Beach cleaning and our lil' project

Yesterday, I went for a beach clean-up at Ma'Daerah Turtle Sanctuary in Kerteh. Yes, amidst the Petrochemical hub, there's one stretch of beach where turtles still come to lay eggs. The sanctuary is funded by BP Petronas Acetyls (BPPA) and managed by Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (TUMEC)- under Fishery Department with assistance from WWF. The beach cleaning or known as GORO (short term for Gotong-royong) is an annual event held by BPPA. This is the time when local people and the working people from nearby industry work hand in hand to clean the beach prior to turtle nesting season. This is my 3rd beach clean-up that I’ve participated since I live in Kerteh. I went there with Nurin and our kids.

The Ma'Daerah Turtle Sanctuary is a bit secluded. I have to redah 1km of jungle trail to reach the sanctuary. The trail is quite bumpy. So, if you sayang your car, you might think twice to enter the trail. For that reason, I borrowed a Nissan X-Trail from my hubby's friend (Thanks Ajai). I had never driven a 4WD in a jungle. I did drive a Ford Ranger before but only at normal roads and at processing plant at 20km/hr (which is a standard safety regulation in a processing plant). So, carefully I drove into the steep terrain.

We reached there nearly 8 am. Upon registering, we were given a goodie bag consisted of a small towel, a pair of gloves, a cap, food and drinks and lunch coupon. There were few tasks needed to be done on that day which were beach cleaning, tree planting and painting the long house (lodge). We chose the beach cleaning. There was a coloring competition held for kids- to keep them occupied while the adults do the beach cleaning. But Suhayl opted to join me. So, we did the beach cleaning together along Nurin and her kids too. There was a lot of rubbish at the beach, mainly plastic bottles & caps, polystyrene, junk food and sweets packaging, fluorescent lights, selipar jepun, etc. We even found a syringe!! :-O By 11 am, the beach looked clean and beautiful again.

After that, we headed back to the sanctuary and began to start our little project. Using my crappy wooden table (discarded UTM exam table..hehe..), we managed to set up our humble but meaningful booth, just next to Nokia’s grand booth. Nokia opened a booth for hand phone, battery and charger recycling. For your info, my friends and I are selling hand painted tees with eco message. This t-shirt biz started at Skype between me and my good pals. Nurgee wanted to start a new venture on DIY tee. I suggested her designing eco message so that I can sell it during the beach cleaning. From there, we began sketching our business path. The material sourcing was done by Sareque and Chot. The design and painting matter was handled by Nurgee and Chot. And moi, being the most far away from the clan, is incharge of marketing and promotion. After nearly two weeks of sempoi planning, we started to produce our own tees just two days before the event. Thanks to Chot and Nurgee for working their ass off.. hehehe..

The response was not that bad :-) We managed to sell more than half of it. Most of the customers liked the creative design although I need to do some explanation for one particular design to them. Chot and Nurgee, they don’t have artistic mind like u guys. Most of the buyers are eco-conscious people. There were few local people bought our tees. We even managed to attract a government agency :-) Hopefully we can tie a deal with them. Ohh yes, we also decided that for every purchase of the tee, RM 1 will be donated to WWF. I have few more tees to clear out. Once cleared, we will send the donation to WWF.

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For those interested of purchasing our tees, kindly contact us at orang2_2@yahoo.com or myself. More pics can be seen in my Facebook.

Special thanks to:
Halmiee from BPPA for giving us some space to open the booth.
Rahayu Zulkifli and River Foo from WWF for supporting our little project.
Nurin my happening neighbour for assisting me opening the booth and promoting the tees.

Now that the beach is clean, I hope the turtles will come to lay their eggs here. Welcome back turtles!!

Pic: Suhayl hoping for the turtles to come ;-)