Hari itu, saya sedang menjalani pelatihan untuk menjadi fasilitator di acara Global Youth Summit (GYS) keempat, sebuah acara yang diselenggarakan oleh British Council. Saya, bersama delapan rekan Global Changemakers dari seluruh dunia, dilatih untuk memfasilitasi berbagai sesi di GYS sebagai peer facilitator, mendampingi John Martin yang menjadi fasilitator utama. Pelatihan diselenggarakan selama seminggu di Jerwood Space, Southwark, London, pada tanggal 10 sampai 14 November 2009.

Di acara pelatihan inilah, saya pertama kali bertemu dengan Mohammed Barry, seorang pemuda sepantaran saya yang berasal dari Gambia. Jujur, waktu itu adalah pertama kalinya saya mendengar sebuah negara bernama Gambia. Gambia adalah sebuah negara Muslim di Afrika.

Suatu sore, kami diminta untuk memberikan pitch selama 2 menit, di mana kami menjelaskan aktivisme kami: apa yang telah kami lakukan, dan apa yang ingin kami lakukan, untuk “mengubah dunia” sebagai Changemakers. Ketika tiba saatnya giliran Barry, Ia maju dan memulai pitch-nya.

“Selamat malam. Nama saya Mohammed Barry. Saya berasal dari Gambia. Saya adalah satu dari 40 juta penduduk dunia yang mengidap penyakit HIV/AIDS.”

Saya membeku ketika mendengar hal tersebut. Bukan karena takut, melainkan karena motivasi saya tiba-tiba naik sebesar entah berapa persen! Saya, bersama Barry dan fasilitator lainnya, telah menjalani hari-hari bersama di sebuah hostel di bilangan Rotherhithe, di dekat Canada Water. Kami pergi makan di Chinatown, berjalan-jalan di pinggir danau Surrey Water, dan bertukar informasi mengenai negara masing-masing di dalam tube maupun taksi. Saya menyimpulkan bahwa Barry sama seperti yang lainnya. Hal tersebut memancing konklusi lain, bahwa orang yang mengidap HIV/AIDS sama seperti orang lain, sehingga tidak ada alasan bagi kita untuk mendiskriminasi mereka maupun memperlakukan mereka dengan berbeda. HIV/AIDS tidak menular lewat kontak fisik maupun udara. HIV/AIDS hanya akan menular jika terjadi pertukaran cairan tubuh.

Fakta ini membuat saya menjadi jauh lebih mengidolakan Barry. Ia adalah sosok yang sangat inspiratif bagi saya dan teman-teman fasilitator lainnya. Saya bercerita padanya, “Barry, dulu saya punya kerabat yang mengidap penyakit yang sama. Tapi, ia tidak punya semangat hidup, dan ‘kalah’ hanya dalam waktu dua tahun. Saya pikir mungkin itu juga karena ia tidak rutin minum obat.” Barry menanggapi, “Saya sudah 11 tahun mengidap AIDS. Saya tidak pernah minum obat. Saya hanya mengandalkan semangat hidup dan dukungan dari keluarga saya.” Saya tidak bisa berkata apa-apa ketika mendengarnya. Hanya bisa kagum.

Mohammed Barry mewakili negara Gambia di Africa Youth Summit 2009, yang diselenggarakan pada pertengahan tahun 2009 di Cape Town, Afrika Selatan. Di antara 84 orang yang juga berpartisipasi, Barry terpilih untuk mewakili Global Changemakers Afrika di World Economic Forum Afrika. Ia memberikan pendidikan gratis bagi anak-anak yang kurang mampu, terutama yang mengidap berbagai penyakit, di rumah sakit. Ia juga memperjuangkan agar anak-anak di Gambia bisa mendapatkan pendidikan gratis dengan membangun sekolah komunitas yang tidak menarik uang iuran bagi murid-muridnya.

