Kristiana P Leenardi
Nov 4 · 10 min read

Mickey is the co-founder of Dhammamitta, the first Indonesian Buddhist youth organization in Hong Kong, as well as one of the most social and driven person that I know. She has friends of all kinds and places: from helpers, to fellow young professionals, to public figures, and is involved in all kinds of things: from founding organizations, to running volunteering sessions, to organizing consulting drinks.

On her involvement with youth organizations

“I’m a big-time extrovert — you know the MBTI test? I scored 92% in Extraversion. Staying at home for too long is very draining for me, so I’d rather be out and about, always looking to socialize in some shape or form.

I’ve also always been a yes man — embracing opportunities coming my way, because I don’t like staying still doing nothing. Add those two together and you got me, a Buddhist, joining my high school’s Student Body as the POC for Christianity at one point — hosting services and morning prayers. I also joined the school’s basketball team, and Buddhist Reborn, my vihara’s youth organization.

This carried over to uni. I joined the International Students Society for a year, and AIESEC for two. I got more involved with my hall as a member of Scholarship Team during my third year, and became a residence tutor in my final year. I also co-founded Dhammamitta, the first Indonesian Buddhist youth organization in Hong Kong, as well as PERMISI, the first Indonesian students organization in City University.”

Buddhist Reborn
ISOC
ISOC
ISOC (International Society of City University of Hong Kong)
AIESEC Conference
Hall 9 Residence Tutor 2018–2019
PERMISI founding members

“At first, I joined those organizations for personal development, for the experience and the recognition. Later on I found that it’s worth way more than a line on your CV, for it’s also about networking, and growing your community. As a member maybe you’d care more about yourself, but once you start leading your own team, you’d start to think and care more about your team, because you’d want them to grow and flourish as well.”

On co-founding Dhammamitta

“More than half of my batch are Catholic or Christian. Often they’d go together to church, then eat out after. Especially during freshman year, when I’d do anything to make friends, I felt like I was missing out on that experience.

Back in Indo, I was active in Buddhist Reborn. FYI, I don’t think the benefits of joining a religion-affiliated organization are equally religious. I’ve felt the positive impact firsthand — from personal growth, friends gained, network made, and spiritual development from learning more about Buddhism itself.

So I set out to find a community of my own. I spent my whole freshman year exploring the Buddhist community in Hong Kong, and came to find that there’s none. There’s a meditation group in Yuen Long, but the demographic’s pretty old plus it’s super far. There’s a Thailand temple/community, but they spoke purely in Thai — yes, I went there and joined a whole service in Thai without understanding a word. There’s another Viet community in Ngong Ping, but that one was even further from Yuen Long, and same situation as the Thai.

Also, none of those resonates with me culturally — I couldn’t feel like I belong.

My second year, opportunity knocked. In Indo, I connected with a member of Mangala Tiongkok — a Indonesian Buddhist youth organization already present in around 10 cities, from Beijing to Chongqing. She hit me up out of the blue, asking whether I’d be interested in founding one in Hong Kong. At the same time, there were two Buddhist Reborn members that came to Hong Kong to study, and they were into the idea as well.

At that time, I was super busy with AIESEC — virtually half my time was for AIESEC stuffs. Weekdays, weekends — our team would meet at 8am before the day started, and meet again at the end of day til 11pm or midnight. If we have event at 9am, we’d often come at 6am to finish the unfinished, then sleep until 8:30am before the participants came.

It hit my personal life pretty hard, from GPA to personal relationship, as I had less time for my then-boyfriend. So when I said I wanted to start Dhammmamita, people close to me weren’t exactly supportive. Like what Mickey, as if you weren’t busy enough already?

But it was the perfect momentum. I knew I couldn’t let it pass by. I’d stay up til midnight to take care of AIESEC, then until 2am for Dhammmita.”

Dhammamitta’s first meeting
Dhammamitta First Gen

“At first, I just wanted.. a home away from home. I wanted the Buddhists to have a community to meet up and attend sermons with, just like what I had in Indo. I still remember the very first meeting. It was painfully awkward, everyone was shy and no one wanted to speak up. I had to play ‘clown’ to hype everyone up, but actually that really exhausted me afterwards.

It has since grown to become way more than that. We have around 80 members of students from 6 different universities, and from the helpers community as well. Dhammamitta is never just for Buddhists. It’s a community for everyone: be it people looking for experience, organizational skills, network, or even just friends, all are welcome. I’ve also made it clear to the members that we don’t have to be all about dhamma. If you have some event or activity you’d like to organize, go ahead!”

On Dhammamitta’s foray into social impact

“I went on a volunteering trip with AIESEC to Vietnam to teach English, and it was truly life changing. I’ve been involved in lots of organizations, but none was tied to social impact.

In the end of the trip, someone said, “Thank you for spending your summer to come to Vietnam and teach these kids.” It really hit me. How could I spend my summer in Vietnam helping their people, but not my own people?

