Kang GURU Travels to Lombok and Jakarta in December, 2007

Kevin flew to Lombok for the arrival of the 2007-8 Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP) participants, their attendance at the 49th Anniversary Celebrations for the province of NTB and their journey out to Sigerongan village where they will live for 4 weeks with the local community. Kevin then flew to Jakarta for the official function for the 27 awardees of the Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) at the residence of the Australian Ambassador, Mr. Bill Farmer.

Kevin went to Lombok to meet with the newly arrived participants of the 2007-8 Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP) in early mid-December. On Monday December 17th the AIYEP participants attended the 49th Anniversary of the province of NTB at the Governor’s Office in Mataram. The celebrations involved hundreds of defense personnel, possibly 150 invited guest along with the AIYEP participants a special guest. The 36 participants had front row seats at the ceremony and were personally welcomed by the Governor to NTB.   One special guest who sat next to Kevin was Drs. Adiati Noerdin, Assistant Deputy of Resourcance Development and International Relationship from the Ministry of Youth and Sport in Jakarta. Adiati is an Aussie alumni and studied in Australia in 1987 under an Australian government sponsored scholarship in Canberra. Adiati had a lot to say about her time in Australia and how much she loved that experience. We hoped that these AIYEP participants were going to enjoy their stay in NTB just as much.

Drs. Adiati Noerdin, Assistant Deputy of Resourcance Development and International Relationship from the Ministry of Youth and Sport in Jakarta

After the official ceremony in front of the Governor’s office the AIYEPers had lunch and a rest at their hotel before their trip out to Lingsar and to the village of Sigerongan - their home for four weeks where they are to experience living and working with the local people. This is a very exciting feature of AIYEP and it is just as much a new cultural experience for the 18 Indonesian participants as it is for the 18 Australian participants. Village life for a whole month – keep watching the Kang Guru website for more on their activities in early 2008 and also in the March 2008 Kang Guru magazine.

In the afternoon the participants loaded themselves and their luggage onto two buses for the trip to the village of Sigerongan, about 30 minutes from Mataram. The rain was very heavy and the trip was slow but the welcome in the village was well worth the effort. The village people welcomed the participants with traditional music, dance and the well-known Lombok happy and smiling faces. Luckily the rain stopped for this part of the afternoon when villagers and participants approached each other on the main road but from different ends of the village. They met and then joined together to walk to the office of the Kepala Desa for the official welcome to the village.

On Tuesday Kevin flew to Jakarta to attend the official function for the 27 awardees of the Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) at the residence of the Australian Ambassador, Mr. Bill Farmer. Indonesia is just one of the countries in Asian that receive ALAs and in fact has the most awarded out of the 24 countries that get them each year. Kevin interviewed several of the lucky awardees at the function. These interviews combined with interviews he did with awardees of the Liz O’Neill Award scholarships, presented in November 2007, will be featured in the March 2008 magazine.

ALA is a prestigious scholarship program that provides opportunities to existing and emerging leaders from the Asia Pacific region, including Indonesia, to further develop their professional expertise and leadership. The scholarships allow them to pursue postgraduate study and a leadership development program in Australia. For 2008, the Australian Government has awarded ALA scholarships to 172 people from 24 Asia-Pacific countries. Indonesia received more scholarships than any other country. Most awardees will commence their studies in Australia in January.