Category Archives: Youth Act

Forum, Conference, Seminar, UN, MDGs and other international stuffs

Gio and Lia

Okay, since I already begin writing about SabangMerauke, I couldn’t stop now without telling stories about these two girls! They couldn’t be any different. One is very mischievous while the other one is more of an uptight kind of girl (I don’t want to detail which one is which 😆 )

Gio, like what I’ve written in the last post, is the ASM from Maluku and Lia was supposed to be her best friend for 3 weeks in Jakarta. Lia is the KSM. Her full name is Nurul Amalia and she is a Depok Girl. Their relationship wasn’t easy at the beginning – later on I found that the relationship of ASM-KSM was supposed to be hard to build so that it could be last forever. yes. Gio and Lia are now BFF and I know that it will be last forever. You can spot a genuine feeling when you see one!

First week was a week from hell *derived from their own dialogue 😀

Second week was the crucial week in their relationship. They began to know more about each other’s background, they started to share their story, and the wall between them was starting to brake.

Third week? Gio said that it was like she was flying and the farewell was coming too soon.

What I really learn from them : communication is a key to a good relationship. At first, they tend to not speak up what they have in their mind to each other, maybe to avoid hurting other’s feeling, but circumstances grew them closer and they began to trust each other. I could say that because I witnessed how their relationship evolved, even if they didn’t recognize it themselves. Lia was transforming to a great older sister for Gio, and Gio (used to be the oldest between her siblings) was also adapting to the new role she got in being little sister.

It is a fun thing observing how Lia taught Gio to be tough: facing the hectic morning in Jakarta, surviving morning Depok Train, enjoying their busy schedule, and squeezing “steak time” for them to pour their heart out. It is also fun to sharing stories with Gio about the programs and how she will implement the positive things in her village, also hearing how mush she loves to play guitar and watching horror movies. 🙂

For those 3 weeks, I feel blessed that they come to my life with their unique personalities. I feel blessed to know them both. I really want to thank them for everything they have shared with me. I really want to thank them for all the great things that taught me. They taught me if we want to find a common ground between all of our differences, it will be easy if both part agree to make effort to understand each other. We are not born to hate but we are born to love, so it is way easier to find something that we could work on together, rather than only talking about what set us apart.

Thanks for those great lessons you both have taught me. I am looking forward to hear great news about your journey to your wonderful future!

 

Love, Zesta.

SabangMerauke : The true unity in Diversity

Bhinneka Tunggal Ika is the Motto of Indonesia which means Unity in Diversity. We, as an Indonesians have known, learned, and read many articles trying to describe the meaning. Do you ever give a thought about the real implementation of these motto?

Only couple of people have a real experience living with people from different backgrounds: faith, religion, race, accent, and others. For 3 weeks in last July, my family have an amazing story. We are living with a christian junior high school girl from Maluku. What an amazing 3 weeks! We are still hang over by the greatness of this experience.

Could you imagine? For me, I would never imagine the real feeling until I get to feel those roller coaster of life. Those days weren’t easy at all – suddenly become parents of 13 yo-girl! All of those years studying about adolescence in the developmental psychology classes are finally making sense. Teenager is a whole different creature to handle – although we were all once a teenager.

Let’s not focus on how to parent a teenage girl – we need to focus on the program instead. I know about this program from a picture that was posted by my friend – Prie (which I adored so much, btw) in path and instantly caught my attention. I was discussing about it with Le Husband when I got struck by his question : “why?”

This question got me. I really want to join this program without any hesitation that when I was asked a simple why made me wonder. Why?

The first and only reason that I can came up with to explain my instant attraction was I wanted to do something for Indonesia. Cliche? yes. But for me it was the truth. We are now living in a post-truth era, where everyone has their own version of truth. With every person has a mean to tell their version, everyone else has their own way to only see evidences of their vision. Turn back hoax is an urgent thing for us to do now and what is better than experiencing it ourselves?

