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'Voluntourism': When young professionals travel, teach in remote parts of Indonesia
What drives urban Indonesians to travel to far-flung regions of the country and support local residents? In short, voluntourism.
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About 1,000 students from Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara, perform the 'sanggualu' dance to commemorate National Education Day on May 2. (The Jakarta Post/Markus Makur )
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mid a growing interest of Indonesian youths in traveling, there is a new trend called “voluntourism”, which sees them travel to remote areas of the country and support local residents.
Voluntourism is a portmanteau formed of the words “volunteer” and “tourism”. The voluntourists usually sign up to NGO programs that allow them to teach children in underdeveloped parts of the archipelago.
One of the organizations running such a program is 1000 Guru (1000 Teachers). Established in 2008, 1000 Guru invites Indonesian youth to become aware of the uneven distribution of academic resources to the detriment of less fortunate groups. Its founder, Jemi Ngadiono, said he was inspired to build the volunteer group when he saw children drop out of school while traveling around Indonesia.
“The youths love to travel, and they’re frequent users of social media,” Jemi says. “Combining those two things, we have created this traveling and teaching concept.”
Jemi adds that there are approximately 150,000 volunteers in 41 cities of Indonesia. The volunteers can come from any background; participation is not limited to any specific occupation.
Karina Nadila, who finished third in beauty pageant Putri Indonesia 2017, is one of many volunteers of 1000 Guru. Joining in early 2017, Karina says the programs mostly aim to inspire children in remote places by showing them that there’s a lot more than meets the eye.
Recalling her experiences in East Nusa Tenggara, Karina says the province lags far behind others, not just in education but in overall development.
