KangGURU
Travels to Kendari
It was probably one of KGRE’s quickest trips. I left Bali at 7.00pm on January 31st and flew direct to Kendari. However, the full journey did take over 7 hours – bad weather and delays as usual. But by 1.00am I was safely in the Hotel Aden in Kendari. I first stayed in the Aden Hotel in 2001 when I visited the HMHB project for KGRE. That AusAID project is finished now but I still have fond memories of the staff of that project and the hard work they did with health centers and their staff.
This quick trip was to catch up with the 2005/6 AIYEP participants – that stands for Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program. This annual program supported fully by the Australia Indonesia Institute (AII) and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta through the office of Beverly Mercer, the Cultural Attache. The program basically allows 18 young Indonesians to go to Australia and live with Australian families. At the same time they follow experience programs in line with their interests and skills here in Indonesia. After their 2 months in 2 different locations, the participants meet together with 18 Australian AIYEP participants before they all return to Indonesia. The whole team then goes to a village somewhere in Indonesia to live and work together. This year the locations were Pasawajo – off the beaten track for sure - and Kendari, both in South-east Sulawesi. In recent years I thas not always been possible for the Australian participants to return to Indonesia with the Indonesian group but this time, around 8 of them DID join in the last part of the program – that was great!
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The first time I met them was when I jumped onto a bus outside the Hotel Aden at 8.00am on February 1st. I sat next in the back of the bus next to a young fellow called Hendi from Semarang. He knew about KGRE and started filling me in on what the plan was for the morning. The team, about 20 participants in all, had been helping local people in a village, 20 km from Kendari, to renovate some of their houses. The trip out to the village was a rough one as the roads around Kendari are not the best. In fact the joke was that the participants felt they should also be helping to renovate the roads as well.
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We finally arrived at the village and the team began painting and helping to fix up two houses. They had been there for several days and were quite familiar with what they had to do. They banged in nails, cut wood, painted walls and generally helped the locals. It was great to see. At the same time I managed to interview 10 of them for KGRE. They talked about the wonderful time they had in Australia – the host families, their work experiences, their visits to famous locations and their views on Australia and Australians in general. You can hear all of this on KGRE radio during 2006. Even check the latest AusAID Page on the KGRE website for more information and photographs on my visit to Kendari. There is also information about how you can become an AIYEP participant and follow in their tracks to Australia. |
Note from the Australian Embassy:
For those Indonesian who would like to apply the AIYEP, so they can contact Dinas Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan or Dinas Pemuda dan Olahraga in each province.
Usually, the selection process will be conducted by the end of May or begining of June depending on information from MENPORA, Jakarta.
Selection is handled for all of the International Youth Exchange Programs: Australia Indonesian Youth Exhchange Program (AIYEP), Canada - Indonesia Youth Exchange Program, Malaysia - Indonesia Youth Exchange Program, South East Asia Youth Program.
Cultural Section
Australian Embassy, Jakarta
Jl. HR. Rasuna Said Kav. C15-16
Jakarta Selatan 12940
If you are interested in AIYEP then check out information from your local Department of Youth Affairs office or contact KGRE.
For more photographs - Click Here
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
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