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AIYEP participants
from all parts of Indonesia, along with participants from many different parts of Australia, have been enjoying
and experiencing life in Indonesia for the past 25 years. On February 2nd, 2007, AIYEP celebrated its 25th
Anniversary.
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Celebrating 25 years of AIYEP
February 1st, 2007 in Jakarta
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AIYEP gives the opportunity for 18 young Indonesians to go to Australia to experience life “Down
Under” first hand. They live with Australian families - their host families. This is always in
two different locations. In the past few years these locations have included country towns such as Roma (in
outback Queensland), Alice Springs in the Northern territiory and Orange in inland New South Wales. They also
get to live and work in cities too including Brisbane, Darwin and Sydney. In each place they followed work
experience programs in line with their interests and skills here in Indonesia. Their stay in Australia was
not just a holiday, but a valuable work experience as well.
After their 2 months in their different locations the Indonesian participants met together with many of the
Australian AIYEP participants before all returning to Indonesia. The 36 participants then go to two locations
together, but this time in Indonesia. And not just big cities, but just like in Oz, a small village as well.
Locations of recent years have included Buton in far south-east Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and Sumatra along
with Makassar, Banjarmasin and Palembang.
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Check out these website links from the KGRE Archives which feature AIYEP in Indonesia over the past few years.
However in recent years it has not always been possible for Australian participants to return to Indonesia
with the Indonesian group.
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Fortunately in the 2006/7 program the Aussies DID join in the second part of this annual program
and returned to Indonesia with the Indonesian participants.
This exciting, and annual AIYEP program is made available by the Australia
Indonesia Institute (AII) and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta through the office of Fiona Hoggart, Cultural
Attache based at the Embassy.
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AIYEP 2006 - 2007
The 2006/7 AIYEP participants in this long running program from AII have just finished their in-country
experience. They have all been living side by side
for the past 2 months in Barikin, South Kalimantan, about 3 hours north of Banjarmasin. These 36 young
people were coming to the end of their month long stay in Barikin village about 30km from Barabai on the Banjarmasin/Barabai
Road from Banjarmasin when KGRE visited them. Melissa is the leader of the Australian group of participants
while Bintang, from Medan, is the leader of the Indonesian participants. They had been living and working
with the community of Barikin on many small projects since early December 2006.
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KGRE visited a few of the AIYEP sponsored activities in the village. They included –
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a newly paved section of the school grounds at SD 1 Barikin now made suitable for playing badminton when wet
weather has made the rest of the playground a mud patch.
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a renovated classroom in a nearby orphanage which has been turned into a Reading Room for local students AND
adults.
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roadside gutters that have been cleaned out and re-constructed (with the help of local army personnel)
KGRE interviewed several other AIYEP participants about work that they had been doing.
That included –
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introducing Aussie sports such as cricket and football to students in the village.
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teaching popular Aussie schoolyard games to students such as Tunnel Ball and Poison Ball.
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creating healthy food in organized cooking classes for both village adults and their children.
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KGRE interviewed many of the 2006 - 7 AIYEP participants while visiting Barikin village.
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The Board of the AII meets in Indonesia every year to discuss the program and how it is going. In the days
leading up to the anniversarythey met in both Bandung and Jakarta. At the anniversary the members of the
AII Board were keen to talk with AIYEP alumni about the exchange program - the good and the bad points. How
can the program be improved? What needs to be done to make it even better than it is? Two of the Board members,
Tim Lindsay and Susan Mann, spoke with KGRE and the one thing they both commented on was that alumni had
only praise for the program. It has been operating for 25 years and maybe it is as good as it can be?
The Australian Indonesia Institute also conducts the very successful Muslim Exchange Program. Check out these
KGRE links.
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