Youth Desk - Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO

Indonesia is an agrarian country, where most of the population are farmers. Ironically, in this agricultural country, most farmers are poor. Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) showed that 64% of poor people in Indonesia live in villages and majority work as farmers. One of ironic thing that the world of farming in Indonesia is difficult to find young people in farm sectors. Data from Statistics indicate that 60% of Human Resources (HR) in agriculture over the age of 40. How this could be happens? Where are Indonesian youth ?

Edwin Leo Mokodompit, from the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO Youth Desk, in a seminar titled "With The Spirit of Youth, Develop Agriculture in Your Area and Create Green Innovation" held by the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences (IAAS) Local Committee Universitas Padjadjaran on Saturday, February 18th, 2012 at the Universitas Padjadjaran (Unpad) Jatinangor, said that in Indonesia, farmer are having crisis identity. According to him, farmers in Indonesia are always in identified as poverty. Image like this that make one of the reasons young people in Indonesia are reluctant to become farmers.

In a national seminar organized by the student organization of agriculture and related sciences, also presented by Ridwan Kamil, the founder of Indonesia Berkebun, who have been awarded by the Google Web Heroes Award. On the occasion, he shared how to start the movement. "Start the movement from problems," he said. Problem will rise an idea, then community. The peak phase is the movement, it can even become a culture. Then why should young people can be the change maker?

Ridwan Kamil said, "Communities are waiting for youth movement because of three things. First because of his physical strength, second is intelligent, and third because of its concerns or idealism. "
One sentence that came from Ridwan Kamil, "my city is my responsibility". Prosperity of this country, for example is food security, is our responsibility as a nation of Indonesia, the elderly and even younger.

Contributor: Yosie Sesbania Gewap (IAAS Indonesia Communication Board)

Indonesian Students Associations for International Studies or familiarly known as ISAFIS visited UNESCO Youth Desk Indonesia National Commission for UNESCO office in Senayan, Jakarta to have a discussion on the theme of “Empowering Indonesian Youth Participation in Anticipating Social Issues” (27/1/12). This kind of visit and discussion with international institutions/organizations is regularly held by ISAFIS under the name of Strategic International Studies Basic Course (SISBAC).

SISBAC aims to raise ISAFISian (ISAFIS members) awareness towards international issues which are not only the concern of Indonesian diplomats but also everyone including youth. As the ISAFIS President, Lukman Oesman, mentioned in UNESCO Youth Desk SISBAC every one can do diplomacy since the diplomacy is not only government to government (G-to-G) but also people to people. So that everyone needs to have concern on international issues.

The discussion began with the very warm and humble welcoming words from the coordinator and vice coordinator of UNESCO Youth Desk, Leo Mokodompit and Jasmine Sagita. These two young and inspiring people started their involvement in UNESCO Youth Desk after their attendance in UNESCO Youth Forum 2009 in Paris, France. Back then, one of the resolutions of the forum was providing further space to enable youth to turn the written forum resolution into tangible and impactful actions. As the follow up of the notion, UNESCO Youth Desk was established to support youth’s initiatives.

The raise of youth movement in Indonesia was one of the topics that were highlighted during the discussion. As we seen recently, the number of youth movement is increasing particularly these past two years. Nevertheless the distribution of the youth movement is not geographically equal, it seems like youth in less affluent region do not pay attention on volunteerism and social issues. Even in urban area the youth’s social movement is mostly involving the same young people or maybe different people but share common networks and backgrounds (only those who attend X, Y, or Z universities who join youth movement).

Lack of information and facilities can be the factor that we can blame on. From what Jasmine and Leo told in the discussion, most of youth movements in less affluent region work on politic instead of social issues. Not to mention that politic is prohibited for youth, but Leo said that ,in this case, at the end of the day the youth movements only be driven by stronger political power, not be a driver for change. Later on Leo said that in some region of Indonesia the youth’s concern is how to make certain candidate in local election get the most ballots and win the vote so that the youth can get something back for themselves not for the entire society.

