My name is Zulkifli, a social worker from Makassar, Indonesia that aspires to be involved in sustainable development, civic engagement as well as innovative approach for social and environmental issues. Born and raised from a bottom class family with both of my parents never enrolled at senior high school, I witnessed firsthand the importance of education to raise a better life and the need to overcome inequality.
Nowadays, I serve as a program development officer at Sikola Cendekia Pesisir, a youth organization that focuses on increasing the awareness of the importance of education in the coastal area of Makassar. My responsibilities are to formulate, design, and implement projects which foster coastal communities. I’ve also established an international organisation entitled Beanverse that focuses on promoting and campaigning sustainable agriculture in the South East Asia Region especially in Indonesia and Thailand.
Beyond my social endeavors, I am actively pursuing opportunities for personal and career goals as well as to expand my networks globally and enrich my perspectives. I have participated in programs such as eMpowering Youth Across ASEAN by ASEAN Foundation and plan to implement my learnings in future projects. Beside my achievements, I also embrace the challenges, for instance balancing multiple responsibilities especially when I led a group of youths from across Southeast Asia and rapid adaptations to the new environments and cultures during my time at the ASEAN Foundation program. These experiences have developed my perseverance, collaboration and teamwork, also an interpersonal skill to be a good listener.
Strong belief in the power of education, creativity, and sustainable practices to build a better future for everybody has influenced my path so far. In order to increase my influence, I hope to expand my networks and strengthen my abilities through programs such as UPG Sustainability Leadership.
Collaboration: My last work with Sikola Cendekia Pesisir, I recognized that Bonetambu Island had many students in the primary and junior schools but they faced limited access to the learning materials and books. My role was to develop a project that addresses these issues, then I decided to formulate an idea to establish a coastal library there. I started by conducting a meeting with other Sikola Cendekia Pesisir officers and invited possible companies to join the project, later on I communicated with the local government about the project and pursued them for approval. This project led to the establishment of a new coastal library at Bonetambu Island that collaborates with a national company in Makassar. Good Listener: Back in 2019 when I first became a volunteer, I dedicated myself to an isolated village for two weeks. As part of the first batch of the community service programme, we were tasked with conducting a thorough survey of the village. I was assigned to follow the daily activities of the parents who were predominantly farmers, on one occasion I followed them for a whole day in the fields while listening to their stories, then I recognized the fact that these people lack cultivation knowledge and their unawareness of sustainable agriculture practices. My report then became important data to develop plans for the next batch. Leadership Influences: When I was selected as an Indonesian delegate in the EYAA program by the ASEAN Foundation with 120 youths from various countries in Southeast Asia. I was then trusted as the coordinator to lead one of the groups consisting of youth volunteers from those countries to do community service in Mindoro Oriental Province, Philippines. As group coordinator, I initiated additional group meetings to discuss the project agenda including nightly meetings to evaluate our activities while at the project site. During my tenure at site projects, I helped the local community to establish their pig breeding place, build new fishpond, conducted an agricamp that was followed by youths and shared my agricultural knowledge as well as organic farm skills. By the end of the programme, it had successfully engaged and empowered 313 youth, 48 indigenous people, 72 fishermen, and 103 farmers.
As a future leader, it’s important to have numerous skills as a leader and my strength is an active listener, this is where I stand as a true leader. When someone comes to me with a concern, I always prioritize listening to listen to people cautiously to create a sense of comfort and reassurance that they are heard.
My leadership skills took me to the next level when I was selected as an Indonesian Youth Volunteer from 1200+ applicants in the Empowering Youth Across ASEAN program by the ASEAN Foundation with 120 youths from various countries in Southeast Asia. I was then trusted as the coordinator to lead one of the groups consisting of youth volunteers from those countries to do community service and farmer empowerment with a Philippines Social Organization called Keep Hope Alive which will implement a project called Farmbassadors in 3 municipalities in the Mindoro Oriental Province, Philippines.
As group coordinator, I initiated additional group meetings to discuss the project agenda including nightly meetings to evaluate our activities while at the project site. During my tenure at site projects, I helped the local community to establish their pig breeding place, build new fishpond, conducted interviews in beneficiary villages and facilitated the establishment of a legal farmer-fisherman organization, conducted an agricamp that was followed by youths and shared my agricultural knowledge as well as organic farm skills. By the end of the program, it had successfully engaged and empowered 313 youth, 48 indigenous people, 72 fishermen, and 103 farmers.
When I was involved in the ASEAN Foundation, eMpowering Youth Across ASEAN: Cohort 3 as a Youth Volunteer from Indonesia. I was assigned to a farmer capacity building project in Mindoro Oriental Province, Philippines. During my time at the project site, I visited beneficiary villages to conduct interviews and was engaged in facilitating one community in Buyayao Island, Bulalacao Municipality, Mindoro Oriental Province to form an official farmer-fisherman organization. I was also involved in an organic farming training entitled Agricamp with several activities such as Land Preparation, Fertilizer Making, Planting, Harvesting, which was attended by youth from various regions in Mindoro Oriental Province with a total of 85 participants.
