Hello, I’m Faris Budiman Annas. I am honored to take part as a volunteer in social activities organized by the Foundation for Mother and Child Health Indonesia in East Nusa Tenggara. I worked as a photographer and videographer for documenting the program in three days. We departed for Eltari International Airport on Wednesday, September 4, 2019, and It was my first time to come in NTT. Then we went to Oenlasi, the village where we stayed for the next few days. It was quite far from Kupang and approximately took 6 hours by car. Furthermore, we have to change to other vehicles in a 4 wheel drive mode due to the damaged roads. We stayed in the traditional house owned by local residents, the locals called it the king’s house, because this house was the home of the elders.
On the second day, we rushed to go to several points that became the location of program implementation. We visited a number of PAUDs, met with principals, teachers, and of course adorable PAUD children. We try to understand what complaints and problems they face and also brought gifts to them, which are a set of educational toys for children. After visiting several PAUD, we headed to the village of Nunle’u. Here, our partner, USANA Indonesia, conducts awareness-raising activities on health and nutrition in the local community.
I believe that local people have an amazing culture and local wisdom. They are very creative in making traditional woven fabrics called tenun and it can be one of their livelihood. Not only that, but local people also have strong family ties among them. The people were very friendly and they were very enthusiastic about our presence. I always remember a bunch of morning greeting if I met with a group of schoolchildren in the morning. On the last day of my trip with the team, we took a moment to take a picnic as a form of gratitude. We stopped at the village of Fatu Ulan which is renowned as a “land above the clouds”, It is very cool.
I strongly believe that Indonesia is not only Java and human development should start from the corners. There are our brothers and sisters out there who have not felt the joy of the development after our independence day. After this trip, I feel that those who are in the Foundation for Mother and Child Health is my new family, they were very open and friendly.
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Description:
- Picture 1. Team of Foundation for Mother and Child Health Indonesia and I (first from the right corner) took a picture together in the front of the king’s house.
- Picture 2. Charles Kase, Paud Enobesa principal gives a welcoming speech to the team.
- Picture 3. Nunle’u Village residents listened to the nutrition literacy
- Picture 4. A landscape of Fatu Ulan (land above the clouds)
- There were several programs we run, some of them are PAUD monitoring and feeding program for the local community. As a volunteer, this has not only helped me to improve my experience as a photographer but also I learned a lot in how to implement a community empowerment program. The villages which chosen as the object of our program has carefully picked up through deep research and analysis, they are Nunle’u, Fenun, Anin and several other villages.