Outreach Program with Ibu Barbara Lawler
After the Sangam Consultation Meeting in Asia Plateau India, Barbara Lawler took time to visit the Indonesian team. The visit was to reach out to people whom she had met in Melbourne and also new friends in Jakarta. The first day was a workshop on Indonesia I care, together with the IofC Indonesian team led by Miftahul Huda, to facilitate a session to students of Jagat Arsy Boarding School on the ideas of caring for the nation and taking a step to be the change we wish to be. Jagat Arsy Boarding School, as the host of Barbara, gave her a warmth welcome by singing and providing traditional music played by students.
The aims of the outreach are to strengthen our friendship as well as to create hope for Indonesia and the world. The first day was a meeting with the vice rector of Tanry Abeng University (TAU) Jakarta hosted by our friend, Akhmad Hairul Umam who has been actively bridging IofC Indonesia to the students of TAU. The following day was a meeting with Inayah Wahid, the daughter of the fourth president, Abdurrahman Wahid who met IofC friends in India during the commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi. Inayah was in Melbourne for the talk and hosted in Armagh. She has been a great friend and supportive of IofC work in Indonesia.
The following day we met Dewi Wahab, who works under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia and she is open for collaboration with IofC nationally and internationally. We also went to meet friends who work for Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, two of the largest Islamic organizations. We met with LPBI NU team, who work in the field of disaster management and they shared their experiences during the training in Brisbane with other Indonesian organizations who work on humanitarian issues. We also met Abdul Mu’ti, the Secretary General of Muhammadiyah who spoke in Melbourne and also at the Asia Pacific Youth Conference (APYC) 2006 in Indonesia.
Barbara also had a chance to meet Yusni Kusumawardi, a senior of IofC Indonesia who used to work with MRA in the old times. Agus Mulyana, the prayer leader of Harakatul Jannah Bogor went down to Jakarta for the IofC meeting, and he shared that Indonesia is in a political year as there will be a presidential election in April. “We face many challenges and struggles in this country, but we have our freedom and conscience to guide us to follow what is right and true for ourselves to be the change for Indonesia.” He also urged that with IofC we could collaborate with international programs such as conferences, dialogue and outreach. This is in line with the thoughts of Budi Rahman Hakim, the founder of Jagat Arsy School, who just graduated from Tillburg University in the Netherlands. On the following day there was a Sunday gathering of the Indonesian team in Jakarta with Barbara Lawler.
Reported by Miftahul Huda