Another important thing from the discussion, Leo and Jasmine said that now and then Youth Movement seems to be allergic with government whereas the government is actually an important stakeholder in creating change. No matter how much youth look down on the regarded- as-unprofessional Indonesian legislators, in the end they are the ones with whom youth have to cooperate to make the change legitimate. Jasmine deemed that at the same time youth have to cooperate well and to be critical with government. She also noted that rather than demonstration, diplomacy does better in communicating what youth want to do since most of demonstrations only ended up in media coverage without resulting any real improvement for society.

The visit and discussion marked the beginning of future relation between the two organizations since both ISAFIS and UNESCO youth desk found many visions in common from what had been shared in discussion. It was a great honor and pleasure to visit and to learn many things from UNESCO Youth Desk.

(Contributor: ISAFIS)

 

Youth Action Drive Change with Local Wisdom
International Youth Forum 2011 Toraja – on MDGs and Preserving Cultural Heritage was organized by Toraja Youth Community supported by Youth Desk - Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, held from 4-9 December 2011 at Sahid Hotel Makale, Tana Toraja, and Rantepao Lodge Hotel, North Toraja. This event was attended by 104 youth representatives from 11 countries: Indonesia, USA, Bangladesh, Hungary, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Sudan, Suriname and Timor Leste to discuss the role of youth in supporting the achievement of the MDGs as well as the role of youth in preserving culture under the theme "Youth Action Drive Change with Local Wisdom".

This theme is in line with the theme of the UNESCO Youth Forum this year adjusted to the value of local wisdom that considered as important and should be the basis of each youth movement towards change for the future, including MDGs and preserving Cultural Heritage issues. This activity was implemented in order to strengthen friendship among youth – in local, national and international level. It was a great event where participants together shared their knowledge and experiences on both topics, and then formulate recommendations and concrete action plan together for a better future.

As speakers, Drs. Jonah Arbi, M.A. from Directorate of Historical Relics of the Ministry of Education and Culture on the topic of Understanding World Cultural Heritage, Prof. Stanislaus Sandarupa who is an expert on the history and culture of Toraja, Leo Mokodompit with the topic of World Heritage in Young Hands and Jasmine Sagita from UNESCO Youth Desk was leading the session and sharing about MDGs and the recommendation from the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum, followed by sharing sessions from participants based on their experience of youth involvement in achieving MDGs. There was an also best practices session by Ismi Novie from Indonesian International Work Camp and Roy Lim from Kencana Pradipta, University of Indonesia.

In addition to the presentation sessions, focus group discussion and formulation of recommendations for this activity, the participants were also enjoying the natural beauty, cultural richness and local life in Toraja. They visited some cemeteries sites, such as Londa, Lemo, Kambira 'and Suaya which is the burial place of Torajan Kings.

Participants expressed their admiration when they saw the procession of burial (rambu solo') and the inauguration ceremony of Tongkonan house (rambu tuka'). For participants, Toraja is an area with cultural values richness and very exotic. The participants also expressed their deep admiration for the compound tongkonan kete'kesu as well as a valuable opportunity to learn Torajan traditional dances, namely Pa'gellu' and Pa'tirre, trained directly by the creator of the dance, Mr. BP Matande.

As the resukt, participants made a youth recommendation on MDGs achievement 2015, some of the points stated as the recommendation are as follow:

• We urge the government to put more commitment in ensuring the achievement of free education up until the primary level.
• We urge the government to enforce laws and strengthen collaboration among countries against human trafficking.
• We urge all stakeholders to intensify creative campaigns Among Youth in achieving zero new infections objectives.
• We urge the government to enforce environmental laws, ESPECIALLY for punishment and reward in such environmental issues as climate change, food security and energy crisis.
• We urge the UN Agencies, Governments, private sectors and other stakeholders to support MDG-related Youth NGOs and together strengthen collaboration to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

For the topic of youth participation in preserving the culture, some points of recommendation are:

• We urge the government to intensify the integration of cultural values and knowledge into school curriculum as an effort to increase of the awareness.
• We propose UNESCO to be the facilitator in linking and optimizing collaboration the between local youth community and NGOs that deal with the issue of Safeguarding natural and cultural heritage.
• We, the Participants of IYF 2011 support Toraja to be considered as one of the UNESCO World Heritage.

