AFTER a few months of an exciting internship journey at the UCLG ASPAC Secretariat, four of our interns finally packed their suitcases, leaving Jakarta with full of memories and learning experiences.
Leila Cabiac from France and Brendan Webster from Australia spent their last week at the Secretariat, still with full of energy and enthusiasm – as if they just started their internships.
Leila, a student in Political Science and International Relations of Sciences Po Lille, France, had been involved in the gender equality issue, where she looked into some best practices on Women in Local Governments. She also contributed to the ASEAN Mayors Forum Proceeding publication, which she said has challenged her creativity as she had to make an extensive report of a big event that she did not attend. But she felt lucky enough to be able to fly to Solo, Indonesia, to help the city’s preparation in its application to the Culture 21 Award of UCLG. Her trip to Solo has opened her eyes about the city’s uniqueness, where cultural heritage is part of the locals’ daily life, not just for tourism purposes.
“I learned that in Solo they have a Wayang (traditional puppet) Opera, where they hold performances every day. And when I came there, the place was really full, so Solonese people really like the Opera – and it’s not just for tourists. They really care about it,” Leila said. “They have 6-7 carnivals every year… they have so many cultural events happening regularly,” she added.
Brendan, a student in Asia-Pacific Studies/Diplomacy of the Australian National University, Australia, put his focus on the issue of public spaces, when he had the chance to visit Surabaya and look into the potential place for ‘Block by Block’ project to be organized by UCLG ASPAC, UN-Habitat and the Surabaya City Government.
“The project is about how the community come together to design on a computer game what they want to build in the public space,” he said. This project will bring him again back to Indonesia next month for visiting Surabaya, the pilot city for this project and the host of the PrepCom3 of Habitat III Conference.
He also contributed to UCLG ASPAC’s participation in the Velo-city Conference, to be held in Taipei on 27 February – 1 March 2016.
“Essentially, the Velo-city is about a bicycle-friendly approach, a ‘riding a bicycle’ awareness,” he explained about the conference that brings together those involved in policy, promotion and the provision of cycling facilities and programmes.
Early this month, UCLG ASPAC also waved goodbye to Heather Mofflin and Roma Xiong from the University of Melbourne and the University of Tasmania, Australia, respectively. Together with Brendan and Leila, they went to the Thousand Islands, a chain of islands to the north of Jakarta’s coast. The Tidung and Pramuka Islands were their destinations for this field trip. Heather studied about waste management and looked into the islands’ potential in eco-tourism development there. Roma, majoring in Tourism Management particularly tried to see eco-tourism best practices in Jeju, Republic of Korea, and how they could be adopted by the Thousand Islands.
“Coincidentally, Jeju Island has recently been a leading advocate of Eco-tourism on their island. Jeju-Island had set up an organisation (CIFAL Jeju) in dedication to this commitment for the benefit of their objective to service more eco-friendly as well as providing a knowledge centre for other countries, local governments and bodies to share and adopt these best practices and knowledge towards a more sustainable developing future,” said Roma. “From this I was to extract, innovate ways in which the Thousand Islands, Jakarta, could apply or learn from Jeju Island’s activities.”
Leila shared her deep impression after visiting the Thousand Islands.
“Often when you study international relations at university, you have the image of developing countries as poor and helpless, but when I came here, I just realized how much they don’t need us. They just have so many ideas and there are already many things that are happening at the local level,” she said.
We want to take this opportunity to thank our interns for their valuable contributions – both in the form of ideas and actions – to the work of UCLG ASPAC. We wish them a successful journey in the pursuit of their dreams, and we hope to see their active participation in the development of our communities!