Selain Barry, masih ada Mousa Musa, seorang pemuda asal Baghdad, Irak. Mousa adalah Global Changemaker pertama yang harus menggunakan kursi roda dalam bermobilisasi. Pada awalnya, saya tidak berkesempatan untuk berinteraksi dalam waktu lama dengan Mousa, karena ia tidak berada di kelompok saya. Di hari terakhir GYS, terpilih 20 orang dari total 60 peserta yang akan diwawancara untuk mewakili Global Changemakers di berbagai high level events seperti World Economic Forum dan Global Humanitarian Forum. Mousa merupakan salah satu dari 20 orang tersebut. Dalam sesi wawancara, menurut semua staf British Council dan fasilitator yang hadir, Mousa adalah kandidat terbaik untuk mewakili Global Changemakers. Ia mendapatkan vote paling banyak dari tim penilai, dan mungkin juga dari rekan-rekannya di GYS. Mousa hendak memperjuangkan pendidikan bagi anak-anak serta pemuda-pemudi yang cacat. Ia berhasil menyampaikan aspirasinya dengan lantang, padat, serta begitu persuasif. Lagi-lagi, saya merasa begitu terinspirasi.

Saya menulis ini bukan demi Barry maupun Mousa, tetapi demi anak-anak Indonesia—dan mungkin anak-anak di seluruh dunia. Salah satu isu terbesar yang dibahas di GYS keempat pada Bulan November 2009 adalah fakta bahwa anak-anak muda di dunia memiliki sifat apatis yang terlalu besar. Kita tidak pernah peduli, dan kita tidak pernah ingin membuat perubahan. Walaupun sebenarnya, kita bisa, dan kita mampu. Padahal, saat muda adalah saat yang paling tepat, di mana rasa idealisme kita masih berada pada puncaknya.

Bagi saya, Barry dan Mousa menjadi contoh bahwa tidak ada halangan bagi kita, anak muda, jika kita ingin membuat perubahan. Barry hidup dengan HIV/AIDS, sementara Mousa hidup dengan kursi rodanya. Rasa empati yang Barry miliki terhadap anak-anak di Gambia yang juga mengidap HIV/AIDS menumbuhkan semangatnya untuk memperbaiki keadaan itu. Rasa empati yang Mousa miliki terhadap anak-anak penyandang cacat di Irak pun memupuk semangat yang sama baginya untuk melakukan perubahan. Barry dan Mousa percaya bahwa tanpa pendidikan yang layak, masalah-masalah yang terjadi di negara dan benuanya sampai kapanpun tidak akan terselesaikan. Dengan sarana dan prasarana yang terbatas, mereka berusaha untuk memupuk semangat dan motivasi kepada anak-anak dan pemuda-pemudi Gambia dan Irak.

Barry tidak pernah mengeluh kedinginan, kelelahan, apalagi mengeluh bahwa ia sakit. Ia adalah pemuda yang cemerlang, dan berani mengatakan pada dunia bahwa ia mengidap HIV/AIDS. Menurut saya, pengakuan seperti itu membutuhkan keberanian yang luar biasa besar.

Mousa tidak pernah putus asa maupun merasa rendah diri hanya karena ia harus menggunakan kursi roda. Sebaliknya, setiap malam ia melakukan sit down comedy (karena tidak bisa stand up comedy!) di depan peserta GYS, membagi pandangannya terhadap masalah yang dihadapi oleh negara-negara di dunia, terutama Irak, dan apa yang menurutnya bisa dilakukan oleh pemuda-pemudi dunia untuk memperbaiki hal tersebut.

Bagaimana dengan kamu? Apa yang sudah kamu lakukan untuk membuat perubahan?

                          

Hey everyone,

I got two news. Bad news: I am ill. Good news: read on.

