After more than a decade of community and environmental support the Lembeh Foundation has now been launched as a government sanctioned non-profit organisation.
The official paperwork has been stamped and signed and we can finally reveal our big news! As most of you who have stayed at Lembeh Resort know, conservation, sustainability and community are three words which we are extremely passionate about.
Lembeh Foundation is the culmination of our founder’s philosophy, our hard work in the past and our vision for the future
Lembeh Resort has made many efforts over the years to reduce single use plastic, become a more sustainable resort, contribute toward our local communities and to conserve the stunning marine and terrestrial environments around us. We began by banning plastic straws, Styrofoam lunch boxes, plastic bags for our shopping and plastic bottles. All spa products became palm oil free and we switched our detergents to biodegradable options. But it wasn’t enough. We didn’t want to just talk about plans, we wanted to put them into action and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
We are now delighted to announce that we have formed our own NGO “Lembeh Foundation”. This is huge news – it’s taken a lot of time and dedication to get to where we are but Lembeh Foundation is now an official Indonesian registered charity (Yayasan).
Lembeh Foundation is the culmination of our founder’s philosophy, our hard work in the past and our vision for the future. Lembeh Foundation incorporates our three core initiatives:
FUNplastic
Lembeh Educational Program
Lembeh Community Program
FUNplastic
FUNplastic is the name of our environmental initiative which currently carries out beach and underwater clean-ups, provides educational events in the local villages (Pintu Kota Besar and Pintu Kota Kecil) to bring awareness to communities about plastic pollution and has already
acquired land to build “bank sampah” or trash bank.
FUNplastic in the future
Our next step is to build the trash bank, which will be constructed out of ECO bricks. The ECO bricks are already being produced in resort and by children from the local villages in return for some funding for youth projects. When local people bring their waste plastic to the trash bank they will be paid for it according to weight.
Once the trash bank is established we intend to build a Precious Plastic warehouse. The warehouse will contain a plastic shredder and compressor so that the waste plastic can be compounded and prepared for either export or distributed to locals for them to up-cycle.
We are hosting a series of upcycling workshops for the local villages in which they learn how to upcycle waste plastic into items which can be sold in the resort or elsewhere.
The vision of FUNplastic is to reduce waste, recycle, repurpose and in the process of doing so, provide economic opportunities to our local communities.
Lembeh Education Program
For the last 15 years Lembeh Resort has been supporting children in both of our local villages. We provide school uniforms and back packs containing crayons, pens and pencils for the children whose families can’t afford them. This initiative will continue under our Lembeh Educational Program. In addition, we have applied to set up a Green Library which provides books and materials to teach children about environmental issues. Our green Library will be located in the learning center of Pintu Kota Kecil with our Resort Staff Helena as a “Green Guru”.
Lembeh Community Program
Our Lembeh Community Program is geared towards providing support and funding for community projects which help to enhance the quality of life of those in our local villages.
Our biggest achievement to date has been to build a “Learning Center” in Pintu Kota Besar, The Learning Center gives children access to a library, computer and printer – this is a huge accomplishment and one that we are very proud of. The Learning Center will also be home to the ‘Green Library”.
We have also provided sport clothing and equipment for the Pintu Kota Besar badminton team and provided uniforms and instruments for the Sunday School Choir of Pintu Kota Kecil.
Through donations and our ongoing commitment, we hope that the Lembeh Foundation will grow and provide an ongoing and sustainable platform for those who live in the Lembeh Strait. This is not an exclusive project and we hope that other resorts and business entities in the region will become part of the campaigns to bring about a better and more sustainable future for all. All donations to Lembeh Foundation are greatly appreciated and 100% of donations goes towards bringing about a more sustainable future for Lembeh’s communities and environment.