The participants showed its full support to the Toraja to be recognized as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. This is a very interesting considering the recommendation was put forward based on their experience during the event. Hopefully this support can bring a new energy in reshaping joint efforts supporting Toraja to be recognized as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.

 

On 29 November 2011, UNV Indonesia organized a workshop at Acacia Hotel Jakarta in commemorating International Volunteer Day (December 5th, 2011) and the International Day of People with Disabilities (December 3rd, 2011). This volunteerism workshop was held to raise awareness, share experience and find solution regarding problems that occur on the voluntary issues, as well people with disability rights, later to be followed by action in their respective organizations. There were some organizations attending this worksjop, such as Youth Desk - Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO (represented by Mia Amelinda and Nugraha Sang Surya), Indonesia Mengajar, BNPB, Scouts Indonesia, VSO, Akademi Berbagi, and Red Cross Indonesia.

The event was opened by remarks from programme officer, Muhammad Fikri, then followed by a presentation session. The presentation was delivered by R .Ingekomardjajaja followed by sharing session by the Red Cross Indonesia, Scouts Indonesia and Indonesia Mengajar. During presentation, there was a discussion on latest psychological research with the topic of "Developing Self-Esteem on Quadriplegic Girls", explained how a quadriplegic girl getting inappropriate treatments of society - not bullied but over compassionate treat and sometimes they’re doubted, untrusted to get the same education.

In the sharing session, Scouts Indonesia, Red Cross Indonesia, and Indonesia Mengajar shared their experiences about their activities so far and how to involve in their actions. The last session was the Focus Group Discussion on social issues. All participants were divided into three groups trying to provide solutions to social problems we faced nowadays. It was great event which again reminding us all that people with disabilities rights have not been fully achieved yet and still become part of the social challenge to be solved soon.

(Contributor: Mia Amelinda)

 

On 21-27 November 2011, Young People from University of Jenderal Soedirman, Purwokerto held an event called EFEC Vaganza. It is an annually event to celebrate Economic Faculty English Club (EFEC)'s birthday. The event itself was held for a whole week and consists of 3 sub-event, they are E-Detect, Talk show, and Rendezvous. Each are attract and involve a great number of local youth.

E-Detect is a series of English Competition consists of three competitions, debate, speech, and news casting. All of these competitions get a great attention from Economic student by the number of participants join the competition. These competitions provide a space for local youth to practice and enhanced their fluent in English. The competition takes the whole 5 days to reach final before the final match on the last day to win the Dean Trophy.

On 6th days, 26 November 2011, is the time for the talk show. This year’s theme is “Inspiring Youth Talk show", where 3 great guest stars were invited to share knowledge, experiences, motivation, and best practices in order to develop and encourage the young generation in Jenderal Soedirman University so they can raise their voice, engage, and develop more in youth involvement. The guest speakers are Donny Dirganthoro (Author of best seller novel "5cm" and "2"), Dissa Naratania (Programmes Officer, Youth Desk- Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO), and Ananda Firsely Utami (Indonesian Future Leader). The interests in youth involvement among the local youth are shown in the fruitful engagement between the participants and the speakers on Q&A Session. Hopefully this session can encourage young people to dare dreaming and taking action to make it real. This session intended to raise youth awareness about the importance of dream and passion and how to act to make it true.