Do you remember my trip to Guildford and London earlier this year? I represented Indonesia in two events held by British Council UK & Switzerland, which are Global Changemakers Guildford Forum 2009 and Global Changemakers at the London Summit 2009. Global Changemakers itself is a programme by British Council that will create and support a large global network of future young activists and social entrepreneurs aged between 16 and 25 and develop them into Changemakers. There are some of you who have asked me earlier about joining this programme, and I sadly answer: “I am afraid that Indonesians won’t be able to apply in 2010, because we need to share the opportunities to other countries in East Asia.”. Well now, I have a great news.

I just received an e-mail from a British Council staff who works in Social Development division. The e-mail contained stories from Mimi (GCM at the London Summit), Thom Woodroofe (African Youth Summit), and Linn Kyaw Swar (GCMGF). By the end of the e-mail, it was written that they are “actively promoting this programme to networks of young activists in Japan, Burma, Thailand and Australia. But, they welcome applications from eligible young people from the whole region!

If you live in one of those countries (Japan, Burma, Thailand, Australia), you can contact these people at your local British Council office: Kyi Kyi Pyone (Burma), Amrit Gill (Australia), Tom Mayes (Japan), and Matumon Katerenchuk (Thailand). And if not, here is something for you to remember, take notes, anywhere…

Promotion of the programme for the next cohort will begin in July, and registration via the GCM website (http://www.global-changemakers.net) will run from 1 to 21 August.

So, if you are a young activist who’s willing to be the change you want to see in the world, prepare yourself. Make sure you register yourself for the programme. Make Indonesia proud. Make other countries bored with Indonesians invading their events and getting the awards. I’ve told you on my blog header: WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

Good luck!

You can read about my trips to London here:

• Global Changemakers Guildford Forum 2009
• Global Changemakers at the London Summit 2009
• Explanation about Global Changemakers

Update:
Steve Adams, GCM Manager for East Asia region, said that you need to be between 16 and 19, speak good English, be active in your community and want to make a positive change in the world. So, do you think you are eligible to apply? :)

                          

Sorry for not updating in such a long time! Been busy with things. Yes, I have graduated! Thank God. My grades aren’t that good though. As some of you might have known, besides taking care of prom dress, graduation kebaya and stuff like that, I’ve been busy working on my Community Action Project, the first ever Indonesian Youth Conference–KONFERENSI REMAJA INDONESIA. I can not tell you much about it (yet), but we are hopefully going to invite 33 high school students from all across the country (one student from each province) to Jakarta for one week. Konferensi Remaja Indonesia will become their platform to exchange issues and ideas, and then seek for solutions together. We will also give a number of various workshops. The event itself is going to be held next year, hopefully, on July 5 – 10, 2010.

Hmmm.

I need your help. Please become a fan of Indonesian Youth Conference on Facebook and follow Indonesian Youth Conference on Twitter. Menurut Facebook, ada 1.489.480 pengguna Facebook berusia di bawah 18 tahun yang tinggal di Indonesia. Kita harus melewati angka itu. Kira-kira bisa nggak ya? Suggest the page to all of your friends. Put it on your status update. Your Twitter update. Your Plurk update. Your e-mails. Whatever. Whatever will do. Do it. At least suggest to 5 friends who will suggest to 5 more who will suggest to 5 more and it goes on and on and on. We can make it; and tell the government that more than 1 million people support IYC: they will have to support us as well, right?

Saatnya suara kita didengar.

                          

Another round of traveling to London with the Global Changemakers! I am so grateful that I got the chance to have a go again, and terribly sorry if there are some people who think that I am showing off by posting this. No, I’m not. I just want to share the experience to you folks… therefore people will be reminded with what Walt Disney said, If you can dream it – then you can do it. Just Google about something that you really want to do, you’ll find something great, and go for it. Nothing is impossible, trust me.

Learning the hard way!

There were 21 of us, 20 people from the G20 countries + 1 from Thailand as ASEAN’s representative. This event is related to the G20 Leaders Summit, maybe you had watched about it on TV. I met some of the same people from the last event in Guildford including the British Council team (both from UK and Switzerland, plus 2 new members: Paola and Fran), Scott (UK) and Sofia (Canada). I also met new people of course, and all of them were wonderful.

