Page 123 - EarthHeroes

After a year, the petition had nearly 90,000 signatures and Desa Pererenan village had reduced its plastic bag usage by over 60 per cent. However, Bali’s Governor still had not responded to the sisters’ request for a ban. In autumn 2014, on a trip to India, they visited the National Gandhi Museum, where they learned about how he reached his goal for change in society by starting a hunger strike. Melati and Isabel wondered whether they might stage their own version of this action. They decided to fast between sunrise and sunset to get publicity for their request. News of their protest spread quickly and the next day the Governor sent a car to collect the girls from school. After meeting them, he signed an agreement to work towards a plastic-bag-free Bali.
The success of their petition had demonstrated that the people of Bali supported their campaign. Now the sisters wanted to involve businesses too, so they launched the ‘One Island One Voice’ campaign. This invited shops, hotels and restaurants to publicly commit to reducing their own plastic use, and
to display the campaign sticker in their window. In June 2015, Bali’s government announced that plastic bags would
be banned by 2018, and that July, Bali airport banned them too.
The girls loved bringing together young people and seeing them take action and make decisions for themselves, but they also enjoyed taking the lead.
This meant being the ones to talk to government staff – something they found difficult at first – and sometimes the sisters missed lessons to attend meetings about changing the laws in Bali relating to plastic bag use. For this, they started working with an environmental lawyer, Sarah Waddell. Their school supported them by allowing them time away, as long as they kept up with their studies.
From early on, the girls had found the most important skill was communicating well. They were regularly asked to speak at schools and community events, but in September 2015 they were given the chance to bring their message to a much bigger audience when they were invited to give a TED talk in London about their campaign. They were excited and rehearsed many times, both together and alone in front of the mirror. The talk was a huge success.
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