The last event and also the main event is Rendezvous, a party where EFEC's birthday officially celebrate. EFEC invited the representatives from other faculty and Student Activity Unit to celebrate the party together. This session is also held a final match of E-Detect that will decide who’s going to win the Dean Trophy. That was a great celebration by so many people gathers to cheer EFEC Vaganza.

“We hope that Indonesian Youth can give a great contribution for Indonesia.”

(Contributor: EFEC Vaganza 2011 Committee)

 

On Sunday, November 27, 2011, Rotaract Club Surabaya Selatan successfully held a seminar "Surabaya Muda - Everyone Can Be a Hero for the Better Indonesia", located in Hall B, East Java Provincial Education Office, Jl. Jagir Sidoremo V, Surabaya, attended by 144 young people. At first Rotaract Surabaya Selatan targeting only 50 participants, but it turned out after the publication, this event gathered a huge interest from the public. The committee presented five speakers in parallel.

Leo Mokodompit, Youth Desk Coordinator - Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO was the first panelist; He shared about "How You(th) Drive Change". On this session, he introduced the UNESCO Youth Desk, and how young people take action, lead changes in the neighborhood for a better future. He is also sharing how to maximize the use of Social Media as alternative tool in driving chane to the young people.

The second session by Nuniek Silalahi, she introduced our nation's cultural heritage through the traditional fabric, followed by Prigi Arisandi, the award-winning Environmental fighters from the U.S. President, Barack Obama. He described the actual environmental conditions in Surabaya and provides guidance and examples of how to run an effective youth demonstration and action without anarchy.

The session then continued by Vicky Gunawan, he started the with a video regarding public service which provide guidance on how a young person should behave, based on his extensive experience work directly in various social activities of humanity.

As the last speaker, HiFatLoBrain Community, shared about their struggle to introduce Indonesia through campaign e-book, video youtube, and so forth. They also shared stories about travel around Indonesia and how to become nature and culture friendly tourist, and not a "common tourist".

The session ended with a presentation of the Rotaract Surabaya Selatan, who convince young people dream about a better condition and also the inroduction of Rotaract Surabaya Selatan. They invite all young people to participate and take immediate action with Rotaract Surabaya Selatan.

The event is sponsored by Mobil 1, Garuda Indonesia, and the Rotary Club of Surabaya Selatan; also fully supported by the Youth Desk - Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, GMS (Surabaya Student Movement), Rotaract Club Ma Chung University, Surabaya AIESEC Local Committee, House Liena, Arilex Shop, Shop Beboo, The Eglantine, Dee Collections, The Butterfly Bedding, and WOSCA (Woman Online Community Surabaya).

(Contributor: Atra)

 

Indonesian Future Leaders Bandung (IFL Bandung) held an event called Youth Night and Workshop on Youth Activism on 19-20 November 2011 at S28 Café and Selasar Sunaryo Art Space. Retha Dunga and Friends from Club SPEAK facilitated the workshop for 2 days. The workshop itself intended to encourage young people to create their own social venture. The first day was dedicated for the participants to learn social issues around them and tries to get better understanding about it by doing survey at the local environment around in 30 minutes. The participants who are not only the students of ITB, UNPAD, UNPAR, IT Telkom, but also public participants presents their mind map regarding social issues and vision board. The workshop continues on Sunday where all the participants create mission statement to implement the group idea of their social venture.

On Sunday Night, the event continues with Youth Night as the main event. Attended by the representatives of youth community in Bandung, workshop participants, and 70 chosen participants the night is getting alive. The speakers on that session are Ridwan Kamil, the initiator of Indonesia Berkebun, Edwin Leo Mokodompit the Coordinator of Youth Desk – Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, Ginan Koesmayadi the Founder of Rumah Cemara, Ridwansyah Yusuf Achmad the president of KM-ITB 2009 and Agni from ASHOKA Young Changemaker. All the speakers share their experiences and best practices regarding Youth Activism and Initiatives. The participants are engaged in fruitful Q&A Session. The session was closed by a stand-up Comedy by Dedy Dahlan. The climax of the night is the presentation of Bandung Youth Declaration by whole participants who gathered around the stage in a big circle. The light is turned off and National Anthem was sung together before each participants yell a word that represent youth activism before finally read the declaration together. The night is closed when all the participants, speakers, and committee sing the national song together.

