Today we will tell the story of two EPs who came to Indonesia for a project called “Jakarta environmental care project”. But the question is why did they choose to spend their free time in Indonesia?
“I know Indonesia is a beautiful country which consists of thousands islands. But this year I met my friend David, who has lived in Jakarta for a long time and he told me many stories about the country and his time there. Because of his stories I got a deeper insight and now I also know that there are flood disasters every year and the people there experience traffic jam every day. That’s why I wanted to do something for Indonesia and the many inhabitants there, even if I just plant green seeds in people’s hearts. Actually I’m very glad to have the chance to come to Indonesia. I experienced different culture here, which can broaden my horizon to look at the world from a wider perspective. I met new friends here who share the same thought with me and give me unforgettable memories. And through our project activities and a lot of personal effort we were capable to make the world a little better. “
“I am studying environmental system science with focus on sustainability oriented management in Austria. Therefor I decided to search for a practical project experience abroad which is related to my studies. While I was checking different project opportunities the Jakarta environmental care project catched my attention. I didn’t know anything about Indonesia except the name of the capital Jakarta before and that’s why I started doing research on Indonesia and the environmental problems people are facing there. I found out that the current situation extremely differs from the problems in my country and that flood disasters, littering, air and water pollution are serious problems in Indonesia. So I decided to volunteer for the summer in order to improve the environmental conditions through raising people’s awareness on environmental issues. Now that I have already spent some weeks in Indonesia I can say that I am in love with my work here and people are very interested in the things we do. Through this project I also got the opportunity to learn more about the Indonesian culture, travel around, got a deeper insight in flood prevention and had the chance to meet very interesting personalities from all over the world. ”
However Sylvia and Katharina aren’t the only one who choose Indonesia as there project destination! Every year many EPs from all over the world are coming to Indonesia and in total 7 EP’s from 4 different countries joined the Jakarta environmental care project and of course each person has his/her own motives therefor. Some volunteers want to travel around the many diverse islands, others want to know more about Indonesian culture and meet nice people and in some other cases it was just coincidence. But in the end nobody of our 7 JECP EP’s regrets his/her decision to come to Indonesia and would choose Indonesia as a project destination again.
Author: Katharina Grabmaier (Austria) and Sylvia Wang