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Presenting and connecting eastern Indonesia
The website menujutimur
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he website menujutimur.com started out of a couple's love for eastern Indonesia.
The media hub, whose name is literally translated as heading east, is a place to share stories and inspiration from the eastern part of the archipelago.
'A sincere smile from the people in eastern Indonesia makes me want to go there again and again and never come back,' said Aria Angga Dwipa, who founded the website with Intan Anggita.
Aria, who has a background working in the creative industry, says he always had a passion for traveling. In 2011, he moved from Jakarta to Labuan Bajo in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
Now he is living his dream, exploring Flores for his ecotourism work.
In the same year, Intan, a social media practitioner, began her own expedition across Flores. After the adventure, she felt an urge to explore every corner of Indonesia.
After journeying through the nation's east, the pair found that there were problems in paradise. Labeling local residents as 'poor' or 'backward' was dispiriting, they saw.
Further, many outsiders exploited residents to get at the region's wealth of natural resources.
Aria and Intan wanted to highlight the other side of eastern Indonesia, from a humanist ' and not an exotic ' perspective.
They chose a digital campaign for its easy access and fast response, building the Pecinta Timur Indonesia (Love Eastern Indonesia) community on Google+ as a way to aid people in the region.
'Give them confidence, protection for their indigenous land, a chance to monitor foreign investors and land conservation for areas with endemic fauna and flora,' said Intan of their goals.
Establishing MenujuTimur introduced the pair to a host of community acitvists.
They met Mansetus Balawala in Larantuka, East Flores, who runs a motorcycle ambulance service, for example. His program provides transportation in remote areas, targeting to bring down the high mortality rate for mothers and newborns.
They also met Stanis, who teaches dive guide techniques to children in Komodo Island; Almascatie, with the Save Aru Island movement in Maluku; and Rev. Jackie Manuputy, who runs a peace diplomacy program.
Aria and Intan integrated their online initiative with the offline movements. Through the website, people can choose projects to support.
There's a chance to contribute to a children's book donation program for an open library in Wae Rebo in Manggarai, NTT. The community is a last bastion of traditional Manggarai architecture.
The pair has also introduced Wae Rebo coffee to Bali and has plans to expand into Jakarta. On the environment, Aria and Intan helped foster an expert-backed cave conservation movement in North Manggarai.
They've also traveled as far as Okinawa, Japan, after meeting people at the Plasticman Institute through waste activist Stevan Rafael from Labuan Bajo.
Stevan, better known as Papa Jo, organized community clean ups in his hometown to educate people about waste management, especially at tourist destinations.
An invitation for Papa Jo to attend the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) conference, the 2013 Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) and the Workshop on Marine Litter intrigued Aria and Intan.
At the conference, Papa Jo shared ideas about managing waste in Labuan Bajo. He was also appointed as ICC coordinator for Indonesia.
Aria and Intan thought Papa Jo could inspire youth in Eastern Indonesia, so they documented his story in a short documentary film.
The pair claims to raise money through crowdfunding and by selling pieces combining vintage denim with traditionally woven fabrics from Manggarai and Watubelapi.
The fashion line ' called Sight from the East ' has used online marketing through Twitter and Instagram to great success, they claim. The side business funds their other projects.
Their work has also attracted sponsors, such as Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, which helped pay for their trip to Japan.
Meanwhile, Papa Jo's film will soon be released on the website, according to Aria. 'We want to play the film in layar tancap [open air cinema] format in villages across eastern Indonesia. Maybe it will inspire other youths in eastern Indonesia to become the next agent of change.'
Knowledge from the conference generated ideas to implement a data collection system for sustainable waste and emissions monitoring in coastal areas. The data will be shared on menujutimur.com to motivate local communities to take further action.
'The conference established a new network, which opened our minds to see these problems as global issues that need solutions faster,' said Intan.
The dynamic duo still has a long list of projects for 2014. They will continuously run an #InspiringThursday campaign to introduce local acts, communities and inspiring people from eastern Indonesia.
They also want to raise more money for the Save Aru movement in Maluku. In collaboration with career advisor Rene Suhardono, they plan to launch 'Kelas Inspirasi Menuju Timur' or the MenujuTimur Inspiration Class.
'We also plan to train local people at tourist attraction areas to produce merchandise, so they can generate income for the sustainability of more inspiring activities,' Intan said.
Although 2014 sounds like a busy year for Aria and Intan, they still have bigger dreams.
'We want to build an education and monitoring boat in every coastal and small islands in eastern Indonesia,' Aria said. 'The boats will represent each village, run by locals, and receive sustainable funding. We hope our future dream can become reality soon.'
Visit menujutimur.com for more information