When I came back, I started Dhammamitta Education Empowerment Project (DEEP), a program that aims to educate and empower the Indonesian helpers in Hong Kong. We’d come to Victoria Park, sit together with them and teach them English. I chose the helper community due to practical reasons — they’re the most plausible without the language barrier, and personal — they reminded me of my own helper. She had been with me since I was 2 years old, all the way to junior high school — around 13 years. Imagine, she graduated high school, and had to immediately work for all these strangers, my family. We were pretty close — we’d play together, watch TV together. She was the reason for my love of telenovelas and Bollywood TV.

At that time I had zero idea about the helpers community in Hong Kong. I went in blind, starting off by googling “Indonesian helpers organization in Hong Kong”, and around 50 results popped up. I sent partnership invitations to a few, and one replied.

We had a meeting, and I told them that the students would like to create a mentorship program for the helpers. And they said, “But the students, aren’t they’re quite arrogant? Do they really want to teach us and hang out with us?” I was so shocked! It made me realize, how us, the 2 biggest Indonesian communities in Hong Kong, were so close, yet so far.

In the end, the program wasn’t sustainable because the helpers could never commit — they’d come this week, absent the next week and the next next, then come again, and we’d have to restart the session all over from the top. We also had no proper place — we’d just literally sit together in the park. We found the solution in partnering with already established NGOs instead.”

Ramadan event for the helpers that can’t go home

On looking back

“I feel like a proud mama. I mean, we started from nothing, and when I think back of the awkward firsts, and compare it to now.. I remember when we first hosted activities, I’d always have to be extra proactive — even directly assigning work to each because everyone was that passive. But now I can just casually throw out event ideas, and everyone would be excited and mobilize themselves.

For me, Dhammmita was my path to self actualization, a mode of self expression that brings my ideas to life, and a networking platform that somehow has helped my career to some extent — I got one of my internships through a member.

Every December, we’d have people thanking one another in Dhammamitta. Everybody put up an envelope with their name, and other members can put in anonymous messages for that person.

A person — I have no idea who, thanked me for inviting them to Dhammamitta. They felt left out and disconnected at their school, but Dhammamitta had become their shelter. Another shared how they’ve never actually been religious back home, but because of this fun community, they also got to learn more about Buddha and dhamma, and grew fonder of Buddhism.

Honestly, one of the reasons that I can really commit to Dhammamitta is because of the appreciation of the community. I think everyone wants to feel like they have a purpose, that they make an impact, and in Dhammamitta, I feel needed.”

On making impact: personal is social, and social is personal

“After initiating the helpers program, I grew closer to my own helper back home.

Before, our interaction was basically me asking her to do things. Then I thought — why would I do all those things to these helpers in Hong Kong, but not to my own? Now I actually try to make conversations and connect with her.

In Dhammamitta, I’d often casually share my work stories — and the freshmen actually really appreciated it. They said I was like a guinea pig. I was always the first to dive in, from creating Dhammamitta to joining the workforce, then tell them about the goods and the bads. To them, it seems as if I was the guide that helped them to somehow be more prepared. Somehow I’ve become this big sister figure — the new joiners, the freshmen would talk to me about all kinds of things, from uni courses to breakups. And I thought why could I be a family, a big sister to them, but not to my own? I wasn’t as close with my sister before, but from then on I actively tried to talk more and connect more with her, and I think we’ve grown closer now.

Also, I find that making impact is sometimes as simple as uploading Instagram story, or chatting with people. The other day I uploaded a story of me on Bread Run — basically we collected leftover food for redistribution, and three people asked me about the program. I was also briefly involved with Enrich — a helper empowerment organization. A friend knew and asked me about it, so I connected him with the organization, and he ended up getting involved for quite some time. Although I didn’t really commit to the organization, I helped bridge others who are interested.”

On what she’s up to now

“ I’m currently phasing out my Dhammamitta involvement to become more just like a supporter, to encourage regeneration.

But again, I’m an extrovert — so I have huge need to go out and socialize. But recently I grew tired of going out to just aimlessly hang out. Isn’t it just human really, wanting to do something that matters?

I’m sort of looking for my next ‘project’, but I haven’t really found a cause that I’m passionate about like Dhammamitta, so I’m just exploring my options through one-off commitments. I joined this platform called Hands On Hong Kong that aggregates and announces upcoming volunteering activities. It might not feel as meaningful, nor sustainable as Dhammamitta, but I think it’s still better than watching Netflix at home every night.”

On the Global Goals

“AIESEC actually works together with the UN to promote the Global Goals/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It’s a global-level partnership, so not all unis have to align, but City U did. I remember in their regional conference in Shanghai they had a half-day session on the SDGs — I think it was in 2015 when the program was freshly launched.

While I think the general idea of working toward a collective goal, is great, I don’t really understand the tangible implications. I think it would be even better if they can talk more about the concrete things and programs that they do.”

“The goal I’m most passionate about is about quality education. Having access to good education and studying abroad has changed me for life.

I think the problem with Indo is too many people are a bit like sheep — they can be easy to manipulate, easy to mobilize for personal reasons and get them to fight other’s battles — when they might not even fully understand what they’re fighting for. The rioters nowadays? I doubt they all know what they’re protesting about. Education is the key to empower and lift people off poverty.”


take action towards a better world in 4 questions and 90 seconds: https://asean.myworld2030.org/partner/mwhkid2

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade