Indonesia: Jakarta/Tidung - Bringing Urban and Island Youth Together

The Sahabat Seribu Pulau Project, or “Friends of Thousand Islands”, was created by GCC Leaders in Indonesia. Its activity is based on two main objectives, first, to empower local women and girls in Tidung Island, and second, to minimize the gap between urban youth and island youth. The first objective was a collaborative action with the Our World Our Family Program. GCC Leaders managed the entrepreneurship training on how to produce local foods and to market the products as well. This activity was targeted towards young, local women. The training was held for 4 days and 40 participants were invited from the local area.

The second objective was facilitating youth-to-youth engagement. Youth in Tidung Island wanted the same type of life as the urban youth, but our GCC leaders thought differently. GCC leaders said that island youth could be just as advanced if they simply realized their full potential, and recognized their natural richness as a tourist destination. Most of the urban youth are ignorant or do not care about the environment on the island.  Those coming to the island have one purpose, which is to have fun. GCC Leaders interpreted urban youth behavior as ignorance toward the environment, which has led to island destruction.  An example of this is the bad habit of throwing garbage on the ground. After discussion regarding concepts and possible solutions, GCC Leaders decided to commence two core activities: Dialog between urban youth and island youth, and Tracking (exploring the island by biking and picking up trash along the way).

The combination of the beautiful island and fun activities served to raise awareness about garbage through the tracking activity. The participants gathered trash while biking for 5 kilos in 4 different locations. Each location provided different knowledge such as awareness about trash, products from trash, mangrove plantations, etc.

After two months of preparation, the project managed to involve 60 teenagers from Jakarta to Tidung Island as participants, 20 local youths, and 20 GCC Leaders.  All of them were happy to join in the activity.  Additionally, the GCC Leaders facilitated a dialogue, involving 60 youth from Jakarta and 20 youth from the island interacting and communicating what they intended to do in the future.  Some of them said that they wanted to be NGO workers, while others simply wanted to make a change on the island in order to restore local culture while inviting tourists to come to their island.  Our GCC leaders initiated changes through activities and by donating 10 trash bins for the islands.  Change can happen through fun activities.