Makara and ECOTON are building YUYU: a network of floating education islands in Indonesia’s rivers. Each island is a place on the water where women, children, young people and whole communities come together to learn about their river and to act for it, through local and connected education programs, creative workshops and hands-on river activities.

The concept was first designed with the Dutch creative agency NorthernLight, which has since handed it over. The islands can now be developed locally, by and for the communities who live along the river.

Transforming communities

Our dream is YUYU islands in rivers throughout Indonesia, from the Brantas in East Java to rivers across the archipelago, linked into one network that shares knowledge and experience. On the islands, people learn about the river ecosystem, water quality and plastic pollution. When they see the bigger picture, they understand how pollution affects the river they depend on, and what they can change.

Women are at the heart of this. In the AKSI Brantas program in East Java, women’s groups measure the water quality of their own river, choose which problems to tackle, and carry out the solutions themselves. They use their data to press local authorities for change. They run refill stores that cut plastic waste and bring in local income, and they have helped create fish reserves and botanical gardens along the river. On the YUYU islands, that experience becomes something others can learn from. Children and young people carry what they learn into schools and families. Together they can shift whole communities towards using less plastic and ending waste dumping in rivers.

Read more about the approach in our publication The AKSI Brantas Approach: Empowering Women in Water Quality Management in Indonesia

Part of YUYU River Education

The islands are part of YUYU River Education, alongside the traveling YUYU River Education Exhibitions

Want to know more about YUYU?

Contact Makara via info@makara.earth