Jessica Tan is not
your usual teenager. She counts among her hobbies reading and playing the piano
and violin. One thing she doesn’t do much of is that classic teenage pastime of
hanging out at the mall. Jessica has other ideas when it comes to spending her
free time.
Instead of celebrating her 17th birthday in a fancy restaurant with her
family, the Sekolah Pelita Harapan student wanted to do something completely
different. With the help of her father, she designed a Web site with the goal
of getting people all over the world actively concerned about caring for the
environment.
As it turns out, Jessica’s plan to build a Web site has grown into a
much bigger project. She just returned from Lebong district in Bengkulu
province after donating 50,000 trees to the region.
Though she only recently realized her dream, the seeds of her idea were
planted long ago. “It all started a couple of years ago, actually,” Jessica
explained. “I wanted to make my mark in this world, to make a difference.”
Encouraged by social programs at her school, through which she was able
to visit orphanages and assist the poor and underprivileged, Jessica wanted to
do something more for her birthday.
“I remember I was sitting in the library at school and thought, ‘I’m
turning 17 soon. It’s an age that is quite significant. You are becoming an
adult,’ so I wanted to do something big,” she said.
That’s when she came up with the idea of starting the Web site.
“We wanted to encourage people to plant trees,” she said. “If you plant
a tree, you can take a picture of it, upload it to the Web site and there will
be a counter — so if you plant 10 trees, it will say X has just planted 10
trees at her house.
“Once it is uploaded to the Web site, it will go directly to your
Facebook account, where it will say the same thing.”
Jessica hopes that the Web site will inspire more people to get
involved in taking care of the planet.
“We were thinking of launching the Web site on my birthday, and it
suddenly came to me, ‘Before asking other people to plant a tree, why don’t I
do it myself first?’ ” she said.
She shared the idea with her father, though she initially asked if he
was willing to help her plant “a bunch of trees.” The number 50 000 hadn’t even
crossed her mind at that point. Her dad liked her idea and agreed to finance
the project, with Jessica’s promise to pay him back once she started working
herself.
Jessica wanted to start the project in her hometown of Jakarta, but it
was too difficult to find unused open space.
A colleague of Jessica’s father suggested Lebong, and helped put them
in touch with the local government.
A five-hour drive from Bengkulu city, the capital of the province,
Lebong is relatively remote. But Jessica was overwhelmed by the warm welcome
she received from everyone involved.
“The government of Lebong was so cooperative,” she said. “They made
things so easy, getting the permit and giving us their full support. Well, it
was probably a coincidence more than anything else, but Lebong is the place
where we started.”
Seeing that many of the people in Lebong struggle with poverty, Jessica
realized that “a bunch of trees” would not be enough — and suddenly the number
of trees to be planted blossomed to 50,000, which she and her father ordered
from several different suppliers.
“We have three different types of trees: sengon, petai and bambang
lanang trees,” she explained.
Jessica said they were going to plant to the trees in phases, starting
with 10,000 and then adding to them over the next couple of months. That way,
she can see how the trees are growing.
“If the three types of trees that we chose turn out to not be
productive, we can still switch to other kinds,” she said. But, she added, she
deliberately chose trees that grow fast, reaching full height within three to
seven years.
During a ceremony, attended by the head of Lebong district and other
government officials, and which included speeches, music and dancing, Jessica
planted the first tree earlier this week and was swept away by the enthusiasm
for the project, calling the experience “simply amazing.”
“Most of the people living in Lebong are fishermen,” she said. “By
giving them these trees, hopefully they can have another source of income.
Imagine, there’s so much land there, still unused. The trees are not only
beneficial for the environment, but also to the people as it means profit to
them.”
Jessica plans to visit Lebong again to see the progress of the project.
She is also thinking about similar projects in the future, and is considering
other remote regions like Kalimantan or Sulawesi. But for now, Jessica seems
content with her current success.
When asked why she chose planting trees instead of other causes, she
said it was an obvious choice for her.
“I care about the people around me,” she said. “To guarantee the
well-being of the people I love, the well-being of the earth has to be
guaranteed first. You don’t have one without the other. I want to keep the
earth healthy, and planting trees is the easiest and best way to do that.”
But most of all, she hopes that others will see her project as a
starting point for themselves and realize the importance of preserving the
environment.
“I have a passion for helping others,” Jessica said. “The feeling of
giving, the joy of giving, is indescribable and something worth fighting
for.”
The Jakarta Globe
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