This Youth Night & workshop on Youth Activism was held to encourage young people in Bandung to collaborate and provide solution for the sake of developing Bandung.

“It’s like a puzzle, youth activism have to set and compiled with one another. Nothing is really right or wrong with types of youth movements, as long as it is still in one positive corridor; for the sake of Better Indonesian and World. The harmony of the objectives is what we seek to develop the spirit of collaboration. After all, let’s see how the world would change.”

(Contributor: Gigih Rezki Septianto)

 

When Government Listen to the Young!

210 youth delegates, representing 127 Member States met at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, from 17 to 20 October 2011, to discuss “How Youth drive change”.It’s been a fascinating experience for Youth Delegate from Indonesia to have our say in engaging discussion and lively debate with young leaders, activist, and professionals worldwide which assemble to create a document of recommendations to world governments in UNESCO General Conference. Indonesia was represented by Niwa Rahmad Dwitama and Dissa Naratania, the selected young activists by Youth Desk – Indonesia National Commission for UNESCO. Also, UNESCO Headquarter notably invited Indonesian 6th forum delegates, Edwin Leo Mokodompit and Jasmine Sagita Rafiq as a speaker and a facilitator in this 7th forum.

This biennial forum had pretty much accommodate youth’s voices and potentials to the world.Having realized that youth represent a significant proportion of the world’s population heavily affected by multidimensional aspects, UNESCO was the first UN system agency to define and develop specific programs for youth. This has acknowledged the fact that we, young people are assets and integral parts of development process and future generation.

Within 4 days forum, the delegates had been through few workshops, capacity building, plenary sessions, debate and drafting session. On October 17, the programme was begun with capacity building focusing on leadership and communication skills (Incl. Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation issue). This workshop was organized by UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Academy Award Winner, Forest Whitaker. On October 18, the official launch of the forum, young delegates was actively take part in plenary sessions to talk about the importance of youth role to drive the change. The topic ranges from youth-led activism, organization, social media and Youth Revolutions in the case of Arab Springs. On this day, the coordinator of Youth Desk Indonesia, Edwin Leo Mokodompit had also been invited to speak on the stage about Youth activism in Indonesia along with other Youth speakers from other continents. The next day, October 19 was the day where the debate started to heat up. Youth delegates took part in thematic parallel debates on diverse issues affecting youth: Education-sustainable development, Green societies, Culture of peace and diversity, and changing the world through internet. Lastly, October 20, it had been the most significant day in which youth delegates convened,discussed and debated to draft a document of recommendation which would be conveyed in General Conference.

Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Workshop

Youth delegates had been very fortunate to meet UNESCO Goodwill ambassador and Academy award Winner, Forest Whitaker and other speakers. The workshop had exposed youth delegates about peace issue and how to be a Peacemaker. There are four agreements to be a Peacemaker:

• Be Impeccable with your words
• Don’t take anything personally
• Don’t make assumptions, ask them
• Always do your best!

There will always be something to be learned in our life. Above points are the core values we need to bear in order to realize peace in our community. Our words reflects what we mean to do and think, thus we shall be impeccable with what we are going to say so as to avoid negative output to others. When dealing with others, a peacemaker would remain positive minds but critical. Taking anything personally will only keep you unproductive ties with friends. Rather than making assumption about others, we’d better to ask them because by opening a dialogue, you are creating mutual understanding among each other. So, always do your best! May peace prevail on you.