We have been reading many news about how one faith is so violence toward another; how one race is superior than the other; how we are really different from one another; and so on. In this post-truth era, everyone feels certain that their version of judgment is the truth. Deception is common and many people fell in to the framed trap : we are now framing one another. I am an Indonesian Moslem, part of the majority and I am sure that once in my lifetime I have stereotyped other people who is different. And now – more than ever – I need to make sure that those labeling will discontinue.

SabangMerauke is an initiative that select 15 junior high school students from all over Indonesia to come to Jakarta for 3 weeks and live in a Family which is different from them (either by race or religion) thus they will experience how to work on their differences and be a true family….because tolerance is not something that you can understand by only learning about it – you have to experience it to really feel its true meaning. Every weekday, these teenagers got to visit different places to learn about Education, Tolerance, and Indonesia : 3 main values of SabangMerauke. Weekend was family time and most of us will take those children to places that they really want to visit in Jakarta, or take them to our family gathering. Other than these teenagers, volunteers, committees and us – the Families, there were also “brother and sister” of SabangMerauke which accompany the children towards their program – act as a tutor, counselor, and the most important role : best friends! *The children is called Anak SabangMerauke (ASM); Family is Family SabangMerauke (FSM); Bro/Sis is Kakak SabangMerauke (KSM). To understand more about the program, visit http://sabangmerauke.id/

Being part of this initiative gave me opportunities to meet great people from different background. The ASMs are not your typical junior high school students. They are energetic kids with great visions and very motivated to achieve their dreams. You will be very optimistic about Indonesian future if you talk to them. The girl who was living with me, my daughter, is Giovani Kapiluka. Gio – her nickname – is in her third year in Junior High School in Ketty Letpey – a village in Lakor Island, Maluku. She loves to play guitar and really into music and singing. She wants to be a singer one day, but also has a vision where all the children in her village could get an access to proper education. She wants to make sure everyone knows that education is important and every children in her village has equal access to school. But when I ask whether she want to switch from being a singer to an Education Minister, she still aspired to be a singer (typical teenager 😆 ).

Many stories about how joining this initiative affect my life in a very positive ways. I could finally write this post in more than a week after the farewell dinner due to my full mind and full heart : resonated from this program. I literally caught in tears every time I remember the joyous feeling of being a part of SabangMerauke. Many stories. Much Laugh. Much Tears. Many years to face until we could finally see the real impact of this positive vibe shared by SabangMerauke. For now, I am most grateful for the new family I found in SabangMerauke. Bravo SabangMerauke!

 

 

 

Better Education for All

After such a long hiatus in posting and after encountering my own fear to be involve again in a social forum, I came to PS Bloggers Gathering last night at Es Teller 77 Adityawarman. (This is gonna be a long long post, pardon me)

Education to Employment: Preparing Globally Competent and Highly Employable Indonesians.

That was the theme last night. The speakers are Iwan Setiawan (author of “9 summers 10 autumns”) and Chris Crow (US Fullbright Scholarship Alumnus). We shares our concerns about Education in Indonesia, Chris also presented USBI that offers many fun ways to educate young people.

Just yesterday morning, I read an article about how Indonesians are lazy to read and Mas Iwan also highlighted these thing in his sharing session. He said that in Indonesia, students are not encouraged to read because most of us are just memorizing the lesson for a good grade, not to make ourselves understand the subjects. Chris also share his experience when he was teaching english in Maluku, he said that students there, are good at answering close ended question, while they found an open ended question very hard to answer. I guess this problematic fact root once again to “reading habit”. In the article I’ve read earlier, the writer shared that he was mocked overseas because he said that his hobby is reading. Reading is not a hobby overseas, they just read, while in Indonesia we classified reading as an hobby so people who stated their hobby is watch movie, they probably never read.

