Social leaders as entrepreneurs: Ashoka helps future leaders build their stairways of dreams

MARKETING, consumer appeal: These are real world phenomenon we experience everyday. Twenty young social leaders gathered to play a branding game, showing which advertisements and products they found most appealing.

Mayang, a high school student in Denpasar, opted for the bottled iced tea we know so well, Teh Botol Sosro. She said her choice showed she was a true Indonesian.

“No matter what product I need, I’ll always choose Indonesian-made ones,” Mayang said, which was greeted by applause from her fellow participants at the Young Change Makers Initiative workshop organized by Ashoka Indonesia. Other Social leaders as entrepreneurs: Young leaders work together on their stairway of dreams. Wasti Atmodjo participants each chose different brands to represent them, including Nike, VW and Sonny Ericsson.

Young leaders work together on their stairway of dreams. (YS/Wasti Atmodjo)Young leaders work together on their stairway of dreams. (YS/Wasti Atmodjo)

Ashoka Indonesia is a not-for-profit NGO which, among its many activities, organizes program to inspire young people to become entrepreneurs. They hold workshops in Bali, their home island, but they also take their show on the road, working with young people in four other Indonesian cities, Jambi, Mataram, Makassar and Medan. Participants, only 20 in each city, are young leaders—from junior high school through university—who either have set up a community center or have joined an existing one. They are chosen because social issues interest them, and because they demonstrate good communication skills and openmindedness.

After the branding game—an icebreaker which helped the participants get to know each other—they started in on a vision and planning exercise called “discover, dream, design, and
deliver”. The fi rst step was to hone in on the participants’ intuitive likes and dislikes. The young leaders were given newspapers and the task of choosing one news items that appealed most. Then they were asked to comment on what they had read and express what it meant to them.

Ashoka representative Oda Lionatam said this method is actually a general approach anyone
can use to gauge one’s interest in a field. Participants were then grouped according to their gender, age and their level of education. With friends of the same age and ability, participants could more easily identify and discuss issues, Oda added.

Next came the dreaming phase. Each group was asked to create a story, an inspirational one, and present it in the form of a poem, skit, or a song. The fi rst group came up with a children’s medley on the theme “Success of Advocacy”. The second group, no less lively than the first, presented a skit about a neighborhood community leader who, with a bit of start-up capital and great fi ghting spirit, created a successful pig-breeding enterprise.And finally, the third group presented a mini-opera titled “Reaching the Dream”, which presented how to cope with HIV and AIDS.

“We can see how much energy these folks have, they tap into their potential and present interesting performances in such a short time,” Oda said proudly.

After successfully working as a group, the participants were then encouraged to build a “stairway
of dreams” which helped them pull together mantras, identities, communication, and positive
change. Their efforts to create a strong vision were enhanced by watching the self-help film The Secret and listening to Louis Armstrong’s emblematic song of hope, “What a Wonderful World”.

Yoga, an activist with the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Environmental Society, Walhi, dreamed of an investor-free Bali. In his vision, the Balinese would remain the owners and managers of the resort island, not just observers in their own land, Yoga explained.

Identifying himself as a friend of nature, Kana, a junior high school student, came up with a
catchphrase: “Say no to plastic”. He wanted to share what he knows about plastic with his friends, so they’ll understand it is not environmentally friendly. He designed his message to offer them simple ways they can help, by exchanging plastic bags with those made of cloth or recycled materials.

Another participant, Dadap, dreamed of bringing village life and the IT world closer together. In his lingkar tekno desa (IT network of villages) he would equip villages with internet technology then link them together.

Eka Prahadian, the activity organizer, said the “stairway of dreams” was at the moment a
training tool. “Later we’ll implement these ideas with Ashoka’s support. We’re asking every participant to report on their progress so they can be in the panel selection,” Eka explained, adding that those “who pass the selection can then join the Global Young Change Makers community”, a forum where their ideas can be transformed into wider action.