLD)(2016)

RAINBOW AFTER A STORM (SOLD) (2016)

IN MEMORY OF PARIS(SOLD) (2016)

ROBIN IN WINTER(SOLD) (2015)

SMILE (2016)

THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK (2015)

EDINBURGH (SOLD) (2016)

RED SQUIRREL (2016)

EASTER (2015)

WW II SPITFIRE (2016)

GARFIELD (SOLD) (2016)

ANGRY BIRD (DOODLE) (2016)

MARLEY (2015)

POTTER AND THE CLAY (2016)

GIRL IN THE CITY (2016)

COLORS OF RAINBOW (2017)

YEAR OF THE ROOSTER (2017)

 ABSTRACT ART (2015)

  COLORS OF MUSIC (2015)

                                                       
                                                    MY VERY FIRST ART PIECE (2015)

TREES ALIVE (SOLD) (2016)

ART PIECE INTO TOTE BAG BY UMIEAKTIF (2017)

DOODLING A DRAGON (2017)