This is what we did in London:

• Working, working, working… We had to decide what we think the world leaders have to do to tackle the global financial crisis. We thought about it from every aspects, including environmental and social. We also worked with UK Youth to exchange knowledge about what is really happening in our countries. I could proudly say that Indonesia is holding up relatively well, the inflation pressure was reduced, and our economic growth still recorded a surplus. Most of the working sessions took place in InnovationArts, a very innovative place to work!
• Roundtable discussion with Katherine Garrett-Cox, Simon Taylor, and Diana Wais at The Economist with Matthew Bishop as the moderator!
• Some of us met the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP at Downing Street No. 11. Too bad I wasn’t one of them. :(
• Met UK Prime Minister, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, and President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of Mexico at Downing Street No. 10. It was a real quick meeting, but I was still speechless.
• Conversation with Cherie Booth, or famously known as Cherie Blair. Yes, she was UK’s ‘first lady’ but she prefers to be called with her maiden name. She’s a leading specialist in human rights law issues.
• Went to The Bank of England. Yes, it’s pretty much the same with other museums in the UK. Real fun, free, and you don’t want to get out of there.
• Reception at the House of Lords, hosted by the Lord Speaker, Rt Hon Baroness Hayman. We met David Miliband to give our version of communique. FYI, the G20 always produces communiques, you can read all of them here.
• Plenary session with Rt Hon John McFall MP, Chair of UK Treasury Committee.
• Went to Zuhal Amadeus Sultan’s recital. She is a Global Changemaker from Iraq and she’s organizing the first orchestra in Iraq, called National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. Check out Zuhal’s page to know more about it. She was really an inspiration.

Copyright © 2009 Chris Tribble/www.ctribble.co.uk.

I couldn’t even believe I was there! The main idea of this event was actually to let us meet our leaders. Unfortunately, only Leticia (Mexico) and Scott (UK) who got the chance to meet their leaders. I don’t want to miss the chance, really. So, I contacted Mr Herry who works in KBRI - I met him on January – and told him that I’d like to meet Mr President. He said that Mr President had a very tight schedule and well, I understood. But he offered another thing, which was having lunch with The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hassan Wirajuda; Indonesian Ambassador for UK, Mr Yuri Thamrin; and also my idol… Mr Dino Patti Djalal! I said yes.

And guess what, I really got the chance to meet Mr President! I shook hands with him. It was thrilling, and exciting, at the same time! I didn’t regret running around the underground stations, walking near the demonstrators, waiting for hours at the hotel corridors… I finally met him. Other people said that it was impossible to meet him in London, but this is an evidence that,

Impossible is something
that’s impossible.

It’s never too late to pursue your dreams. Write what you want on a piece of paper, or in your mind. And, go for it.

PS: Pay attention to my outfit. Yes, I am, Indonesian. And lovin’ it!

                          

I’ll depart to London in 2 days, to attend another Global Changemakers programme, which will be related to The G20 London Summit. The G-20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 of the world’s largest national economies, plus the European Union (EU). Indonesia is included! :)

I have a lot of “assignments” in going to this event. From making a YouTube video to be viewed by the media and G20 attendants, sharing resources on the net and currently the hardest one… making a presentation. I also need to present it in 2 schools, unfortunately I haven’t got the time yet and I dunno which school’s students who are going to be interested in such issue (raise your hand, please? :)). Let’s say in short, I need to know what young people think about the crisis, and what should the world leaders do? As a representative from this country, I need to bridge youth of Indonesia, the government of Indonesia and the other G20 leaders. So, if you want to talk anything about the crisis, this is the chance for you to speak!

At first, actually, I was never interested in economics. But well, as I was making the presentation, I figured out that economics are not that boring.

I hereby attached some things that are going to be in my presentation which is going to be seen by world leaders (hopefully! :p).

