T

hirty years ago, we had an experience that fundamentally changed our lives. We had the privilege of participating in an eight-month youth exchange between Canada and Indonesia. This summer we had the occasion to reflect on that informative and transformative experience, how it impacted us subsequently and why such exchanges remain relevant today.

We returned to the then remote village of Mengeruda on Flores, a lush volcanic island at the eastern end of Indonesia'€™s vast archipelago. Over the course of a generation there has been much continuity and great change. Our family welcomed us, '€œtheir children'€ whom they never expected to see again, back into their home with a traditional ceremony involving the ritual blood-letting and slaughter of a chicken by a frail elder. With characteristic generosity they fed us the best food they could offer, cooked on a pot resting on three stones above a smoky fire in a dirt-floor kitchen much as we recalled it.

They slept on mats on the floor so that we might take their beds. They reminded us of the local names of the plants growing around the garden and took us to the fields where we harvested peanuts, cashew nuts and rice all those years ago. They gave us coconuts from the trees we had planted. To be sure, serious poverty persists; limiting the family'€™s capabilities and options in a variety of disturbing ways.

Change had come too. Not only do the villagers now enjoy electricity and running water '€” albeit rationed on a weekly schedule, but every family seemed to have an inexpensive cell phone and many had satellite TV dishes too. The population had palpably increased '€” and we heard from the health visitor that even in this remote setting while there had been no malaria deaths for a decade, AIDS had claimed 13 lives.

Of course none of these changes had anything to do with our exchange; they were the fruits of much hard work, development and globalization '€” including the migration of young men to seek work in Malaysia. The impact of our exchange was less tangible. An appreciation of cultural relativism was gained: just because people believe and do things differently; neither is inherently better or right. The program encouraged individualistic Canadians to adapt to more communal living and collective decision-making and some of the Indonesian youth to be more critical and less deferential.

Some relationships and networks formed 30 years ago have stood the test of time: we leveraged these to mobilize funding for the building of a kindergarten beside the one we built in the 1980s and for a medical camp during our visit.

Further, the participants came to learn that certain aspirations are universal '€“ like dignity and respect, and healthy and better-educated children. The exchange encouraged us to take a hard look in the mirror; helping many participants better understand themselves. We also came to see ourselves and our countries through the eyes of our counterparts and host families '€” warts and all.

Perhaps most importantly, it led many participants, both Canadian and Indonesian, to understand the need for those more privileged to empower those with fewer opportunities. To demand and to bring about change. For us, it instilled new direction and purpose in our lives. As a result, the experience changed our career trajectories to ones devoted to development and education.

This unique opportunity was afforded to us by Canada World Youth (CWY), a little-known program primarily financed by the Canadian government. A program which over the past 43 years has enabled thousands of young Canadians to share their lives with thousands of participants and host families from over 60 countries. In so doing, the program has made an incalculable contribution to fostering international cooperation and solidarity and, if our moving reunion is any measure, it has had a lasting impact on host community members too.

CWY, which now runs a range of programs alongside exchanges such as the one which enriched our lives, is considering fundamental reforms to ensure it remains fit-for-purpose in this much-changed world. Indonesia'€™s Youth and Sports Ministry, CWY'€™s counterpart in Indonesia, is doing the same. These efforts are timely. Yet, as alumni of the program we call on both governments to explore options to ensure that long-term cultural exchanges remain at the core of the program '€” preparing future generations of effective inter-cultural leaders in our globalizing world.

The writers were participants of the 1984-1985 Canada World Youth Indonesia exchange. Kent Buse is chief of strategic policy directions at UNAIDS, Geneva. Alex Madar is a senior lecturer, Widya Mandira University, Kupang. Wiwin Winarti lectures at Politeknik Al Islam, Bandung.