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Young changemakers tackle local issues through remarkable innovations
Sharing session: Agita Pasaribu, founder of Bully
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haring session: Agita Pasaribu, founder of Bully.id, explains artificial intelligence and Bully.id at Bung Karno University. (Courtesy of Youth Internet Governance Forum Indonesia)
One of these aspiring young changemakers is Agita Pasaribu, a legal consultant who is also an ambassador for the Youth Internet Governance Forum.
Agita has seen how bullying in cyberspace affects many people and leaves thousands of victims to suffer alone. She, however, is a minority in a society that still mostly ignores real-life bullying, let alone bullying that takes place in the virtual realm.
“Not all forms of abuse leave bruises. Until our society recognizes cyberbullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue,” Agita said.
In order to give cyberbullying victims a platform to get support, Agita decided to develop Bully.id, a free application that provides confidential emotional support and legal assistance.
“In my opinion, there are many types of cyberbullying, such as revenge porn, online harassment, body-shaming and slut-shaming, and people are still unaware that these are considered crimes,” Agita said, discussing the issue that prompted her to develop the innovation.
Agita also collaborates with licensed psychologists and lawyers so that Bully.id users have the opportunity to contact either experts, both openly and anonymously. In addition, the app also uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine what is best for each user.
“There is integration with users’ social media accounts when they register [with Bully.id], so our AI will suggest which package to get thorough follow-up. For example, the AI will inform users if they need to consult three times a week with a psychologist due to depression caused by bullying or legal assistance to file a report for cases such as revenge porn,” Agita explained.
Users are free to choose whom they would like to consult and may cancel anytime if they feel incompatible with the respective expert or the package itself.
In addition, the technology of Bully.id has been verified with a private blockchain system, in which user data privacy is assured and consultation information remains confidential.
Like Agita, I Gede Merta Yoga Pratama from Bali has also developed a digital application to assist traditional fishermen on the well-known tourist island.
“We often see [tourists] in Bali eating good food in restaurants, but behind that there are a lot of fishermen, specifically traditional ones, who are less fortunate, as some of them still rely on traditional methods such as clouds and bird sightings,” Yoga said.
The 23-year-old Yoga aims to improve their fishing methods and welfare by increasing catches through a mobile app called FishGo.
“We use satellite technology to monitor the location of fish so that they won’t have to rely on traditional methods and spend time scouring the sea,” he said.
Yoga and his team plan to introduce FishGo outside of the province in the future, mainly in eastern Indonesia such as Sulawesi and Maluku, as well as help fishermen’s wives increase their productivity.
Both Bully.id and FishGo are just two of the 10 innovations awarded by the 2019 Indonesian Youth Changemakers Sustainable Development Goals (SDG PIPE 2019), a program that acknowledges young innovators for their digital and non-digital projects that aim to improve living conditions in Indonesia and support United Nations’ SDGs.
Various social issues are the driver for the innovations, which are being developed in different cities across
Indonesia.
For example, health issues are one of the main concerns and this is apparent in Goei Diana Sulistyaningrum’s Moringa for Mom, or also known as Morimom.
“It is a social enterprise that provides processed moringa products for pregnant women to prevent stunting in children,” Diana said.
So far Morimom has developed three food products from moringa leaves, namely moringa cookies, moringa tea and moringa oatmeal, by empowering human resources in East Nusa Tenggara, the province with the highest level of stunting in Indonesia.
According to the UN’s Food Agriculture Organization, moringa leaves are rich in protein, minerals and vitamins A, B and C, and are especially beneficial for pregnant and nursing women as well as children, and this what motivated Diana and her team to create these products.
“Moringa leaves are commonly found in Indonesia, but sometimes they are not used optimally and are mostly used as a vegetable or even worse, to ward off evil spirits,” Diana said.
“If we look at their content, moringa leaves are a superfood because they are rich in nutrients.”
Another inspirational innovation has been established by Neas Wanimbo, who initiated a community named Hano Wene to provide education to people in Tangma village in Wamena, Papua, through the establishment of libraries.
Focusing on educational issues, the 24-year-old Neas and his team of 30 have established a book donation program both online at hanowene.org and offline in their respective places, both in Jakarta and Papua.
“The project started in 2017 in my hometown, Wamena, and we have helped approximately 80 children in Papua,” Neas said.
Neas hopes to spread his initiative to more areas in Papua and other provinces where accessing proper education is difficult.
“We hope to open more libraries in inland areas to reach out to our brothers and sisters who don’t have access to proper education in Papua as well as throughout Indonesia, so we plan to evolve our community in the future.”
— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post
