We started off with the Mangroves Conservation Project at the coastal area of D’Muara Marine Park, Sungai Besar (Sungai Haji Dorani to be more specific). For those Malaysians who wonder how far this coastline is from our capital, it’s far enough to fill our time during a bumpy bus journey with a movie by Nicholas Cage called ‘Next’. A great movie I must say. While Nicholas Cage made the right call to stop a nuclear tourist attack, we made the right and timely call to save our Mother Earth from wearing away. So our Next missions were equally important!

Upon arrival, we formed a team of six, with different roles assigned to each member - a producer, a director, a scriptwriter, a camera man, and two actors. Besides being a nature savior individually, we as a team had to record our eco tasks and produce a photo documentary by the end of the day. Without the creative brain of a producer and the proficiency of a writer, I was appointed the camera man with a unanimous vote from my newly formed team ‘Fatin’. In the team we had Fatin, Trevor, Mawar the Rose, Anis, Ameir, Anand and I. ‘Fatin’ is the name of our group name and it is also the name of one of our team members, so don’t get confused there!

After being briefed on Malaysia’s award winning Comp-Mat mangrove planting technique, we prepared ourselves mentally and physically to be a farmer cum eco savior. Wearing a farmer’s hat, we dragged our bare feet off the muddy coastland, soaked our lower body deep inside the mangrove swarm, and sang an uplifting gotong-royong song while showering seeds of hope into the open sea. A couple of hours went past, just before the coastline was submerged in high tide, fifteen hopes were planted by our team. While braving the 3-feet deep muddy swarm, a few of us turned into ‘mud-men’. Without complaints, we continue to crack cheery smiles in front of the camera. After all, we had accomplished a fruitful mission in a bid to save our own home – the planet Earth.