Creating Vlog, Yuyun Become a ‘Minister’ of Women Empowerment and Child Protection

Monday, December 4, 2017

Rimayun (17yo), better known as Yuyun, had been a registered child of North Halmahera Area Development Program (ADP) Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) since 2009. She and her friends had been actively involved in Sahabat Inspirasi (Inspirational Friends) as well as Hibualamo child forum.

On August 2017, she and 23 other children from some other villages got a training called Citizen Journalist that aimed to teach children how to make a news report and create a vlog (video blog) for promoting various natures and cultures from North Halmahera Ditrict.

Coincidentally, following the training, Yuyun got a news that Plan International would host a national competition named “One Day as a Minister” in October 2017. One of the requirements to pass the selection test was sending a vlog to respond to the question “If you were elected Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, what would you do to prevent early marriage?”

Yuyun successfully passed through the selection process with the vlog she sent to the event organizer. She got the opportunity to travel to Jakarta along with her parents to take part in the quarantine process. She was then chosen as a Deputy Assistant for Women Protection against Violence and managed to deliver her hope to prevent early marriage among children.

The early marriage issue was nothing new to her. Yuyun had long been aware that early marriage was highly prevalent in her homeland. She mentioned that in 2016 there were 22,000 young women between the age of 10 – 15 in Indonesia that had been married.

This figure put Indonesia as a country with the second highest number of early marriage cases among ASEAN countries. Determined to raise youths’ awareness on this issue, she decided to make her own vlog by using all the knowledge she had gained from the Citizen Journalist training.

“If I was elected Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, I would initiate a collaboration with the Minister of Education to incorporate reproduction health materials into the school curriculum,” said Yuyun in her vlog.

She argued that exposure to such knowledge during early age is critical to prevent early marriage. Spending time with positive activities was another crucial point that she highlighted.

“I would also strengthen the capacity of child forums all across Indonesia so that they could inspire their peers to spend their time with positive activities,” she added.

Now she is looking forward to share her experience to the other children groups in North Halmahera District with regard to the process of how to advocate child protection as well as how to establish a child forum.