Dream: A Pathway to Change (Part I)

It's been a long time since my last article in this blog despite I have several things in my mind from my latest experiences. The problem is not time, indeed. But surely my laziness to update this blog >.<. By the way either for those who visits my blog or the one who is looking for inspiration, please let me share inspiring speech from Iman Usman. If you know nothing about this guy, just check his website or googling. Okay I think is enough from me, and feel free to read the rest.

Delivered by Iman Usman (19) from Indonesia at the 9^th UN Youth Assembly in New York before receiving The Youth Assembly Recognition for Excellence

Good afternoon everyone, it is indeed an honor for me to be here with you all today. Thank you for the UN Youth Assembly for inviting me. I feel the excitement of passionate young leaders in this room, and it makes me more than excited.

I’d like to begin with a story of a kid, a 10 year-old boy, living in a small town in Indonesia. He was a normal kid, not a child prodigy, who found himself powerless and talentless. But the one thing he had – he had a dream. Since he was child, he was the one who believed in dreams. For him, a life without dreams was just like driving without a destination. Dreams became the stepping stones and foundation of enjoying his life – making it valuable to the world. His dream was simple, but most people thought that it was too big, or even too idealistic. But he believed that there is no dream too big, because it is not a dream if it is not big.

He just wanted a better world, a better place for every single child in the world to live, to survive, and to develop. When he was a child, he was treated unjustly. His opinion was dismissed. His voice was deemed meaningless by society. He had nowhere to speak his ideas, and bring them to action. He also saw that many kids felt the same as he did. He did not come from a wealthy or well-educated family. But, he believed these challenges should not be justifications to undermine or discriminate against him. That 10-year-old kid insisted, and reminds me every day: that no matter what your background is, no matter how old you are, you are a human being with rights and liberty.

 

The painful realities he endured led him to embark the journey in improving his own quality of life, and step-by-step, try to improve the quality of human beings around him. He believed that he couldn’t wait for someone to come and fix his life – he was the one to fix it. He was very passionate about the struggle to empower children, the future generation.

His story of movement began with a blackboard. When he was 10 he found that many kids in the neighborhood couldn’t access books and other sources of information.  So, he established a free course for underprivileged children. Later on, he established a small library in front of his house. It’s His hope that this small action would lead him to a larger action with a bigger impact. He became involved in various communities, journalism, entrepreneurship programs, and active in advocating for child rights issues when he was elected as Secretary General for a children’s forum in his province. He conducted various campaigns, initiated and coached various brands on social activism, particularly on the promotion of the achievement of the MDGs. Until he moved to the capital town for study, and the study could not stop his momentum of change as he thought that he need to do a bigger action.

Then, he founded a youth-led NGO concerning youth empowerment for social change. With his team, he went from school to school, campus to campus, to deliver capacity building and inspire youths to believe and achieve their dreams. He conducted various community development projects to achieve the MDGs, as well as advocacy on youth-related issues by mobilizing thousands members and more than 500 volunteers who impacted thousands lives.

The story of this kid is really meaningful and has a lot of correlation to myself. That kid is in front of you all right now, that’s the story of me.

I share this story not for the sake of mentioning my achievement. It is because I just want to tell you that when I started to “do something”, I was nothing compared to you all today but I know I holding the part of the bright future of my country.

I couldn’t speak any language beside my mother tongue but I know I can speak the word of change.

I couldn’t play any musical instrument, sing, dance, or anything else that I can be proud of but I listened to the tune in my heart.

I knew my dream and my past experiences that lead me to make a difference. I had the courage. Even today, I am still that 10 year-old boy, with a bigger vision, with a bigger dream to achieve, with more friends at my back for support.