Virtual Engagement in Indonesia
Young People Get Connected Via YouthLinks
On May 15th 2020, DHL Indonesia along with SOS Children’s Villages Indonesia organized their first webinar for young people on the topic of “Mental Health Awareness" on YouthLinks.
“We were expecting around 50 young people to participate. In the end, there were more than 200 of them joining (...)."
A total of 203 young people (age 14 to 24) from eight different SOS Villages and programs all over Indonesia (including Jakarta, Meulaboh, Banda Aceh, Lembang, Flores, Bali, Medan & Semarang) attended this first virtual activity, which was organised by five volunteers from the local DHL-team. The reach of this session was partly surprising, as Tri Anggraeni, one of the DHL volunteers, states: “We were expecting around 50 young people to participate. In the end, there were more than 200 of them joining (...)."
5 Sessions
The activity was the first of a series of five online mentoring sessions DHL and SOS Children's Villages Indonesia are planning to host on YouthLinks. Alongside the first session on "Mental Health Awareness", also the second session with the topic "Leadership Sharing” and the third session on “Social Media Etiquette for Teenagers” already successfully took place. Two more sessions on “Problem Solving/ Effort-Benefit Matrix” and “Tips to Keep Productive during Self-Quarantine” will be hosted in the upcoming weeks. Overall, seven DHL volunteers coming from different DHL business units, organize and host the sessions.
In order to join, the young people either directly connect with their smartphones or join the sessions in groups of 12-20, gathering in the SOS Children’s Villages at different locations all over the country. In the first session, there were also around 20 young people from family strengthening programs participating, mainly dialing in via their smartphones.
“In our first session, we also had the national director of SOS Indonesia on the call. When he joined, many young people started to cheer, call his name, and celebrate his presence. (...)"
Excitement
The excitement of the young participants about the opportunity to connect with their peers, but also with SOS-Staff and DHL volunteers was immense as Tri Anggraeni explains: “In our first session, we also had the national director of SOS Indonesia on the call. When he joined, many young people started to cheer, call his name, and celebrate his presence. Some of the young people stayed on the call after the end of the session in order to exchange views with the national director, but also with their peers in other regions of their country.”
“I can see the beauty of working for a company which promotes its employees’ engagement as volunteers, and I am really thankful for having these opportunities.”
The impact of this first virtual activity was inspiring, both for the young people, but also for volunteers: “I can see the beauty of working in a company which promotes its employee’s engagement as volunteers, and I am really thankful for having these opportunities”, says Tri Anggraeni.
Quiz
In order to keep the young people engaged after the first- and before the second session was hosted, a quiz consisting of 20 different questions was posted on YouthLinks. The GoTeach-team in Indonesia nominated some winners, honoring them with a gift package consistent out of school supplies and internet data packages. Ni Nengah Kartika, young participant from the SOS Children's Village in Bali, concludes as follows: "DHL held a quiz right after the class mentoring ended. What was the purpose? None other than to ensure that the material delivered during the mentoring session was understood by the young people who attended the online class".
"DHL held a quiz right after the class mentoring ended. (...)"
Learnings
After the first activities were hosted successfully, the GoTeach-team from Indonesia can already exclude some first learnings:
- The large number of participants in the first session caused some connectivity issues. Due to this experience, the participation for the next virtual sessions was limited to 100 young people in order to ensure good quality of the training. Furthermore, all participants have to register now previous to the sessions.
- Another challenge for the organizing team was that on YouthLinks, the host of the meeting cannot mute the participants. Because for some of the participants it was the first online-call, this required some learning in the beginning.
The success of this first virtual encounter was possible because SOS Children’s Villages offered the option for volunteers to engage virtually via the YouthLinks platform already before the outbreak of Covid-19. Tri Anggraeni concludes: “Now, we finally had the courage to really try it”.
"(...) Online activities are required - We hope that online mentoring can be further developed in the future."
Yunus Ismail, Program Coordinator from SOS Indonesia, says the following about the mentoring sessions on YouthLinks: "“DHL's online mentoring activities are very helpful for our our young people, especially in the currently challenging situation. Online activities are required - We hope that online mentoring can be further developed in the future."
More
After this first success, Indonesia is now considering relocating more GoTeach activities into the virtual space - in order to being able to reach out to and support as many young people as possible, which is of high importance in these challenging times.
Also, when bearing in mind that the current crisis will challenge young people accompanied by SOS Children’s Villages disproportionately.
Ni Nengah Kartika, the young participant from Bali, concludes:
"Even though we are facing the challenges of this pandemic, mentoring can still be conducted online. Covid-19 will not kill our enthusiasm to participate in mentoring activities."
| Chapter lead | Susanne Novotny |
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Attachments
- Good_Practice_Indonesia_EN.pdf -- Martin Schmid, 17 December 2020, 12:30
- Good_Practice_Indonesia_FR.pdf -- Martin Schmid, 17 December 2020, 12:30
- Good_Practice_Indonesia_ES.pdf -- Martin Schmid, 17 December 2020, 12:30