• We had a similar crisis.
  In 1997, we had a trade surplus of more than $900 million, forex reserves of more than $20 billion, 1 USD = Rp2380, and GNP = $250 billion.
  In 1998, we lost 13.5% of our 1997 GDP, 1 USD = Rp14150, GNP = $34 billion, GNP & exchange rate dropped by 83%, real GDP growth = 0.3%, inflation = 77%.
• We managed to get up.
  Jakarta Stock Exchange was the best performing market in Asia (2004), up by 42%.
  Economic growth reached 5% (2005) and continued to increase.
  Real per capita income has reached fiscal year 1996/1997 levels.
• Now?
  The decline in commodity prices pressed us to export which caused declining performance in exchange rate. There were also shock and fluctuation in money, forex and obligation market. On the other hand, inflation trends continue to decline (yay!). In 2008, economic condition was still positive (grew above 6%), balance sheet transaction still recorded a surplus.
• As a citizen of Indonesia, I fully support President SBY’s suggestions, including: act fast, focus on priorities, conduct short term, mid term and longer term actions simultaneously at the national, regional and global level.
• I recommend the government to continue and improve fiscal budget stimulus, strengthen the financial and banking system, and acquire additional fund resources.
• But, it’s not enough. This is a global crisis and we need a global act. World leaders should realize SBY’s suggestion last year, to make a “Global Expenditure Support Fund” which is going to support developing countries who are affected by the crisis; they should also stimulate economic growth and avoid protectionism.

Yeah, I know the vocabulary I used was too complicated. You don’t have to understand it. I only need suggestions from you. I need you to speak up about this issue so I can “transfer” them to the world leaders, like Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, or SBY for instance.

Thank you. :)

                          

What I did back then in Guildford. I know that pictures tell a thousand words. But what about, a few videos? I almost cried watching these. Have a look.

So… what is it, exactly?

Global Changemakers will create and support a large global network of future young activists and social entrepreneurs aged between 16 and 25 and develop them into Changemakers. It builds on the existing Road to Davos and Learning from the Future projects. The British Council is currently working with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and, based on the success of this collaboration, will work with other international forums such as the UN to ensure that the youth voice is heard and the participants’ skills are shaped by the experience. The aim is to create a powerful global network for action that provides opportunities to share experiences and help young people make practical and visible differences in their communities, countries and regions.

A Changemaker is:

• Able to influence his or her community as well as speak to authority with confidence and passion.
• Not afraid to challenge either accepted ways of thinking or their convictions.
• Forward looking, take his/her ideas and put them into practice.
• Accepts difference, flexible, able to take on new ideas and skills and will communicate them to others.

                          

Most of you have probably heard that I went to the UK. Not to meet Thom Yorke (although I’d be smiling like Joker all the time if I had the chance to bump into him around Trafalgar Square), I attended the Global Changemakers Guildford Forum 2009 instead. I might say that I was so lucky to get that opportunity. I’d like to thank my mum and dad, my family & friends, The British Council UK and Indonesia–especially Mr Fajar Anugerah who took a good care of me during my stay in London & Manchester, Astrid Wulandari (who let me know about this event), The Gibbons, The Pettits, The Nugrohos (who let me slept over at their place). It was a lifechanging experience.

I was there for two weeks. So how was London? It was real cold. Around 1 to 7 Celcius degrees. It was killing me on the first days, but it got better.

GCGF 2009
was held at Horsley Park, Surrey. There should have been 60 participants from 37 countries but the two of us couldn’t make it there, so there were only 58. I met a lot of people, more like a family than just friends. They peeled something that covered me for years, they helped me rediscovered myself. At first, it was really hard not to speak Indonesian at all. But then again, it was a learning process.

The facilitators were John Martin and Linda Gaskill who also helped for the Road to Davos 2008 (last year’s similar event). They gave a lot of knowledge and insight for us to do our projects when we got home. Yes, I forgot to mention that we were supposed to be doing something in our countries. We needed to design a Community Action Project (CAP) and submit it to Gaby, the CAP manager, on the last day of the forum.

