Saturday Gathering: Learning from Experience

On 18 August, 2018 we had a Saturday Gathering at the IofC house. Siti Rukoyah (Ukoy), one of the volunteers of the School Visit Program (SVP) shared her experiences during her stay in Japan. She, together with other volunteers from Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Tibet visited 23 different school in 6 cities around Japan. She was happy to meet and work with the amazing people there. This year’s SVP was held from 15 June till 15 July 2018.

During the program, the volunteers presented their countries and interacted with the teachers and students. “I enjoyed playing skits in front of the students, got chances to share about my personal story, and sang songs with my team.” The students were also given space to share and ask questions to each volunteer. Besides visiting schools, they also experienced the Japanese culture and visited some tourism destinations in Japan such as a Bonsai museum and attended a Summer Festival. Ukoy was amazed with the kindness of her host family and it felt like being at home.

This experience was so meaningful for her and she learnt to control her emotions, to care for people, and to be a good listener. “Being back in Indonesia, I thought of applying the learnings I got during SVP by collaborating with Sampahkoe Community. Sampahkoe is an environmental community focused on encouraging waste reduction through AR3E (Action, Research, Education, Empowerment, Entrepreneurship).” This community is based in Sukabumi, where she lived and it was founded by Khilda, one of our IofC Indonesia friends. “I will also be more involved with IofC programs in Indonesia.” Finally, Ukoy thanked the IofC team who supported her in joining this program and felt grateful for the warm hospitality of the IofC Japan family.

Reported by Yofrina Octika Gultom