Youth Resolution

It is with a great privilege that all delegates succeed to conclude the forum by exerting Youth Resolution which was conveyed to UNESCO General Conference. Indonesian young delegate had much concerned and advocated the importance of youth inclusion to UNESCO global priorities and National commission, and the youth involvement to maintain cultural diversity. Other than that, all delegates have talked a lot about better access to quality public education, the importance of sustainable development, enhancing youth participation, gender-equality, youth-led student democracy, making youth as UNESCO’s global priority and regarding young people as co-decision-makers. Right before the closing ceremony, the final report had passed the votes from delegates within the very heated debate.

Education, sustainable development, youth participation, improvement of the youth forumare the main four parts of the report that the young delegates approved at the Unesco Youth Forum. 27 concrete proposals had been presented to the Conference and 11 of them deal directly with education.

The conference might have ended, but the memory of Youth Resolution Debate and the accession of South Sudan (194th) and Palestine (195th) had been the moment of truth for all of us. Youth delegates had actually compromised on a clause about the importance of promoting a culture of peace amongst youth, especially in the case of Palestine, bearing in mind Article II, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of UNESCO and the recent decision by the Executive Board (187 EX/Decision 40). This had been extremely fascinating to voice out our opinion and become the part of the history. We deeply hope that the situation might reach the peace circumstance as what the resolution genuinely mean.

In short, this forum had been a cornerstone for youth to speak up to the world governments and advocate their voices and roles in community. In the name of unity and camaraderie, as young people, we are ready to engage in a constructive discussion in order to ensure the implementation of our recommendations and to find together a solution to our world’s unprecedented challenge.

When governments talk about the future, too often they don’t talk to future leaders. This time, In UNESCO, the government are sharing their responsibility to the young, in Diplomacy and community.

 

On September 23-October 1, 2011 and then had to hold the event in 2011 Asia Pacific Youth Caravan in South Korea hosted by UNESCO-APCEIU South Korea. UNESCO Indonesia sends four delegates, namely Hind Harahap, Mia Amelinda, David Immanuel Sihombing, and Ladia Fitrah. This event was attended by 30 delegates elected from the Asia-Pacific region which aims to create peace, apply the meaning of the values of diversity, and build friendships among young people, especially the Asia-Pacific countries.

Fourth Indonesian delegation had the opportunity to present the diversity that exists in Indonesia. In addition, at the Asia-Pacific Youth Caravan gives lectures and discussions presented by Mr. Gun-soo Han (UNESCO and Diversity), Mr. Myeong-rae Cho (National Trust), Ms. So-mi Kim (Youth Activity), Mr. Lee Dae-hoon (Peace and Conflict Resolution), Mr. Keun Lee (Culture and Code), and Mr. Chung Sung-hun (DMZ Republic of Korea).

All participants of the Asia-Pacific Youth Caravan 2011 are given the opportunity to visit the places listed in the UNESCO World Heritage as well as a place that became a cultural center in South Korea: Bukchon Village, Changdeokgung, Gwanghamun Square, and the Seoul Tower. Most interesting is all the participants are given the opportunity to stay and visit areas perbatan South Korea and North Korea, DMZ-Inje. Here the participants are invited to understand the conflicts that exist and how to create peace.

This activity is very important not only to build friendship among nations but also to understand more deeply the world's conflicts and their resolution

(Contributor: Mia Amelinda)

 

Hysteria TUNZA! on 27 September – 1 October 2011 in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Heyaa Heyoo! That's typical greeting in Tunza! Eh, what's Tunza's creature? There was very comfortable to hear, yeah. Of course, this time the National Commission of UNESCO Youth Desk Indonesia had the opportunity to share the experience of nine representatives from the UNESCO Youth Desk in Indonesia from 27 September to 1 October in a thrill of Road to Rio +20 conference themed "Re-shaping our futures through Green Economy and Sustainable Lifestyles "with thousands of children and youth participants from around the world.

