A week in the life of an 18-year-old Indonesian student activist

(Courtesy of Nayla Ariwibowo)

Nayla Ariwibowo writes about her initiative, Diatas Langit, which helps other Indonesian students continue learning during the pandemic.

Friday

Because of the pandemic, I am still learning through online school. School and homework usually takes up most of my day. But I do make sure I have some time to work on things I’m passionate about. Today, I am planning and organizing the week ahead for the Diatas Langit project, which is an initiative I created to help students in Indonesia learn during the pandemic. The Indonesian government does not have the funds to build a robust education system, which creates problems like teacher shortages. Schools don’t have new books, let alone the necessary equipment to help students learn from home during the pandemic like laptops. So many kids in Indonesia are watching lecture videos through a small screen on a flip phone. This clearly disrupts their education. Through Diatas Langit, we are alleviating some of that stress by donating notebooks, stationary, whiteboards and textbooks to orphanages across Jakarta. Another thing we do (and this is my favorite part) is renovating a room in these orphanages into a study area and mini library. We believe that a safe, clean and adequate learning environment is essential to education. 

This week we are visiting the Argadia orphanage, so I am spending today to make sure we are prepared and working on the logistics end. Honestly this part is sort of boring (haha) so I usually put on some music. I worked on the budgets today. I had to organize the prices for each item and make sure we had enough donations to cover everything. If not, I have to either switch out items or find cheaper alternatives. I called other orphanages for the following weeks. Every single one I have contacted has been so sweet and receptive. It does get tougher to find orphanages that will allow us to renovate because renovations usually take a month. 

Saturday

During busy weeks, I always try to keep Saturdays as a time to relax and recuperate. We have family dinners and watch movies (especially Disney movies), to unwind. On Saturdays I also spend an ungodly amount of time on social media. Scrolling through Instagram is not always the best thing — especially with the bombardment of manufactured perfect snapshots — but it does keep me informed. Social media can be a tough arena to navigate, especially as teens, with the line between getting useful information and toxic comments not always clear cut. For me, I try to monitor how much time I’m on social media, just to make sure it doesn’t cloud up my mental health.

Sunday

On Sundays, I always tend to prioritize getting work done for the week ahead. This week I had to study for a chemistry test on Maxwell-Boltzmann diagrams and equilibrium. I also wrote an outline for an English paper about how the play “A Portrait of an Artist as Filipino” explores the role of women in a world with shifting values. I am always so excited to write papers on subject matters that expand my perspective! In the paper, I wrote about the repercussions of families raising girls to center their lives and dreams around the men in their lives. It made me recognize that that is a common pattern even in Indonesia, where girls are raised to play second fiddle to their male counterparts.

Monday 

After a long day in class, I get time to work on Diatas Langit. Today I am just working on polishing our website. I’ve always been pretty creative and designing the website has been such a great outlet, as well as uncharted territory for me. I especially enjoyed playing around with formats, fonts and color schemes. I usually love playing around with colors like baby pink and violet!

(Courtesy of Nayla Ariwibowo)

Tuesday 

Today, I had a lot of schoolwork, so I took some time to just relax. I watched a bit of “The Office,” which always manages to make me feel better. Always remember to be kind to yourself and give yourself some time to just relax! Whenever I feel overwhelmed I either put on my favorite sitcom, bake cookies or eat a snack. Today, I also sang for a little and made some amazing pancakes. 

Wednesday 

In addition to donating books and school supplies, we also bring along food supplies when visiting the Argadia Orphanage. So today after school, I went to the supermarket to buy some food supplies. I recommend donating food that can last quite a while and buy in bulk! Also, most people donate carbohydrate-rich foods, so I always recommend also donating some protein-rich food. Today we bought milk, rice, instant noodles, liters of water and canned beans. 

Thursday 

Today after school, we visited the Argadia orphanage and we donated the school and food supplies. It was so nice getting to meet the girls and chatting with them! We chatted about some of their experiences during online learning and we also discussed any other things we can help with if we visit this orphanage again or for the next one. I know this project isn't the largest initiative, but I believe in taking small steps towards a better future. We hope that the impact we have made, no matter how small, has planted a seed of hope.