Empowering disadvantaged young people in Indonesia

I am happy to be able to share my life’s story with you all. I would love myself, 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 because my niece had joined YCM before she got busy with school. Then, I asked Kohar (YCM’s Coordinator) some questions through Facebook and he told me that I should come to YCM directly. He explained to me about YCM, and then I decided to join YCM! What a precious chance for me…

I join Yayasan Cipta Mandiri (YCM) for 10 months already now and I am the member of the youth programs of Bogor Tours and Creative Writing.

YCM has given me a chance to have a better life. I have always wanted to continue my study in a college, but I have a financial problem. But now, I think YCM has given me more knowledge, education, and experiences—I would say more than a college could provide. I am grateful to become a part of YCM. I have learned to be a professional tour guide through Bogor Tours. Another thing is that I can express my hobby in creative writing by creating poems, short stories and articles. In addition, I am able to help my mother support our family from the pocket money I earn from Bogor Tours. I have been an assistant tour leader for five times.

At YCM, I also learn other subjects like business, leadership, human rights and many more, through workshops every Tuesday. Actually, to be YCM is a good chance for me to make my English fluent because I can speak with foreigners (volunteers). Plus, the tutors teach me how to speak and write in English. YCM is my family. When I have problems, the people always support me. They show me the meaning of life. They also show me that everything is not all about physical appearance. So, I want to prove to everyone I know that I can do the best with my skills.  I do not want to lose the opportunities that I have at YCM.  YCM is not just a foundation. It is “the house of dreams”. Thank you donors, supporters and Global Giving…you made my life’s journey better and I’m positively facing the world now! I’ll do my best to reach my dream and be useful to others.

Not to give up on life’s challenges

            My name is Fiqri, I’m a 19 years old male. I have four siblings, three older sisters and an older brother. My second sister has lived with my grandmother since she was born. My father is jobless since I was in elementary. When I was still a young boy, my mother had a small stall (warung) in front of our rented small house to support my family financial problem, but the income wasn’t enough for us. At that time my oldest sister had already had a job and she was the one who paid for our house monthly rental payment. Now I live with my parents, my sister and my brother.  My other two sisters already married and now they live with their own families.

            I always very focus and try to always achieve my best at school. Unfortunately a couple of times I had to hide and didn’t want to go to school because my parents couldn’t afford to pay my school fees. Although my father could not afford to pay the school fees, he tried to solve the school fees problem by sending the letters to the schools concerning to our financial problem and asked the school to let me continue my study. Finally, I could finish my high school in 2016 and my grade score was always excellent. After high school, I did some test in university and I passed a test. But unfortunately, I decided to call off my study in university as I can’t pay the admission.

I didn’t do anything after I graduated from high school. I didn’t know what to do as I didn’t have any skill. A few months after my graduation from high school, my friend asked me to join Yayasan Cipta Mandiri (YCM). In October 2017, I get a scholarship to continue my study at a university in Bogor. I decided to study accounting. In my first semester, I got a perfect GPA and now I’m in my second semester. I also work in a restaurant as a freelancer on weekends and keep joining YCM.

            When I started to learn at YCM, my expectation was only to be able to communicate in English. But everything at YCM was beyond my expectation. I’m not only able to learn English, but I also learn many things from hard-skills to soft-skills such as I can learn photography, sports, music, computer, adobe photoshop, and Lightroom. Furthermore, I also learn communications, leadership, etc. Now I can speak English better than before. In addition, I’m good at photography, editing, and guiding. Lastly, I now can speak in front of lots people, giving the presentation. Before, I couldn’t do such thing. I believe that when we believe and motivating ourselves not to give up on life’s challenges, we can pursue our dream and a better life. Thank you YCM and GlobalGiving to assist me and my friends not to give up on our challenges.