Continue reading “Better Education for All”

Ramadhan and Volunteering

We are now in the middle of the Holy Month. Ramadhan. The most anticipated month for muslims because of its big rewards. What we’ve taught since we were a kid is that if we do something good during this month, the value of our good deeds will be multiplied. What we always forget in one point is that Ramadhan is one special month that need eleven months training to get through it successfully. We forget that we have to exercise in the other eleven months to be a winner in the end of Ramadhan.

Volunteering is one of many good deeds that we can do in our life and maybe in this holy month, we get many chances to do it or to start doing it because people seems to be very helpful and very creative in making a way to help others.

Volunteering is always my biggest passion, I like to be involved in a non-profit activity but for now, my volunteering activity is kinda lose its chances dealing with my hectic avoidance mind. :sigh: I am not a member of one specific volunteer organization nor I funded one of them. I can only join them in my spare time that made me hard to keep up with their rhythm. *just another rationalization going in my mind* let’s us talk about other people then..

I have friends that dedicated their life for volunteering and I appreciate them very much. From all of my volunteer friend, I began to spot a pattern. I recognize two kinds of them. One of them volunteer in full spotlight, while the other one, like to keep it in the shadow.

My spotlight kind of friend is a member of many volunteer organization and always publish whatever activities they’re doing just like their life is devoted to volunteer and they had to make sure that the world know it. My shadow kind of friend is a member of only one organization that they established from zero. Their organization is in its way to be one big fish and somehow they could manage to hide that they are the people behind it.

So, which one is better? In my opinion, everyone has their own reason of what they choose to do in their life.

My friends in group spotlight believe that if everyone knows that they are doing something and if the world know that they actually enjoy doing it, also that volunteering could also make you famous, many people will roll up their sleeves to join the volunteers community. The buzz is also kind of volunteering.

My friends in group shadow believe that even if they work in a silence, society could not act like they don’t make differences. They tend to show that altruism is not only a myth.

So, which group are you in? The most important thing is the volunteering itself.

Let’s make this world a beautiful place to live, together..

Kartini #sobatbumi

Tadi pagi waktu di jalan mau ke kantor dengar siaran Your Morning Coffee nya Female Radio dan seperti biasanya, saya mendapat banyak info yang menarik kalo dengar siaran pagi. (mungkin kalo dengar siaran malam saya udah ngantuk jadi gak begitu memperhatikan apa yang dibicarakan, hee)

Dari acara tersebut saya jadi tau kalo Pertamina mengadakan acara Kartini Sobat Bumi, yaitu menanam pohon yang banyaaaaakkkkkkk… dan kita bisa berpartisipasi dengan mudahnyaaa..

dikutip dari sini, berikut cara kita berpartisipasi :

  1. Setiap 2 tweet (tidak termasuk re-tweet) dengan hashtag #sobatbumi akan dikonversi menjadi satu bibit pohon untuk ditanam dan dirawat oleh Pertamina di lokasi-lokasi yang sudah ditentukan.
  2. Konten tweet berkaitan dengan penanaman pohon, ajakan aksi penghijauan, atau inspirasi untuk melestarikan bumi.
    Contoh: alam yang kita nikmati saat ini bukan milik kita tetapi titipan anak cucu kita, mari kita jaga dan lestarikan #sobatbumi
  3. Setiap orang dapat memberikan tweet sebanyak-banyaknya
  4. Tweet tidak boleh mengandung unsur SARA.
  5. Bibit pohon yang dikonversi dari tweets akan ditanam dalam periode waktu 1 (satu) tahun.
  6. Laporan penanaman bibit pohon akan disampaikan pada akhir tahun 2012 melalui http://www.kartinisobatbumi.com dan http://www.pertamina.com

Daaaan.. yang paling saya sukai, kita bisa ngecek lokasi pohon yang kita sudah tanam dan berapa jumlah pohonnya di web itu. Grafisnya membuat saya gembira pagi ini, hijau dan menenangkan. Kita bisa Login dengan akun twitter kita untuk melihat berapa pohon yang sudah kita investasikan dan dimana akan di tanam, kita juga bisa milih avatar yang sangat lucuuuuuuuuu… sayang, pilihan baju avatarnya masih kurang representatif.. hehee

anyway, it’s a great idea to save our mother earth!

