What we do in Kupang, actually?
A story about our first step to fight back digital inequality
Randy’s story:
Terangi? In Indonesian, “terangi” literally means “to illuminate something with light”. In eastern part of Indonesia, the gap of technology development is distinctive, compared to the western part, especially in Java island. Therefore, Binar Academy and Telkomsel created a joint movement to fight this inequality under the name “The NextDev on the Mission”. This is our duty to share our knowledge to bridge the gap. For the first stop, we go to Kupang.
As a Binar Academy mentor, we have the responsibility to help the youngsters in Kupang and Ambon through technology. We arrived in Kupang and immediately know the challenge: set a new path and encourage the youngsters to learn about digital technology. Our first task was to tell them that programming is not as scary as horror movies, no.
However, wonders can’t be made in a day. It requires a lot of hard work and time, followed by day-to-day careful maintenance and encouragement. We only have one month opportunity to light the torch, and we know it’s gonna be a real challenge for us.
I still remember when I was selected as a web developer mentor for the first time by our head of masters, Lutvi Rosyadi. He told me something that pierced through my heart, “It feels so heartwarming if we can share our knowledge to them and they can evolve more than we’ve ever done.” This is our social mission to share what we have. And I’m expecting that, after they graduate from this batch, they can share what they’ve learnt from us, to us.
Hope lies every where, so does in Kupang. But I don’t know, I feel like these words transform themselves into some kind of bug in my own code strings. And I’m still wondering the answer to understand why my code strings ain’t working. This kind of answer is not the kind that I can easily find in stack overflow. Therefore, I hope we can find these bugs who have been bothering our journey.
Puji’s Story:
After graduated from Binar Academy, I had no idea what to do next. I felt lost, as if someone who just had a broke up with her boyfriend. I missed everything that I do with my Binarian fellows. My days went boring, as I spent my days with only sleeping and crying. I cried because I was happy and sad at the same time. On one hand, I was happy because I just finished my second goal, and on the other hand, I was sad because I could no longer meet my team. I knew it would be hard to invite them only for hanging out and continuing our plan. It’s understandable since they need to return to their pre-Binar usual activities.
A couple days after the “breakup mood” that I got, I read news from our Telegram group that Binar Academy was looking for mentors who have a passion to teach in Kupang and Ambon. Why so sudden? It turned out that Binar Academy in collaboration with Telkomsel, established a brand new educational program. The program is called The NextDev on the Mission, and this is the first collaboration between them! I was so excited.
As their first project outside Yogyakarta, they need 3 mentors; a product manager/quality assurance mentor, a frontend mentor, and a backend mentor. Even though I doubt my own skill at first, I felt the voice inside my head was getting louder to persuade me to join this opportunity. I would always want to share my knowledge, but I wasn’t confident enough. Knowing about this, my friends Arzy and Satrio told me, “You can do it, Puji. It’s your turn,” as it were Paulo Coelho’s quote.
“When you want something, the universe will conspire to help you achieve it.”
There were 15 applications for mentor position, but the composition of the team itself changed suddenly. My friend, Randy Pradipta, who submitted an application as a backend mentor, was also surprised. Frontend mentor was no longer needed, and he knew it was going to be tough because it was hard to teach frontend and backend at the same time, only within a month period. I was surprised too. At first, a PM mentor would teach two materials at once (product management and quality assurance), but finally, a PM mentor would only teach product management. Aaaand, the final composition is; a PM mentor, a QA mentor, and a Web Developer mentor. My other friend, Kevan Dharma, joined later as a QA mentor. So, here we are. Randy, Kevan, and I are ready to take on the challenge in Kupang and Ambon for two months.
Kevan’s Story:
I was a student at Binar Academy, and I took Quality Assurance (QA). My objective took that class in Binar Academy which offer us full scholarship program was to let me know how to work as a team to make the product and to learn about basic of QA. After that, I got a chance to be a mentor for Terangi Bangsa. And our journey begin. What is Terangi Bangsa btw?
So, Terangi Bangsa is our pilot project, our journey to share our knowledge. Our very first Terangi Bangsa project is conducted in Kupang under the collaboration program named The NextDev on the Mission by Binar Academy and fully sponsored by Telkomsel. In this one-city-one-month program, we will share about SDLC (System Development Life Cycle). Usually, a project team have full formation that consists of a product manager, a UI/UX designer, several developers for web and mobile, and also a QA engineer. However, this time it’s very different. We only have a small team. There’s only a product manager, 3 web developers and 2 QA engineers in a team.
The first thing we did after we arrived in Kupang was attending NextDev’s first agenda: the admission test. This test is compulsory to determine who’s gonna join this full scholarship program. From 180 applications, there were only 30 who could make it to as students.
Our students came from various background and each one of them has different, interesting story to tell. However, there’s one of them who really caught my eye. His resilience to deliver his best performance touches my heart. His name is Mr. Amzar Ayub Syarif, an islamic education graduate who is currently teaching in an elementary school here. He wants to make an original tech product from Kupang therefore he is extremely enthusiastic in every session he attends. Although I’m in position to teach him, but I learn a lot from him. Amzar’s wisdom and determination inspire me to be better than ever.
This is our time to turn the light on
As we know, everyone who is in The NextDev on the Mission wants to make something for their hometown and we as a mentor must encourage and stimulate their idea. Unfortunately, not all of the students have laptop and are currently struggling to follow the class. This is our challenge as mentor, especially Randy as web developer mentor, because there are 12 students from a total of 16 students under his care who don’t possess laptop.
Although Telkomsel provides laptops for the participants, they have limited time to use them due to our policy not to allow them to bring the laptop out of the area. This condition has became a real challenge for them. However, their spirit to learn surpasses the challenge itself and immediately boosts our mood to do even better.
We’ve been here for 2 weeks and we fully understand that it would take a long journey to deliver what we’ve learnt at Binar Academy. We hope they could understand the framework and reach their goal to make tech products which would give positive impact the locals.
It’s not only about teaching technology, but this program is also a path to open up their mind too. This program doesn’t exist only to teach the locals about technology. Further, it aims to be an eye-opening opportunity towards a better future for them.
Terangi Bangsa and The NextDev on the Mission project excite us. And do you know what can excite us more? Knowing that this program doesn’t end in Kupang and Ambon. Indonesia have a lot of untapped potentials who need to be encouraged to follow their dream. Therefore, we invite you to join us for the next Terangi Bangsa project. It’s your turn to turn the light up. It’s your turn to terangi bangsa, too.