There are uncountable lessons that I gain from my recent voluntary activities. I implements some of my leadership skills regarding I’ve been chosen as a group leader; I discovered that I can break my unconfident when speaking in English and step up to advance my English fluency; I fought my nervous to be more brave speech in front of plenty of people; I recognized how people so tolerant each other especially about pray; I have been realizing how important and powerful to listen people carefully; I found that as a social creatures we can understand each other even we spoke in different languages; I learned agricultural skills that I had never done before, namely ploughing the fields with machines and animals; and many more that I have been taught.
Otherwise, I’ve never been out of my country before this program and it has all changed since I was accepted to this program. I experienced numerous first time things such as, first time flying with aircrafts across my nation, went to Thailand just by myself, figured it out how to adjust with the foods particularly as a muslim, adapted with the situation where I was still able to conduct my compulsory prayers every day, as well as improved my English rapidly during this program.
Another influental and the most memorable volunteering experience for me is when I become the Public Campaign Coordinator of Earth Hour Makassar. When I was a regular volunteer, I was trusted to be in charge of two national webinars that joined by more than 100 participants. This is my first ever coordinate a national event and I’ve learned many things from this occasion especially that relevance to talkshow and seminar activities.
Graduate: I have completed a graduate degree (e.g. I have a Masters degree or PhD)
If I might be to lead a sustainability-related project, It would be the “Eco-Literacy for Coastal Education” program, with the integration of literacy improvement and environmental education in underserved coastal communities through Sikola Cendekia Pesisir. There are many children in coastal areas who are struggling with basic literacy due to lack of access to quality education and these are impacted by the ability to engage with and be aware of the environmental issues they face. By integrating literacy development with lessons about sustainability, this initiative aims to help the recent generation with the skills and knowledge required to be involved in their environment sustainability and improve their livelihoods.
In terms of the activities, I’m projecting this program to develop eco-themed learning materials like storybooks that help the children to improve their basic literacy skills and environmental concepts such as how to reduce waste. It also will teach local teachers to integrate their teaching method to sustainability themes while enhancing the literacy outcome. To ensure accessibility, this initiative would establish a coastal library as the space of community readers corner to address the illiterate numbers. Afterwards, the youths will be trained as co-educators, assisting the students increase their reading abilities while fostering awareness to the environment.
This project wants to enhance literacy rates among the children, providing the access for better chance and actively involved in local community activities. It also pursues the individuals to become more aware of their environment who are willing to take action to overcome the issues. By addressing the gap in education and raising the environmental awareness , this program aligned with SDGs 4 and reflects my journeys at Sikola Cendekia Pesisir, where I’ve dedicated myself to address the education issues and bring innovative solutions in coastal areas challenges.
There are uncounted challenges and concerns that appear in my mind in order to conduct the project in the future and I can not ensure that the whole problems that I am facing later could be solved properly, but I will try to give my best for it.
Generally, to overcome all the challenges that happen later I have to ensure that I am truly ready for any obstacles that come. I have to prepare myself and make a proper plan as well, that is why I am using a strategic step called Strategic Planning Management where I make all the processes of the project step by step properly with numerous methods from the pre activities until the outcomes evaluation.
Several approaches that I have to expertise are Tree Problem Analysis that could help me to identify the real problems that happen; Risk Management which is crucial to preparing all possibilities and how to respond to each situation; Logical Framework Analysis to making systematic plan and project management. These are three important methods in order to face any challenges in the future.
Convincing community members and stakeholders to give literacy and environmental education top priority would be a major issue, particularly in places where short-term economic requirements take precedence over long-term objectives. To get around this, I would hold community discussions to show how increased environmental consciousness and literacy directly enhance livelihoods, for example, by encouraging sustainable fishing methods or lowering waste management expenses. In order to support the initiative and promote involvement, I would also enlist the help of reputable local leaders.
Another obstacle could be ensuring ongoing participation in the program’s adoption and upkeep, especially among the children and teachers, may provide another difficulty. In order to get around this, I would create interactive, culturally appropriate content that would inspire and interest kids. To keep the program effective and in line with community needs, regular feedback sessions with parents and instructors would be beneficial.
I am certain that I can lead this initiative and bring about significant, long-lasting change in coastal communities by tackling these issues with well-defined plans and drawing on my background at Sikola Cendekia Pesisir.
About 50 people
Yes
Sikola Cendekia Pesisir
I truly have faith that the community I work with, Sikola Cendekia Pesisir, is willing to support and provide a vital role as their involvement for the mini-training session. The strong relations internally with the volunteers and externally with other local communities as well as with their beneficiaries before would be advantages in mobilizing participants and ensuring high attendance. Therefore, Sikola Cendekia Pesisir will be delighted to offer numerous support, for instance setting up place for face-to-face meetings or making online training platforms accessible. The organization itself can participate in other ways by actively participating in the sessions, sharing different perspectives, and assisting in fostering the training materials to overcome specific challenges. Their engagement would also be important in order to share the knowledge obtained to others not just for volunteers but also for other communities, making sure a broader and more sustained outcome. Hence, Sikola Cendekia Pesisir that definitely had various experiences in conducting community based programs will be essential in organizing the mini-training session, from the pre sessions activities to evaluating
This is the wildcard section. As an evaluator, please provide a rating based on your overall impression and your sincere gut feeling about this application. No other justification is required.