Sumpah Pemuda yang tak lagi Muda

28 Oktober 1928 – 28 Oktober 2011

Sudah 83 tahun yang lalu Kongres Pemuda menetapkan Sumpah Pemuda, walaupun tidak ada naskah otentik sumpah pemuda (ref: disini), tetapi berhasil menyuntikkan semangat bagi para pemuda Indonesia untuk mempelopori kemajuan Bangsa.

Kini, setelah 83 tahun kongres tersebut berakhir, apakah sumpah tersebut masih tertanam di hati para pemuda Indonesia?

Kini, setelah Umur sumpah pemuda yang tak lagi muda, akankah maknanya juga memuai, laksana memuainya kharisma manusia di usia yang sama?

Indonesia kini sudah mengenal banyak bahasa di dalam keseharian warganya, semoga saja Bahasa Indonesia tak lantas kehilangan wibawanya..

Indonesia memang Tanah Air Beta, semoga tak hanya bagi Beta, tapi juga bagi aing, kulo, aye, aku, lon, ahu, aden, kito, awak, tiang, icang, titiang, unda, kita dan saya

Indonesia adalah sebuah bangsa, yang terdiri dari banyak suku bangsa, semoga tetap begitu adanya, tanpa kita saling menghina dan kedaulatan bangsa tetap terjaga.

JAYALAH PEMUDA, JAYALAH INDONESIA!!

Naskah Asli putusan Congres Pemoeda-Pemoedi :

.source.

Indonesia On MoVe Now

GOOD NEWS!!

Tadi pagi, setelah sekian lama terisolir dari dunia luar, ta menonton Metro TV dan benar-benar takjub!!

Takjub dengan benar-benar Takjub!!

Ternyata Indonesia sudah cukup sukses menjalankan program untuk memenuhi Tujuan Pembangunan Milenium yang ke 5, yaitu kesehatan Ibu.

Sudah ada satu program yang diprakarsai oleh Departemen kesehatan, yakni P4K dengan stiker.

Apa itu??

Secara sederhana, program itu adalah penempelan stiker di depan masing-masing rumah yang ada ibu hamilnya, yang berisi siapa nama sang ibu, bidan, kapan perkiraan kelahiran, golongan darah, dan siapa yang akan mengantarkan kerumah sakit.

Dengan adanya stiker ini, masyarakat disekeliling atau yang biasa disebut tetangga akan lebih aware alias peduli dengan sang ibu yang sedang hamil, sehingga kehamilan akan menjadi tanggung jawab masyarakat sekitar juga, bukan cuma sang ibu, dan hal ini jelas sangat membantu sang ibu untuk melewatkan masa kehamilan dengan sangat menyenangkan Karena banyak orang yang bersedia membantunya dalam keadaaan darurat.

Dengan adanya program ini, diharapkan peran serta bidan desa juga meningkat untuk memberikan pengetahuan mengenai kehamilan dan kelahiran pada sang calon ibu, agar dengan pengetahuan-pengetahuan tersebut, kondisi kesehatn sang ibu akan lebih meningkat dan janin yang dilahirkan akan lebih sempurna.

Diharapkan agar dengan dijalankannya program ini, angka kematian ibu dan anak ketika kehamilan dan proses kelahiran akan lebih menurun bahkan hilang, karena tanggap darurat kelahiran dan kehamilan menjadi tanggung jawab bersama bagi masyarakat. Pertolongan akan dapat diberikan secara tepat waktu.

