By Fanny Syariful Alam, Indonesia
As a participant of the Australia Awards Short Course on Democratic Resilience-Youth Participation in Indonesia’s Democracy, I am responsible for the youth’s acknowledgment of peace issues based on human rights perspectives through the youth’s critical thinking. Here, Bandung School of Peace Indonesia (SEKODI-Bandung) presents a safe space to express themselves regardless of their backgrounds in religion, faith, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and race. We all do the programs completely voluntarily. The training at QUT regarding the title provides applicable insights into both my knowledge and my current community’s running programs. I remember when Anika Wells, a member of the National Parliament, delivered the material about Law, Politics, and Democracy. She emphasized the importance of millennial youth participating in politics for a positive breakthrough and better policy-making with fresher ideas. And, that is what I have been trying to present to the youth in Bandung, Indonesia through the space to learn together as well to express themselves on behalf of good practices in healthy democratic processes since May 2018. Covid-19 did not postpone my participation to attend the short course completely. The pandemic makes my team and me resilient to conduct the Award project, named Youphoria. A series of online classes promoting values of inclusion in religion, gender, sexual orientations, and politics for underrepresented groups from December 2021 to February 2022. Some of our youth class members show their positive acceptance and attitudes after our classes. In the end, the QUT training really inspires me to do this with more recognition and acknowledgment for the project and my future plans in our community. What else after the QUT training? The recognition for my project as Outstanding Community Education Initiative. Surely, my journey will continue for the youth and Indonesia’s democracy.
