Empowering disadvantaged young people in Indonesia

This time I share you the story of Ari, a young man who decided to join YCM when he was 11 years old. A neighbor told him about Yayasan Cipta Mandiri (YCM), a House of Dreams for underprivileged young people to gain knowledge, confidence and skills. He is indeed a clever one, but unfortunately his parents were not supporting him to come to YCM. For them, Ari must help the financial condition of the family as his father who is an angkot (minibus public transport) driver struggles to earn enough money for the family’s daily needs. Ari’s mother is frail and often falls ill until now. So, Ari had also the responsibility to help the house chores. For them, Ari was better to work both to earn money and do the house chores rather than developing himself for a better future.

Ari insisted on coming to YCM after school, and he managed his time also to do the house chores. After he graduated from high school, through YCM's network he got an offer to work in a villa in a small island Gili Trawangan a tourism object island in West Nusa Tenggara. He received that offer as he could communicate well in English and his attitude was superb. At that time, we knew that we could recommend him.

Ari worked for about a year in Gili Trawangan, and then he returned to our city, Bogor. He received a scholarship from YCM’s donator to continue his education in tourism industry and not long after completing his one-year study, he again received another offer to work in another tourism island Gili Asahan also in West Nusa Tenggara.

Ari works as a Guest Relation Manager in a resort in Gili Asahan. He enjoys his unique island life now. There, he has gained so much knowledge of environmental awareness, improved his communication skills, and learned to communicate in other languages besides English, such as French and GermanThn

Well, nowadays Ari’s family is depending on his financial support. His father, who is nearly 70 years old, is still working as an angkot driver, and his mother is still so weak. Although he is an independent man already now, but he cannot leave his family without providing support. But he can support them in better way now.

Ari’s initial dream was to work abroad but working in Gili Asahan where most tourists are foreigners from Europe, he feels like working in Europe already now.

Ari is so grateful for his decision to join YCM and not follow his parents’ wishes at that time. YCM has helped to guide him to set his goal, gain knowledge and skills. 

Below is what he wrote by himself:

“I am so grateful that I had a chance to join YCM (The House of Dreams) and to continue my education by the help of the donors. Now I have become an independent man. I really wish YCM will be forever existed to help many other underprivileged young people who need guidance to face their future”.

Thank you the donors through GlobalGiving, may YCM keep existing like what Ari and others wishes!

This is a story about Bugi, a man with passion and dreams to chase. He was 22 when he joined YCM in 2007. He finished his vocational high school of office administration in 2003 and then doing almost nothing for about five years. It was not because he was lazy, it was because he did not know what to chase and how to achieve it. He only knew that he likes sports, especially running.
Bugi is the fourth child from five children of his parents. His father was a labor in a tire company and when Bugi graduated from his high school, his father retired from the factory already. What he did after he graduated was helping his parent’s small shop in front of their house and joined sport activities.
One day, his friend told him about YCM and both decided to join. At first, he thought that YCM was an English course place only. He only knew, YCM is a place for young people from under privileged families to learn English for free, but what he experienced at YCM was beyond his expectation. He learned a lot!

At YCM, Bugi learned how important to have a dream or dreams and to achieve them. He built his confidence, networking and other characters. He finally knew that his passion of sports, was his keyword to find his way.
As Bugi loves running and outdoor activities, our previous Australian volunteer and her spouse Ween and Will introduce him to running community in Bogor city where the participants mostly the expatriates who live in Bogor city and they love to explore the area of Bogor and its surrounded. The activities allowed him to get to know more people and explore his passion for running.
Through his involvement at YCM, he had a chance to join AFL (Australian Football League) Jakarta. That typical Australian sport was introduced by YCM’s former Australian volunteer Alex. She invited her friend from the same volunteer organization ho volunteered at AFL Jakarta to come to YCM and share about footy or Aussie Rules to YCM’s participants. Bugi had the experience to join AFL Jakarta and flew for the first time to Bali and then Australia. Never on his mind before, that through sports, English language, confidence to mingle with others, could assist him to experience many new things in his life such as flying with the airplane and go to places he never thought before.

There was a funny story from Bugi when he stayed in a hotel in Bali for a competition for the first time. Bugi, who never had any experience of staying in hotel room, was so restless during his stay. The toilet in the hotel was a sitting toilet without any jet washer, while he only knew how to use squat toilet with water to clean up. It was a nightmare for him, and he decided to hold his nature call for about four days until he decided to collect the water in a plastic bottle to be able to clean up. Although he experienced in Bali hotel room already, but when he had a chance to join AFL competition in Australia (his first abroad trip), he found out that toilet matter is the biggest culture shock that shocked him a lot. Now, he gets used to it. He experienced many marathons competition abroad and allows him to travel to many areas both local and international.

In 2010, since he was able to earn money from the competitions and many part time works, he decided to continue his education. He studied PE (Physical Education) Teacher Education in a university in Jakarta while he continued his work as a part time sport teacher here and there. After graduated from the university, he works as a PE teacher in a public school and then in an international school where many of the students are the foreigners’ kids. He is so happy and satisfied to his achievements. But he does not stop running to chase his dreams.

Bugi a man who chases his dreams, he never stops dreaming and running to chase them. He continues his dream although he achieves many of them already. Last year, he joined Berlin marathon and had a chance to meet our German friends and YCM’s founder family. He made another network and found a job through this network. He applied his working visa and just recently granted. Next month, he will be in Germany already, he will work abroad as a PE teacher as he dreamed before. His passion, spirit and confidence allow him to experience the journey he even did not dare to think before he joined YCM. He is so thankful for the existence of YCM and the support of the donors. They assist the young people with big dreams to be the successful ones.
He knows one thing, if there is no YCM or he decided not to join to YCM when a friend asked him to, perhaps his life is a different life than now.
Thank you so much for all donors of YCM!