Initiatives of Change Indonesia just launched a new conversational card “Let’s Talk about it” in Bahasa Indonesia translation is “Ngobrol Yuk!" On Saturday, 4th February 2023.

Initiatives of Change (IofC) Indonesia again voiced peace and the narrative of change in the IofC Saturday Gathering & Launching Dialogue for Change Program (4/2) agenda. The agenda entitled "From Personal to Global" collaborates with IofC Australia represented by Barbara Lawler and Amiel Nubaha, two speakers as "books" that will be read by the audience of this event.

The issue raised on today's agenda is the phenomenon that occurs due to COVID-19 which limits the social space for everyone, where individuals are increasingly individualistic so that they are less moved to interact socially such as chatting directly with people around them. This has an impact where individuals can’t understand the people around them, even though understanding people around them is an important aspect for humans as social beings in living life. This issue will later be resolved in today's IofC Indonesia agenda. 
The event opened with a performance of shalawat accompanied by hadrah, one of the forms of art in Islam accompanied by tambourines (percussion instruments), played by junior high school students (SMP) MTs. Negeri 1 South Tangerang. The audience looked solemn listening to the chanting of shalawat and the art of hadrah.

Moving on to the main event, the Dialogue for Change Program. Audiences were introduced to two Conversational cards entitled “Friends for Life” & "Let's talk about it!" with the tagline "Talk from the heart for the country". This card is intended to connect people even if they meet for the first time because each person will get the opportunity to share and others will listen. The "Friends for Life!" card contains a specific topic, a quote from a great person about that topic, and 3 questions with different levels, the higher the level of the question the deeper the conversation will go. The "Let’s talk about it" card invites the person playing it to reflect on a particular issue and then discuss it to make a change.

Participants are playing the cards and sharing their reflection

A new conversational card "Let's talk about it" or Ngobrol Yuk, aims to be a tool to start a conversation about what matters in Indonesia. This tool is to support a program called Dialogue for Change. Additionally, there are 5 topics for discussion: Diversity, Democracy, Ecology, Critical Thinking, and Mental Health.

After playing the cards, the agenda continued with "reading" today's speakers, namely Barbara Lawler's "book" and Amiel Nubaha's "book" from IofC Australia. The audience was divided into 2 groups, each containing one of the speakers. The two speakers talked about the changing points in their lives from the dark times they faced in the past to give the audience a different perspective on dealing with problems that occur in life in a positive way.

Barbara shares her life story

"I felt comfortable after sharing many things and knowing that what I said was heard by others. I am also grateful after discovering that there are people who have gone through harder times than me, but it gives me a new perspective to always be positive in dealing with problems that occur in life.", said one audience member. "After playing this card, I know other people better, know their perspectives, dreams, and others, even though I have never met them before," said an audience member who is a student of MTs. Negeri 1 South Tangerang.

Testimonial after playing “Ngobrol Yuk” cards:
The “Ngobrol Yuk” cards are very good and interesting, with this card we can easily have conversation material that of course can bring us closer even with people we don't know, with topics that are certainly very exciting (Rayhan - UIN Jakarta)
“Ngobrol Yuk” cards provoke us to express our opinions and share life experiences that we have gone through. It's very interesting and opens our minds so that we can learn from the experiences of our teammates (Afiq)
Interesting, want to try it again with other friends, because honestly, I am a person who is difficult to find topics of conversation (Berkah)

Writer : Ayu Indah
Editor : Miftahul Huda
Translator: Ari Budi S