The Bye Bye Plastic Bags Girls, Isabel and Melati Wijsen, are putting plastic where their mouths are in a bid to force a meeting with the governor of Bali to highlight the plight of their campaign to rid the island of plastic bags. On November 24, the girls will begin a food strike as added leverage to get the governor, I Made Mangku Pastika, to meet with them and put a timeline on a law that will ban the use of plastic bags on Bali. The girls, who have just returned from India where they were met with standing ovations at the INK Conference in Mumbai, have been gathering widespread support for their campaign in a bid to ramp up more support for the Bye Bye Plastic Bags (BBPB) petition to raise a million signatures. "It is now time for Pastika to meet with us," says Isobel. "We and the team have done a lot of hard work to get our campaign noticed and it is only fair that Pastika takes the time, like many prominent people have now done, to talk to us about how we are going to stamp out the problem of plastic bags in Bali," says Melati. "If we have to go on hunger strike to get his attention, then so be it," says Isobel. BBPB is a social initiative driven by children, local and international, living in Bali between 10 and 15 years old who are committed to preserving the beauty of Bali by banning plastic bag use. The initiative was founded by Green School students, Melati and Isabel Wijsen, in late 2013 and is now made up of a dedicated team of 25 children, with more joining from around the world every day. So far BBPB have raised nearly 65.000 signatures for their petition through AVAAZ, spoken to more than 3500 students across the world in three different languages and is running a plastic bag-free program in a pilot village on Bali, with local authority’s approval, as well as raising general awareness at markets, events and festivals. The group have already garnered significant support for their lobbying of national and international media and have met and received the support of Jane Goodall and her Roots and Shoots program as well as the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki moon. This week the team won Bali Yak Awards and received a nomination by The Role Foundation for Green School to become a role model high school for 2014. The BBPB team have sent many letters to the government and Governor but he has still not made any effort to respond. With all the publicity surrounding the campaign the girls have decided to act now to speed up the process. They will NOT stop drinking but WILL refuse solid food from sunrise to sunset from November 24 until they have this meeting. On November 28, the girls are asking their school and all those on Bali aware of their campaign, to join them. For more information contact; byebyeplasticbag@gmail.com sign their petition here https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Byebye_Plastic_Bags_On_Bali/?aDjcKgb
1 comment
Uwe Töllner
were can we find cotton bag with “Bye bye plastic bags” in Germany ?
Kindest regards Uwe
were can we find cotton bag with “Bye bye plastic bags” in Germany ?
Kindest regards Uwe