Day 2: Something that someone told you about that you never forgot
“Jangan jadikan masyarakat kecil sebagai batu loncatanmu”
During my department’s orientation program, my friends and I were given a task to organise a community project. We literally had to brainstorm, gather the materials, and execute the project by ourselves in a matter of weeks. This was the first time I’ve ever done anything of the sort.
The brief was, as I remember it, to give something back to the surrounding community. See what they needed, see what they had potential in but lacked the resources to develop. Fill in the gap.
We ended up making a small community library in a small open space, filled it with books.
Upon its completion, one of my seniors told us that you can help people all you want, and you should, but do it only as far as it is helpful to them. Don’t prey on what you think they lack by filling a void you constructed yourself.
I thought this really opened my eyes. I realised the power of his words because it made me rethink twice about every community development project I’ve done or witnessed since. Especially now that I plan on diving myself into the field of development, even though he might not even remember his words, but the message is powerful indeed.
Only a year or a few years after we created the small community library, I think, sadly it was gone.
