Inspire

I was first inspired to even embark on my SWA journey upon seeing a few of my seniors post on Instagram about their completion of project Orion. I was immediately captivated by the photos they posted and intrigued as to what this whole project was about. I messaged him and soon found out what project Orion was all about. The thing that really pushed me to go for the SWD workshop was that this project was a turtle conservation project! Not only did this amaze me, but it also made me want to learn more about turtles and how to conserve them

Learn and Decide

Noticing my interest, my friend informed me about an upcoming Scout of the World Discovery Workshop and urged me to attend. Through the completion of the Discovery Workshop, I learned about the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to tackle poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. As a scout I felt that simply being in the movement was not good enough to help the environment, hence I decided to take action. I got to gain a more in-depth understanding of Project Orion. Si Jie (Dreamcatcher) shared detailed information, such as its aims and goals, of the project and also included his own personal thoughts. I learned that Project Orion is a yearly ongoing project and its main objective is to create awareness and conservation of marine turtles. In addition, there are also a series of construction projects that will promote and improve the development of the community living there. By enhancing the condition and facilities of the living community there, it will not only be beneficial for the residents in bettering their lives but may also bring about a positive impact on the turtles. That is when I decided that I had to sign up for the project.

Do

Though Project Orion X was a turtle Conservation project, it also focused on community development and had many other environment-friendly activities.

Beach Patrolling, nest excavation, and hatchling release

Personally, my favorite experience of the entire project has to be beach patrolling. One can truly get a sense of the aims of project Orion by simply participating in one night patrol. Before even arriving at Terengganu we were told about the aims of this project. Even then we were not able to fully understand and visualize our part as turtle conservationists. However, as soon as I set foot on that beach at midnight I felt a connection with nature. Our first nest excavation session was very shocking as it was coincidental that there were hatchlings that needed rescuing. We had the opportunity to excavate a total of 4 nests and manage to “rescue” a total of 6 hatchlings. The purpose of doing excavation is to reduce the chances of the turtles not being born and maximize the hatch rate of all the eggs. When turtles lay eggs on the shore there is a chance of the weather conditions not being conducive for the turtles to hatch. Factors such as temperature, light and external factors can disrupt this process.

 By relocating the eggs to a new nest we can prevent poachers from stealing them and also keep the eggs in a cooler place. In fact, we learned from the ranger at the beach that hot weather cause more female turtles to be born, and this is not a good thing as having an equal number male and female turtles are very important. The hatchery is also more effective as it prevents predators such as crabs and birds from feeding on the eggs. Even though this process is highly time-consuming it is better as we can ensure more turtles being hatched and in the long-run.

Construction Work

It was very tiring to keep working and building these shelters. The sun was scorching hot and we were all not used to the intense weather and speed of work. Hence we were all easily drained. As we completed multiple houses we realized that we had to improve our efficiency by doing a chain system where we could pass the items in a chain to the workers such as Pak Awang to install them at great heights. We were all highly experienced at this hence we wanted to be of as much help as possible, resulting in the chain movement of items. The villagers were very friendly as they served us drinks and juice to keep us active and going in the heat. They also were very approachable and were easy to interact with and find out more about the village. Ultimately the construction work was an intriguing experience.

Mangrove replanting

Apart from community work we also did mangrove replanting with primary school kids! It was refreshing to do a different form of community activity. I really enjoyed the activity of replanting the mangroves as well as teaching the kids about the importance of mangrove replanting and hows we as Orion members are able to impact the community and the environment at the same time. Personally I learned a lot about mangroves and their habitat. The place where we were supposed to replant the mangroves already had previously planted mangroves from prior projects. The waters were very shallow and the environment resembled a swamp. The mangrove saplings were very small and needed a lot of care before they could be replanted. 

Share

Throughout the trip, we constantly updated the Orion Instagram page and was able to share with other people and scouts about our tenth year in this project and the things we had planned out. We were able to engage many people through the social media platform and reach so many people. Moreover, we conducted a post Project for Orion X. It was conducted at East Spring secondary with the Oneida Ventures. The reason for our target group is that we felt our activities were more appropriate to venture scouts who think more maturely and more deeply into the issues we raised. When we first reached the school our whole team was extremely nervous and felt unprepared to educate the ventures on our project even though we had prepared very well and had a clear plan. Even though we had initial trouble with the computer, we eventually managed to fix it and present it smoothly as we transitioned between every member.  From all the activities that day the students definitely learned about our project and took away some key communication skills. Overall PROJECT ORION 2019 was a success! This was evident from both our experiences and that of the Oneida Ventures.