On the 11 October, the Year One Winjeel students went on an excursion to the Yakult factory in Dandenong. The reason that we went was because last term, Amanat had a bottle of Yakult and it came with a straw. She realised that she didn’t need a straw and that it was a big waste. We had been learning about how plastic straws end up in the ocean and hurt the marine life. Amanat had the idea of sending the straws back to Yakult and writing a letter to their CEO to ask them to stop supplying plastic straws in their 10 packs. Vivaan, Meili and I helped to write the letter. Yakult wrote back and said “YES, they will listen to us and will stop making straws.” They also invited us to have a free factory tour. It was really interesting to see how Yakult is made and packaged. By 2019 Yakult will no longer have plastic straws and it’s because we spoke up and made a difference.

Shania Sood (1H)

We were inspired by Malala Yousafzai who says ‘One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.’ We are children but we believe that we can make a difference in the world just like Malala and because Yakult listened to, this is proof that we can make a difference.

Aiesha Moudgil (1H)