Selain perhatian dari masyarakat yang sangat diperlukan, terutama lagi adalah perhatian dari sang suami atau calon ayah,,

Kehamilan dan penglahiran adalah juga tanggung jawab suami untuk membantu istrinya melewatinya dengan baik, jadi, seperti kata Donna Agnesia dalam acara tersebut, jadi suami JANGAN SOK SIBUK! Cobalah lebih perduli dan berbagi, maka rumah tangga akan lebih indah,,

Semoga dengan adanya program ini Indonesia dapat mengejar bahkan mengungguli Thailand yang sudah menjadi MDG Plus dalam tujuan MDG yang kelima ini,,

Bersama kita mewujudkan Indonesia yang lebih menghargai masyarakatnya,,

Betapa Pentingnya ASI bagi Anak!!

Hmhm,,

Cuma sharing pengalaman,,

Ta lihat sendiri dengan mata ta (kalau ma mata orang lain, b’arti bukan ta yang lihat kan?) bukti dari betapa pentingnya ASI a.k.a air Susu Ibu,,

Kasihan banget, masih kecil tapi penyakit-penyakit kecil gampang banget mengenainya,, (hiks, jadi sedih,,)

Dari awal, mamanya cuma ngasi ASI bentar banget, gak tau alasannya apa, tapi kalau nggak salah siy karena kerja.

Apa yang terjadi pada sang adik kecil??

Pertahanan tubuhnya benar-benar sangat lemah,, apa yang dikatakan bahwa ada jaringan penting yang akan hilang karena tidak di berikan asi terbukti, tampak bahwa pertahanan tubuh yang sangat penting bagi manusia sangat tidak berkembang dengan baik pada diri si adik kecil. Mungkin juga sel darah putihnya tdk berkembang dengan sempurna, karena lukanya sulit sembuh dan gampang sekali terkena luka-luka kecil,,

Sedih banget ngeliatnya, karena masih kecil tapi menderita penyakit kecil yang begitu banyak,,

Entahlah, mungkin ini akan membuat ia menjadi anak yang begitu tabah?? (what?? Semoga ada hubungannya,,)

Jadi,,

Ta mau menggugah semua para orangtua maupun calon orang tua,,

Jangan cuma mau membuat anak, tapi apapun yang akan terjadi pada diri sang anak tolong juga dipikirkan,,

Gizi, dan pendidikan dari keluarga adalah awal yang penting bagi perkembangan kesehatan, kognitif, dan mental anak. Negara yang besar berawal dari regenerasi yang menghasilkan kader bangsa yang sangat berkualitas dan memiliki cinta dalam jiwanya,,

Mari kita bersama mewujudkan dan meraih hasil yang maksimal dalam memenuhi Tujuan Pembangunan Milenium yang keempat, yaitu mengurangi angka kematian anak!!

 

Mari kita ciptakan lingkungan yang ramah untuk anak-anak, yang mampu mendidik mereka jadi pribadi yang matang, bukan menjadi orang dewasa dengan polah anak-anak ataupun kerakusan yang tiada tara,,

 

Mari kita kampanyekan pemberian ASI bagi para bayi,,

Semoga kita bisa bersama membangun dunia yang lebih manusiawi,,

aBout the MDGs’ Goal number 5 : maternal Health

Indicators Target 6: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

   Maternal Mortality Ratio (WHO)

   Proportion of Births Attended by Skilled Health Personnel (UNICEF)

Goal 5

 

5.1 Promote reproductive and sexual health education in rural and urban areas through formal curricula and

non-formal activities. 

 

5.2 Encourage peer-to-peer education on sexual health and community-based condom distribution for youth by

youth.

 

5.3 Fund the expansion of existing or establishment of new youth-led, non-formal community education to

raise awareness about negative consequences of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy.

 

5.4 Provide opportunities for youth to speak about their culture, and encourage their voices to be a part of

community formation.

 

5.5 Fund and support youth-led media and awareness campaigns about scientific implications of some cultural

practices.

