I was planning on coming to Little Fireface Project (LFP) with my husband Michael to lend a hand with Nature Club, the environmental education program here and assist with loris observation data, for just three months. 12 months later, we are still here and I have found my bliss.
Nature Club had a very good foundation and children were coming along and doing crafts and learning about nature and the slow lorises. The classes were very casual and the 12 or so children that came regularly had lots of fun, but I saw more …
I could see Nature Club had real potential and I immediately put my hand up to assist with building on this program. I had worked at a sanctuary in Australia and I was the environmental education coordinator there, so I had a million ideas running in my head. The great thing about Little Fireface Project is that I was given free rein to be creative and brainstorm with others as to what was needed.
So, after a few weeks of putting together lesson plans which covered audible, visual and kinaesthetic learning styles, the new NATURE CLUB was born, with much more structure. LFP Nature Club now has monthly environmental themes and we have already worked our way through forests, mammals, birds, insects, reptiles and endangered species (time does fly when you are having fun!) and future lesson plans will cover; colours and camouflage, recycling, ocean life and ‘the night’.
With over 30 children attending regularly now, our lessons need to be quite broad and adaptable, as the age group is from 5-14 years old. Many children cannot read or write yet, so much of the younger children’s lessons include lots of colouring pictures and visual activities. The older children who can read and write have pre/post questionnaires each month to see if what we are doing is working. The learning improvement of each subject has been astounding and including lots of hands on, games and outdoor activities really work for these kids!
Little Fireface Project has kindly supported and sponsored two brand NEW Nature Club Classrooms as part of a new school in our village. The first stage of the school is due for completion in January 2015, so Nature Club will be split into two groups. We will now have a 5-10 year class and 10 year plus class. This means the 10+ can really get serious (with lots of fun, of course!) and do more field trips and outdoor studies, with even more structured learning.
One single event that sticks in my head about the Nature Club children and their attitude toward wildlife was when we got a call one night about a slow loris in someone’s garden. There was a loris in their tree at their house. When our LFP rescue team got to the loris, to capture and relocate it, we discovered that three of our Nature Club girls (10 year olds) had found a Kaliandra flower and tied it to a long stick and put it near (but not too close) to the loris. When I asked why they did what they did, their easy reply was “because we know Kaliandra is their favourite food and we know that we can’t put out hand near the loris, because they are venomous”. To me, that whole event was amazing for two reasons. The local people know that the lorises belong in the forest and they really respect them and the children had learned about what the loris needed and its habits.

Nature Club is forever evolving and I am now trying a few new ideas, and the new ideas are working.
Now each class has an ‘in disguise’ public speaking aspect to it and the children who would once run from the class crying are now proudly and LOUDLY standing up in class and sharing their knowledge and stories. We also now have homework each week, so the children take it home and ask for help from their parents (remember, many children can’t write yet), so the parents are getting involved too!
So basically, Nature Club is a huge success and I could NOT do it without the much needed help of our local manager/teacher, Pak Dendi and our trainee teacher, Sri. I must admit, Nature Club is always the favourite activity of our volunteer students from overseas too! They always put their hand up to help, as Indonesian kids are truly amazing and way too much fun!
The whole Nature Club program is done on a very tight budget and we just get creative with how we do things. We make our own paints, play-dough and recycle our paper and bottles.
I found my bliss I tell you … Bliss!

Sharon Williams – Field Station Coordinator / Environmental Education Officer