"Tunza International Children and Youth Conference on the environment" conference which was deliberately held by UN Environment Programme and the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Indonesia to involve children and youth to be able to speak and gather their ideas before heading to Rio +20 Summit (20 year celebrations of Earth Summit in Rio de Jenairo) in 2012.

Tunza participants not only from those who work, or volunteering at any environmental organizations. However, many cool participants also come from many different background activism fields. This is what makes Tunza become increasingly a pretty bustling conference and of course very memorable for us. What a beautiful diversity!

Day 1, September 27th 2011

The series of activity started very very early morning today. Our shuttle bus departs from hotel at 06.00AM to the venue for the Opening Ceremony of the Sasana Budaya Ganesha Institut Teknologi Bandung (SABUGA) which is also the place of our conference until the following days. Opening Ceremony takes place is very lively with many outstanding performances from the dance group and also Jamaican Café which featured a very entertaining performance but still 'environmental friendly'. All participants are looking very great with their own national dresses and look very spirit undergo a whole series of Opening Ceremony which was attended by Vice President of Republic Indonesia Mr.Boediono and his wife, as well as some representatives of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and local officials. After the Opening Ceremony is over, all participants were gathered in the main auditorium to follow the first Plenary Panel Discussions titled "Youth in the Green Green Economy: Reshaping Lives and Livelihoods" which is filled by the cool panelist from a global-scale of the world. In the afternoon, is a time when the first round of workshops was held. Available 20 classes with 20 different topics that can participants freely choose according to their respective interests.

Day 2, September 28th 2011

"Global Environmental Governance / Sustainable Consumption" is the theme of the Tunza’s second day conference. Arrived at the Conference Centre we all directly following the evocatively Parallel Plenary Sessions. After lunch, the activity followed by two consecutive sessions Workshops that present useful and awesome classes such as "Youth and Governance", "What is Advocacy and How can I do it?", "Youth Talking Communities", and "The Climate Generation / Better Ways to Combat Climate Change ". The second day was not complete without the Regional Discussion and Group Discussion at the end of the day.

Day 3, September 29th 2011

No day without the gorgeous Plenary in Tunza! The third day’s Parallel Plenary Sessions themed "State of the Global Environment /Forests and election of the Tunza Youth Advisory Council" successfully showed us how the solid movement of young people in order to speak out their voices for environment. Those majority young people is coming from of the outstanding members of the Tunza Youth Advisory Council, aka the youth-coalition of Tunza which is representing many young people in various parts of the world, a neighborhood activist and did not get enough of a change-oriented. While waiting for Tunza Youth Advisory Council election get finished, we did not forget to come to the workshop classes and studying there. Today, our menu workshops are: "Youth and Social Movements", "Creating Practical Environmental Projects", and "Ecological True Value". The third day was finally closed with a nice dinner with the Government of the Republic of Indonesia.

Day 4, September 30th 2011

Let’s do the Tunza’s vacation! From early morning, right after breakfast, we were divided into several groups which took us for trip. There are groups that come to the Geothermal - Energy Star at Kamojang Garut, Volcano and Forest Walking - Tangkuban Perahu, and the Hydro Power - Jatiluhur. All these places are deliberately used as destinations of Field Trips, due to its natural values are still deeply felt, and no doubt can be a proper place to nurture the soul of super environmentalist to all of us.

Day 5, October 1st 2011

A proverb that saying life is two eyes coins, apparently really represented by Tunza at the final day. In the morning we were in the area of World City Forest to plant trees together. Closing Ceremony followed by a series of inevitable even though from the heart's deepest desire wants to Tunza could be much longer than just 5 days.

Well my friends, presumably it was the picture of our best days at the Tunza Conference. Hope it can be the inspiration and motivation to all of us to keep the earth and the environment and present the best for our future generations. Hopefully, we could meet again next year at the Rio +20 Summit! Amen.

Keep on spirit!

(Contributor: Ninies Nadhifah)