“Was this a rice field before?”

The question arose as the boat made its way toward Timbulsloko Hamlet in Demak, carrying 32 teachers from 12 partner schools of Yayasan SHEEP Indonesia (YSI). The landscape, which had become part of everyday life for local residents, offered an entirely new experience for the teachers.

Timbulsloko is one of the coastal areas of Demak that has experienced tidal flooding and land subsidence since the 1990s. These environmental changes have gradually affected the community’s living spaces, livelihoods, access to basic services, and children’s education.

The teachers’ visit to Timbulsloko was part of the activity “Learning About Climate Justice from a Village Submerged by the Sea.” The activity was designed to connect teachers with the lived experiences of communities directly affected by climate change.

Climate change has often been introduced in classrooms through concepts, illustrations, data, and learning materials. The visit to Timbulsloko offered a different learning experience. The teachers were able to see firsthand how environmental changes were connected to people’s everyday lives.

LISTENING TO STORIES FROM THE COMMUNITY

At Madin, the teachers listened to the story of Mr. Shobirin, one of Timbulsloko’s community leaders. He described how the hamlet had changed over time.

Rice fields that once formed an important part of the community’s living space had undergone major changes. Houses, roads, daily activities, and other aspects of community life had all been affected by increasing and prolonged flooding.

The story continued through direct conversations with local residents. The teachers were divided into several groups and accompanied by local young people as they visited residents’ homes. They listened to families’ experiences of environmental change, livelihoods, daily life, and the impacts on their families and children.

“I still can’t believe that this used to be a rice field,” one of the teachers said while walking through the village.

The house-to-house visits also gave the teachers new perspectives. Conversations with Timbulsloko residents made them realize that many things people normally took for granted had become difficult to access in the village.

Easy transportation, available land for daily activities, spaces for children to play, places for residents to gather, and areas to grow vegetables and trees were examples of things that residents had not been able to enjoy for many years.

These stories helped the teachers understand that the impacts of climate change did not stop with rising water levels. Environmental changes also affected housing, livelihoods, access to basic services, education, health, and children’s spaces for playing and socializing.

For children in Timbulsloko, these conditions could be seen in the difficulty of reaching school, which often required traveling by boat, as well as the decreasing availability of safe spaces for children to play as large parts of the village remained flooded.

DEEPENING THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE JUSTICE

The experience in Timbulsloko led the teachers to a broader discussion about climate justice. Children growing up in areas affected by climate change can face very different conditions from those living in areas with lower levels of risk.

This shows that climate change is also closely connected to the fulfillment of children’s rights. The right to learn, play, access healthcare, live in a safe environment, and grow and develop cannot be separated from the environmental conditions in which children live.

However, the people of Timbulsloko were not simply experiencing the impacts of environmental change. They had also developed various ways to adapt to changing conditions. One example was the construction of Floating Houses in collaboration with YSI as an adaptation effort.

This became an important part of the teachers’ learning process. They did not only see the community’s vulnerabilities. They also witnessed the knowledge, experience, initiatives, and capacity that local residents had developed to respond to environmental changes.

After conducting interviews and observations, the teachers gathered again to reflect on and organize their findings. The discussions covered various topics, including children’s play facilities, education and parenting, nutrition and food, clean water and sanitation, livelihoods, and community health.

The ideas emerging from the visit would later be brought into the classroom through different subjects, including Natural and Social Sciences (IPAS), Pancasila Education, and Indonesian Language.

Using Timbulsloko as a real-life example was expected to help students understand that climate change was not a distant or abstract issue. It was happening close to them. It was happening now.

Timbulsloko also offered lessons about empathy, acceptance, and gratitude.

Empathy emerged through the stories of Timbulsloko residents, who had experienced hardships they had never chosen for themselves. Acceptance could be seen in the way residents continued to face numerous challenges, remained resilient, and maintained their faith despite difficult circumstances.

Gratitude was also reflected in the community’s strength and continued efforts to adapt, even under conditions that many others would find extremely challenging.

According to Rizky, a staff member of the KIPHA Program (Climate Justice for the Protection of Children’s Rights), field visits helped both teachers and children develop a more complete understanding of climate-related issues. “Climate education is not enough if it only teaches students what climate change is through theory at school. Children also need to understand who is affected, how climate change affects their lives and rights, and how they can help advocate for change,” he concluded.