Empowering disadvantaged young people in Indonesia

The speech of Steve Jobs in 2005’s Stanford Commencement Address always stays on my mind. It inspires me deeply and give me the hints of living our lives. My decision to stay working for YCM is without no reason. Being a "dot", in someone’s life and a witness of their success stories is a feeling that I hardly to describe with words. I feel so content and yet so proud without any intention of overbearing it. Jobs’ speech taught us about connecting the dots that somehow will connect our future.

The stories that I will present you are about three young people, who joined YCM in the past. They came to YCM some years ago, they fought their dreams and now they experience the success of their dreams.

They are Candra, Ronald and Uni. For them, being able to live and study abroad were their main dreams. Candra lives in Germany now and also Uni. Ronald just recently returned from Australia for his master in Melbourne. Three of them can successfully prove us that even though they were not born with a silver spoon and had to struggle their lives they can reach their dreams!

Henceforth I will share you their stories:

Candra a young man who is currently working as a Health and Safety Expert at an international courier company in Cologne, Germany. He completed his Master of Industrial Engineering at the University of Siegen. He was born from a humble family. His mother is a cake seller in a traditional market, his father passed away in 2014 caused by stroke. Although everything is so limited in his family, Candra knows that education and positive characters are the most important things in life.  After he graduated his high school, he received a scholarship for his school fees of his undergraduate study in Jakarta the capital. He went back and forth Jakarta-Bogor by public transport. While he also worked as freelancer of a delivery call operator for a pizza’s restaurant. When he heard about YCM, he decided to join us and eagerly participate our activities. I was always amazed on how he managed his time between his activities at YCM, his study and his freelance work. He pushed himself to his limit. He fought his life’s circumstances. Ultimately, he had to give up his freelance work, as he had to choose between joining YCM or draining up his energy after work. Luckily, he also received another scholarship to support his life (transport etc. for his study) named PMD scholarship. He did not regret his decision as he chose the right one that brought him to his life in Germany now.

For Candra, YCM is a place where he felt at home and school at the same time. The combination of local tutors and international volunteers opened up their knowledge, sharpen their ability on how to deal with people from different background, cultures, and nationalities. When Candra at YCM, his biggest dream was to go abroad either for working or studying. His steppingstone was becoming an Au Pair to Germany. Finally with all support from YCM’s family, PMD and friends he flew to Germany as an Au Pair in October 2015 for a year. But after being an Au Pair, what’s next? That question on his mind motivated him to look for a scholarship for his master. After ups and downs during his journey in Germany long short story, he finished his study and now he works there.

The second story is about Ronald. A young man who just recently returned from Melbourne, Australia.  Ronald grew up in a household which didn’t really appreciate the importance of education. When he was about to turn sixteen, his mother and stepfather kicked him out from home when he had just graduated from junior high. His parents thought that it was a waste of money if they allowed him to continue his study. That situation brought him to YCM with the information from a neighbor who formerly had joined YCM. She told Ronald that YCM is a great place to learn English, make new friends and do fun activities. To his surprise, he did not only learn English, but he also gained opportunities such as a scholarship to continue his study in a high school. He lived at YCM since then, he always been so grateful that he had a shelter and a family at YCM.

Ronald said that his “dot” at YCM had greatly impacted his life, especially because YCM’s role in instilling soft skills to its students makes a huge difference compared to other schools or places. YCM emphasises that principles such as responsibility and independence are very important for its students. For example, students are given a weekly cooking schedule. This activity clearly teaches the students to be more responsible individuals. This means that apart from developing hard skills such as English and computing, the students also gain soft skills which are useful in the future. Another difference would be students at YCM get the chance to learn English with volunteers who are from different countries. This means that students can learn the volunteers’ cultures and broaden their knowledge.

Another thing that makes YCM different is that it encourages its youths to shoot for the stars. Prior to joining YCM, Ronald remembers vividly that he hadn’t had any significant dream in mind. Plus, he didn’t even have any idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. As time went by, he broadened his horizons. He dared to dream big now, regardless of his family financial background. Another reason would be he wanted to challenge himself. One day at YCM, he wrote down his biggest dream on a large piece of paper: “I want to study a master’s degree at the University of Melbourne.” He guessed at the time he was greatly immersed in Australia in many ways. He met many Australian volunteers throughout his journey at YCM. He read about the country on the internet, including its most prestigious universities. In August 2021, he obtained a master’s degree in Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing from the University of Melbourne. He never thought his biggest dream would come to reality a decade later.

Last but not the least is Uni, a young woman who lives in Germany as an Au Pair since May 2021 for a year. Like many other young people at YCM, going and live abroad is such a luxury dream, especially if our families’ situation does not support us. Uni’s father is a parking attendant with a housewife mother and three younger brothers. Her family’s background challenges her on a hardship of life. When she was in high school, a friend suggested her to come to join YCM as she was always wanting to learn English. But taking a course is so pricey while her parents could not afford it. As part of YCM’s family’ member she was not only learn English. She also learnt on how to operate the computer, leadership, communication, problem solving and character building. Being the discipline one, an integrity person and having dreams are the values she mostly gets from YCM.

