During the MBE training the participants didn't get the chance to nod off to sleep and the training seemed to pass quickly. Furthermore the material in the training was drawn from the participants themselves.

As the training was evidently both interesting and important, requests for training started to arrive from various places. The district facilitators and consultants were overwhelmed. As facilitators they were continually pressed to improve themselves both in respect of their knowledge and skills, in order to ensure the quality of the training.

Facilitators must be ready both physically and mentally, even more so if the training is far from their home. And there were risks and dangers to be faced while traveling to and from the training.

This was the situation which faced one of the facilitators in Blitar district, Ibu Sri Suwarni, S.Pd, when she suffered an accident on her way back from training which caused her untimely decease. Participants in the training were deeply upset, when they heard of her death, the female participants wept inconsolably. A pioneer fighting for the renewal of education which she loved had left us forever.

Goodbye, Ibu. Your work is unfinished, your struggle will continue. Hopefully your contribution to this struggle will support you in your journey to eternal life where you can rest in peace. Amen.

Partnership with AQUA
Launching of RAMSAR games

As part of its commitment to the children of Indonesia, AQUA supported by the Ramsar convention and the Indonesian national commission for UNESCO, in partnership with Managing Basic Education (MBE) launched a longterm national campaign "AQUA for Indonesian children" (AuAI).

The first program in this campaign is the development of Ramsar games - a teaching aid about water. A ceremony to introduce the program took place on 26 July 2006 at SDN Cikini 01 Menteng in Central Jakarta, one of the MBE-DBE partner schools in the city.

The following were present as speakers in the launch program: Pascal De Petrini (President Director of Danone-AQUA Indonesia), Drs. Djachri (School Principal of SDN Cikini 01 Menteng), a Representative of the Forestry Department, Dr. Arief Rachman MPD (Head of the National Commission for UNESCO), and Prima Setiawan (Deputy Director, MBE).

The program was also attended by the seven principals of the MBE partner primary schools, representatives of the Central Jakarta District Education Office, school supervisors and newspaper and TV reporters. The program was a continuation of the trialing of the Ramsar games, which took place at the MBE schools in Magelang and Sukoharjo.

MBE and AQUA were partners in developing and distributing the Ramsar games to more than 200 primary schools in the MBE partner districts. Ramsar was edited in its design and color, the size of the letters, the rules of the game and even the shape of the players' counters by the teachers and students following trialing in the MBE partner schools.

Pascal De Petrini hoped that activities like this will continue on an ongoing basis as part of the role of AQUA in supporting the efforts of the government and other parties to continue to raise the quality of life of Indonesian society and as part of the long-term effort of several programs being developed to support the children of Indonesia. Prima Setiawan explained what had been done so far by MBE together with AQUA.

He also explained that the training of trainers about Ramsar was currently taking place in 23 MBE partner districts in Central Java, East Java, Aceh and Central Jakarta. Dr. Arief Rachman, MPD commented, "It is time for other water firms as well as AQUA-Danone not just exploit water resources, but also to make a contribution to educating people in the importance of conserving these resources and using them wisely.

" Then AQUA-Danone gave plaques to the principals of the MBE partner schools in Jakarta and UNESCO and MBE as an expression of thanks from Pascal De Petrini.