In the remote village of Panglungan, East Java, a group of determined women is leading the charge to protect and restore their forest. Under the banner of KTH Kepuh, a women-led agroforestry cooperative, they have been working for over two decades to rehabilitate the land, safeguard water sources, and create sustainable livelihoods. Over the past five years, our local partner ECOTON has worked closely with them as part of the Indonesian-Dutch AKSI Brantas partnership, providing training in water quality monitoring, coaching in environmental advocacy, and

Women in East Java are stepping into roles they may never have imagined—organizing, innovating, and collaborating to revive the river and protect its legacy.

Women along the Brantas River are fed up with the trash and are taking action.

The KALI SURABAYA DETECTIVE SCHOOL program is an inspiring example of enabling children to protect their river. Equipped with research instruments, children visit the river and analyze water samples under the microscope. This time they found plankton, but also microplastics. In a creative workshop the children visualized their findings and concerns.

Indonesian students are researching what riverine communities living along the river Brantas in East Java think about river pollution and how that affects them: their health, their food and their livelihoods.

These students set out to collect water samples from the Brantas River. In the water laboratory of the Indonesian NGO Inspirasi, they search for plankton with a microscope.

Brantas XOXO - the interactive expo on plastic kicked off in Gresik and Sidoarjo, East Java. It informs about the plastic waste in the river and inspires to take action. Brantas XOXO will travel to upstream villages along the river.

Last Monday, 14-year old Aeshnina Azzahra Aqilan (Nina), handed over a letter to  Barbara Visser, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water, asking her to stop plastic waste exports to Indonesia. 

The Tambak Wedi river has turned all fluffy and white in this coastal neighbourhood in Surabaya, reminding the university students who research the river water of pure snow.

Last Saturday, the KALI SURABAYA DETECTIVE SCHOOL 2020 program was launched. Again an inspiring example of Inspirasi's unique approach in enabling children to protect their river.