 

5.6 Support the involvement of young men in preventing gender-based violence through their participation and

leadership in trainings and awareness programs.

 

UNDP’s work

   MDG-Plus: a case study of Thailand ; the government spend much money on healthcare 

   Part of a series to share good practices from countries successfully promoting and advancing the MDGs, this case is intended to help UNDP Country Offices, national governments and their partners to determine whether adapting the MDG targets to local contexts could advance the MDGs in their countries, and if so, how the Thailand experience can be applied elsewhere.

 

More information

   Millennium Project Report: Who’s got the power? Transforming health systems for women and children

 

Action/Project

Raise awareness of women and girl for everything about maternal health, medic and psychological information

            : The mortality of mother in giving birth or while the pregnancy time can reduce by giving an early information and knowledge about everything related to the maternal health. People without information about maternal health can be result in lack of the nutrition during pregnancy, giving birth without attended by skilled health personnel and as the results are the increasing of child mortality and we lose the generation. Raising their awareness from early time will help them cope with their children and raise their children in more proper way.

 

Giving information to families and each of its’ members about maternal health and giving birth.

            : Maternal health and giving birth are not only issues for women, but also for everyone in the families so they can make everything easier to the mother while pregnancy and giving birth and also raised their children. It is especially focused to the fathers to aware them that maternal health is an important thing to be considered and everything related to the process of giving birth and raising children are also their responsibilities.

 

Raise awareness of society about maternal health and giving birth.

            : the society need to know what are things important in the maternal issues so it will be more positive toward women.

 

Provide proper facilities in local communities to increase maternal health and in giving birth (good infrastructure, good service, friendly, and cheap)

            :  Since the good facilities are commonly very expensive, it is really important to make a cooperation with other organizations in charge in making the cheap good hospital for mom and kids, so the facilities can cover everyone and reduce the mortality of mother and children in the process of giving birth, include pre-natal, perinatal, post-natal.

 

Establish cooperation between citizens with government’s health department and government or private hospitals and also with NGOs

 

Programs :

   Promote awareness about maternal health for women and teenagers

   Campaign for births attended by skilled health personnel

   Succeed programs on maternal health

   Train society to contribute in maternal health keeping

   Provide facilities for keeping maternal health in local communities

 

My/Our Next Step

 

Form a community with people who concerned in maternal health issue. Including the professionals of healthcare, psychologist, social worker, etc.

 

Gathering information about maternal health and keep updating

 

Identify the problem of each country and actions that already made before

 

Collected up the data of organizations/institutions/etc, which concerned to maternal health and the contact person.

 

Build a good cooperation with government and other organizations in charge

 

Cooperate with local or village organizations especially women organizations as much as possible

 

Involved in local communities’ programs related to the issue of maternal health

 

Plan programs and set specific goals

 

Find supports for funding, initiating, succeeding program. Including financial, medical, etc.

 

Evaluate and keep the continuity of the programs

 

Programs :

1.    Promote awareness about maternal health

   Making a cooperation with women society organization

   Cooperation with health organization both with government and non-government

   Socializing how important the maternal health to the society

   Train pregnant women about all aspects of giving birth

   Established the exhibition day for maternal health

 

2.    Campaign for births attended by skilled health personnel

   Gathering information about maternal health and the data about mother mortality in giving birth

   Cooperation with professional health organizations

   Cooperation with women society organizations

 

3.    Succeeding the programs on maternal health

   Gathering information about programs on maternal health hold by other organizations both government and non-government organizations

   Cooperation with the organizations

   Informing the society about the programs

 

4.    Train society to contribute in maternal health keeping

   Cooperation with companies/organizations/institutions/etc who occupied women, so they can contribute in keeping the maternal health

   Train other members of the family in keeping the maternal health

 

5.    Provide facilities for keeping maternal health in local society

   Cooperation with local community

   Cooperation with local government

   Cooperation with professional health organizations

   Cooperation with social service community