Saving the Turtles - IDEALS In Action Week 2019

A blog written by our students in Marketing and Media IDEALS group

Another outstanding Round Square experience for our adventurers. A group of 14 students and two teachers embarked on a journey to Malaysia to aid with the Juara Turtle Project, this helps take them 1 step further into becoming a more well-rounded person.

This achieves the school's mission of developing your children into becoming a Round Square student while the Round Square IDEALS. For those that do not know what the Round Square IDEALS are, they aim to develop your children into becoming potential future leaders with an international mindset. The IDEALS stand for internationalism, democracy, environmentalism, adventure, leadership and service.

This trip assisted students in helping the environment, protecting the turtles from going extinct. Thanks to the efforts of our Juara Turtle project and our students, the stress on the turtle population is being eased little by little. The students went on daily patrols around the islands to look for turtle nests in order to protect them from poachers.

During the first day on their trip they managed to see baby turtles hatch from their eggs and were released into the sea. This is considered uncommon and Mrs. Watson comments on this by saying “We were very lucky to catch this on our first day!”, Mr. Benchoula comments further saying that “1 turtle nest hatched, and more than 100 babies released”. This amazing experience inspired students in developing their commitment to sustainability and responsibility to the environment.

Throughout the trip our adventurers had the opportunity to take part in a beach cleanup, jewelry making, jetty jumping and beach games etc. They also were lucky enough to experience a mother turtle build a nest and lay her eggs on their second night.

Charlotte and Por who are part of the group who went to Tioman Island said that “The best bit was waiting for the mother turtle for 2 hours and sneaking to see a glimpse of her nest. And being so lucky to see the baby turtles hatch just in time. The most challenging bit was trekking – we were scared of slipping but in the end, it was really fun, and we helped each other a lot. We have learnt a lot about the turtles and ecotourism, and about local life and how the Juara Turtle Project helps the village and environment and animals. We are just loving it. The whole trip is based on teamwork and patience – from kayaking to nurkenball!”.