Empowering disadvantaged young people in Indonesia

Hi, I am Nur and instead of calling me Nur, many youth call me Bunda at YCM (means mother, as the little one used to call me Bunda since when I started sharing at YCM and I was only a high schooler at that time).   I come from a big family. I have 3 older sisters, 2 older brothers, 1 younger sister and 1 younger brother.  My mother worked as a housemaid and my father worked in a factory as a labor when I was still very young. But for so many years, my father unemployed and stays at home.  When my mum still healthy, she works as a babysitter, but now she is diagnosed with cancer stadium 3 and spend much of her time for post-surgery treatment in a central hospital in Jakarta, while we live in Bogor, about 60 km away.  We must travel for about 4 hours or even more (the traffic is so bad) when she had to get the radiation and the check-ups. The upcoming treatment is chemotherapy. I cannot imagine how can she can overcome it. It is so tiring indeed, especially for the patient and overwhelming for her and our whole family member.

Back to myself now, life was tough. My parents had to pay debts in order to fulfill our family's needs. I was scared when I had to go to school in certain days because my family didn't have money to pay for books and school fee. The condition challenged me a lot. I became a very shy person. I didn't have a courage to even talk to a friend.

In 2002, YCM rented a small house in front of my house. I was wondering what was happening there.  I decided to join YCM on the second day. My life since then was different. I loved to learn a lot about English and Global knowledge. I remember that Gesine and Putu celebrated my birthday at YCM for the first time in my life. They served some delicious food and pizza with a candle on it. I felt people loved me and appreciated me that time.

YCM has been becoming my second home. My other brothers and sister joined after me.  All my brothers and sister are married. Two of them got opportunities to continue their education to learn at a garment training center through YCM. They have nice jobs with good income and can help our family for a better financial condition.

YCM is a place where I found a big support for my dreams, for young people's dreams. I started to build my confidence.  Putu and other tutors helped me gained skills during my participation at YCM. I could, meet many new people, talk to friends, built my character and other things I couldn't mention here.  One of the biggest things was I could continue my study to college. I studied English Education and graduated 5 years ago. Once they asked me what my biggest dream was. I said, I would love to have a place like YCM in other part of Indonesia. I think it becomes real now. After I finished my study, I come back. I don't have my own place like this, but now I have YCM and be part of the core team to run daily activities at this beautiful place. I am a married woman now; my husband and my 3 years old daughter supports me for everything I do at YCM. Together with my 4 other friends in core team, it's our turn now to do best to provide the way, to be the bridge for our beloved brothers and sisters a YCM to achieve their dreams.

Thank you for being our biggest supporters.

Thank you for taking part to make our dreams come true.