After high school, she received scholarships to continue her study. She studied accounting for three years, then another two years to complete it. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in accounting already. After she finished her study, YCM’s network offered her a job in Germany, she learnt German and sharpened her knowledge, and she also helped YCM’s accounting while she was waiting for her visa to Germany. Well, her journey to work in Germany was not as smooth as we expected. But she did not give up, until finally she received her visa to live in Germany as an Au Pair for a family of our network as well. She has to postpone her dream to work as an accountant and after her Au Pair she has a plan to do “Ausbildung” an internship program to be acceptable to work in Germany.  

The most significant and relevant character she built during her time at YCM shaped her into an independent, honest, open minded and a hard worker woman. She applies them wherever and whenever she is.

The three of them are only few from many other success stories. YCM and its’ team including founders, core team, volunteers and for sure donors are the dots that taking part on the youths’ life. They are so grateful that they had a chance to join YCM. They and the dreams they achieved are the prove of you, I, we, and us together the dots that connect to each other. Thank you again for everyone who directly and indirectly letting us to assist others to connect their dots, our dots.

Season’s Greetings, Happy Holiday, Happy New Year of 2022. Be safe and stay healthy everyone!

Dear all readers of GlobalGiving Reports,

This time I would like to share you the story about Bunga, a young woman who also joins YCM after she finished her high school (2017) in Kebumen, an area in Central Java province (FYI our organization is located in West Java province). I sent her story on GlobalGiving report in 2018 and below her brief background taken from that report:

My name is Bunga. I’m 19 years old and came from Kebumen, Central Java. My mother works as a servant for another family. My father passed away when I was 14 years old, and I have six siblings. I graduated from SMAN 1 Kebumen (Senior High School). In 2017, I moved to Bogor. I came to Bogor to join my sister who had moved to Bogor long before me.
In Bogor, I try to keep myself busy and useful and luckily, I got a chance to assist the kindergarten teacher, in the morning. Besides the morning teaching, I help my sister with chores like cleaning up her house, taking care of her children and preparing her products (herbs) that she usually sells for the restaurants in Bogor. 
However, I wanted to do something more than those things, something that would improve my knowledge, skills and open up more opportunities for my life. I started to seek information regarding courses, but I did not have much money. My sister recommended me YCM and YCM has given me a chance to have a better life.

Well, the story about Bunga above was only a part of her beginning journey in Bogor and YCM. She definitely can take the benefit of joining YCM whole heartedly. She improves herself a lot! Gaining her confidence more than before, as she can reduce her weight about 32 kg! Her weight was 99 kg when she just came to Bogor and now 67 kg! It is amazing on how she maintains her discipline and her strong desire to reduce her weight and to be able to study law in a university. She is a typical of person who does not easily give up on her life’s condition. She fights her bumpy roads and gradually she reaps what she sowed. This is her latest story:

In this world, there are many things that I want to explore. But before that, I know the most important thing that I need to know more, first is about myself. I get through a lot of time to accept myself, about who am I. Before, I always felt insecure and comparing myself to others. That thought devoured my confidence in a negative way. Therefore, I was in a point where I felt so fed up with it. So, I decided to change it. I fight my negative feeling and I said it to myself “This time I have to accept everything. Then move on to be a better person”. One big step to love myself is losing my weight. I realized that I hurt myself with my hand. I blame the situation that made me fat and underestimate everything. But actually, the one who made it, is me, not the situation or other people. Then, I discussed this matter to one of YCM’s mentor. She recommended me to try a calorie deficit diet and do exercise like volleyball and running. I have been doing it intensively for two years. Two keys that made me successful on my goal to lose my weight are discipline and commitment! I lose 32 kg! I found the answer on how to get rid my insecurity and accept myself more. I feel good about myself and healthier now that’s the most important thing.

I can also accomplish another goal of mine! My other goal is to continue my study law in a university, but because of my family’s financial condition it was like an unreachable dream. My siblings are already overwhelmed with their families’ economic condition. My dad passed away couple years ago (he was only a junkman) and my mum’s daily wage only enough for herself to survive.

Since I join YCM, I get the assistance on how to improve myself and also a scholarship to continue my study. Some generous donors through YCM supports me to study law for admission and first year in a university in Bogor. The second year of university, I get a scholarship from an association that also knows YCM’s well. I received two third tuition’s fee and I pay the rest of the fees. I work as a freelancer (private tutoring) to earn some money for the rest of my fees. Later, I would like to take International Law as my major study. I do not let the donators to regret themselves for donating their money for my study, I keep my discipline and motivate my self to gain my best. As a result, during the whole two years of study (4 semesters), my GPA is not disappointing, I can get 3.88 out of 4 with only three Bs from 35 subjects (I get A mostly).

I am so thankful for being able to achieve my goals. All the supporters and donators help me on achieving them. Even during this difficult time of Covid-19 pandemic, YCM supports on the tools for me to do online lessons has helped me a lot. I can use the internet YCM, the spacious place to learn and also its laptop. I can concentrate to learn instead of doing it at my sister’s rented flat.

I consider myself lucky to be able to join YCM, to gain my goals and to be surrounded by positive people. I really hope I can also pass the positivity to others. Thanks a lot to all supporters and donators of GlobalGiving!