On Friday the 21st of August, Rifka Annisa participated in a Fair Day for Non-Governmental Organisations all around Jogja, hosted by the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS). This Fair Day happens every semester, and it’s a great opportunity to meet international students studying in Jogja who might want to volunteer or complete internships with Rifka Annisa.
At the Fair Day, we met quite a few international students interested in working with Rifka Annisa. Melissa McHugh is a development studies student from Perth, on exchange in Indonesia for one semester. She was very interested in learning about Rifka Annisa’s long-term educational and gender development plans.
“This sounds really great, I would definitely like to volunteer some of my time,” Melissa said.
Rifka’s education programs like Rifka Goes to School are part of our development plan to change attitudes around gender and educate teenagers about violence and abuse. The sustainable and continued establishment of more rural women’s crisis centres will also help to support women and give them empowerment to leave abusive relationships. Development studies students, with a particular focus on gender, can be extremely helpful in evolving our long-term program proposals and goals of how to change Indonesians culture to be more equal.
Another student we met at the Fair Day was Kim Tjon-Kon-Fat, a student from the Netherlands who is doing a degree in South-East Asian Studies. “Actually I used to work as a psychiatrist and often had clients who had experienced sexual or domestic violence. So with the South-East Asian context, this is really perfect for me,” she said. Kim has a background in psychological support for victims and survivors of violence, now with her new passion for South-East Asia and learning about the differences of this region compared to Europe and the Netherlands, Kim can combine her skills. The psychological counselling provided by Rifka Annisa is an extremely important part of our women’s crisis centre, as it is often the first thing people seek after they have been abused. To help women overcome their trauma, recover from their abuse and move forwards is essential to our work. We hope more psychology interns will come help Rifka Annisa’s psychological counselling division.
By the end of the day Rifka had met many international students interesting in volunteering for our office in Jogja, and we also got to explain what we do as an organisation. Spreading awareness about our programs, and telling our story as an NGO working in Jogja can help get volunteers, but help people more easily find our services when they need them. Thank you to ACICIS for letting us come to their NGO Fair Day and we hope we can provide lots of international students with internships and volunteer opportunities this semester. []
Author: Bridget Harilaou (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Student intern in the Media and Public Relation Division, Rifka Annisa
