Two years ago I spent two months as an intern at Green School, an international school in Bali, Indonesia; a place of exceptional community, sustainability-focused holistic learning, student empowerment and solutions-style optimism. The whole thing was made of bamboo.
I learned to surf and to speak (some) Bahasa Indonesia, I taught green studies and helped facilitate a boys’ rite of passage. I motorbiked, went free diving, picked rice in a paddy. Throughout my experience I considered myself lucky to spend time with exceptional, visionary teachers—and young students who were learning the problems facing the world, and already working to solve them.
I connected with Dali and Finn, who had started a clothing company to address education inaccessibility in India; and Melati and Isabel, who were in the midst of a campaign that later convinced the government of Bali to eradicate plastic bags by 2018. I also knew Ben, who at the time hadn’t yet started his grade-eight Quest project, TRI Handkerchiefs.
When I knew him, Ben was a fun-loving kid with natural charisma and a knack for making people laugh. Younger kids looked up to him. He wore his baseball hat backwards and shirts that were too big. Now he’s changing the world.
TRI Handkerchiefs is focused on deforestation, habitat loss in Indonesia. TRI educates and empowers people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives, and donates 100% of their profits to grassroots organizations impacting positive change in Borneo, Kalimantan and other islands.
So I’m proud to wear my TRI ’chief on this journey through the ecosystems and forests of Canada, and I’m proud to speak highly of my friends in Bali working tirelessly to protect our shared planet. I don’t know a lot about social enterprise but I do know that creative, youth-led, solutions-based action is a powerful thing.
It is exactly what we need.