The activities were awesome! They helped us to discover the guidelines of working in a team, they put us in a situation “If you were in the same elevator with Bill Gates and he asked about what your activities, how would you respond in less than 27 seconds?”, there were also a reception in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where people were invited to meet us, they wanted us to discover our weaknesses and things we’d like to know through a workshop called “The Marketplace”, and many more. Basically, they want us to build our own network and do something great in our countries.

On the last day, we had to present our CAP. I presented that I wanted to make a youth conference in Jakarta on July 2010 (PS. I’ll tell you about it later!). They said that my presentation was great, so I was relieved. After the presentations, we had to vote for “The Davos 6″. So, among the 58 of us, there’ll be 6 people who’ll go to the World Economic Forum to represent the Global Changemakers. I didn’t get that chance. It was okay though. I don’t it really matters, what matter was, I met a lot of new friends from all around the world, and had the chance to tell them that Batik is really from Indonesia and there were some good impacts from the Tsunami disaster: RI and GAM reunited as one province, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

I met a lot of best friends. Mintwab, Elsabe, Charlie, Sarah, Esnatt, Chiara, … I miss them all. :(

A Bit of Traveling

I didn’t have much time to travel around the UK. I had like two or three days to see things in London and used the tube more frequently than I ever used TransJakarta! I visited British Museum, National History Museum, Science Museum and Sherlock Holmes Museum. The museums were just awesome. The interior design, architecture, things inside the museums are very interesting. The best thing from them was, they are all free! No admission fee needed, but there were donation boxes. I saw couples everywhere around the museums, make my longing for the bf grows much much worse. I also visited football stadiums, including Stamford Bridge (where I saw John Obi Mikel!) and Emirates (a few hours before the Arsenal-West Ham match started!). I ate fish and chips also, the traditional food from the UK. I tasted the traditional and the ‘fast food’ one. I went to the very famous Madame Tussaud’s (luckily I “met” Obama and Warhol! Yippee!). I had a little bit of shopping at Colchester and M&S in London. Not much though, everything was extremely expensive, compared to Indonesian prices, hehehe.

iCoCo & BC International Conference 2009: Community in Action – People and Practice

It was held in Manchester, so I went there by train on Tuesday. It was about community cohesion. I didn’t really understand about it but I had the chance to brainstorm things with new people and tell them that we, young people, are doing something. The things in their mind were that they can never work with young people who (they think) are less responsible and less of a fighter than adults. I told them that we are courageous to do things, sometimes even more than adults do. I also met two kids from the UK Youth Parliament. We had reception and dinner at the Manchester Town Hall and I chatted a lot with people (tried to use the “27 seconds” things. Thank you John & Linda!).

Anyway, before the conference started, I had the chance to visit The Old Trafford Stadium! Everyone was envious. *evil laugh* I hope you all, the MU fans, will get the chance to experience what I did in Manchester. Nevertheless, they are coming here in a few months though. No worries. :)

more pictures later!

alanda, 1.55 am

                          

Have you read this? That day, I still sent the application form. It was not even fulfilled yet, I only filled half of it. One day later, I got a call from Fajar Anugerah, a British Council staff. He and his team were going to wait for my essay video. So, I recorded the video in my room (while other applicants recorded theirs at the beach, garden, park, museum, etc) and sent the link to them (though Mum was a bit irritated because I couldn’t bring her camera to the Disney Live event because of that!). It’s a bit hard to say this but, on October 31, 2008, I got an e-mail from Louise Cowper, from British Council UK, saying that I am being selected to attend Global Changemakers Guildford Forum 2009 in Guildford, UK, on January 2009. I’m so excited! Wish me luck in representing Indonesia. If I’m good enough, I’ll be flying to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum 2009.

Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. Thank you, Mum, Dad, Astrid Wulandari, Fajar Anugerah, Hugh Moffatt. Although I haven’t even departed yet, I am happy already.

Find out about Global Changemakers.