Sintya Anggreni
BALI, INDONESIA 2022
August 25, 2021, today is the first day we meet virtually as youth representatives from each country in a research project from the Department of Population and Family Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS). After 10 months of interacting remotely, at the end of June 2022 we finally met in person in my homeland, on the Island of the Gods, Bali Indonesia. My current main activity is to study dentistry at Udayana University, making it impossible for me to go abroad for a long time during my dentistry skills lab schedule. I feel grateful that I can take part in this short activity in my country between school lectures.
The meeting on the first day was full of joy, starting with fun games which allowed us to get to know each other better before finally proceeding together for the next few days. After that, we listened to shared experiences from Tari, a youth researcher who is active in GEAS research in Indonesia. Closing the first day, we explored the Tabanan, Bali area by visiting a temple as a holy place for Hinduism, this place known as Tanah Lot Temple accompanied by a beautiful sunset at the end of the beach that surrounds the temple building area. Prior to that, there were several material topics in efforts to increase the capacity of youth that we got to become young researchers, including a gender transformative approach, program design, public speaking, and advocacy. The second day we continued with topics related to preparation to become young researchers, including communications strategies, covid sub-study, intervention research, and advocacy strategy. The closing of the day was when all youth presented their research project lead with discussion of each group and the formal presentation. Lastly, we had a memorable farewell dinner and a warm hug together ending our meeting in Bali with the hope that we will meet again in another time.
Being in the second group made me get to know Khevin who is also part of GYAB from Indonesia, then also Gradi and Eloge from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The project that we raised relates to the use of social media in the form of instagram to provide a safe space for young people to be able to talk about reproductive health and sexuality rights in adolescents around the world, especially in Indonesia and Kinshasa under the name iHearYouth which until now has consisted of nine posts with discussions according to the issues that are focused in the form of photos to videos. In an effort to develop this platform on an ongoing basis to support funding, research, and the implementation, we are trying to map stakeholders based on their interests and their influence on the project we are trying to develop. It is hoped that this platform can reach more young people with the benefits it provides based on the issues that are its main focus.
When we all met i wasn’t sure how it goes, but after meeting everyone it was more than what I expected! Even though we come from various continents around the world with diversity (attitudes, habits, the way we express ideas), but we come together easily on the issue of gender equality and was able to show that through the results of our research projects. This was a very great experience for me!
