Projects
Throughout my twenty years, I've taken part in some awesome initiatives. Some personal, some group projects. I've had the opportunity of working with incredible people during my time on this planet, spanning from the jungles of Bali to the deserts of Dubai.
Below is a brief collection of these experiences.
-interviewing Kiran Ghandi at a school assembly
Orang Bali and Voices of Silence
My current focus
I created Orang Bali as a Capstone project (Green Stone) at Green School Bali, with the intention of documenting and sharing meaningful interactions with a spotlight on people around Bali. With these stories, I'm looking to share an insight into the lives of the true people of Bali and spread positive impact while doing so. By sharing these connections, I’m able to help people in need, by collecting donations, and keep sharing significant interactions through my passions of connection and photography.
With inspiration from Humans of New York, I created an ongoing blog of people I've met and interacted with over the past year. A large amount of these interactions are a part of a collection I created with my classmates, Tirta and Eden. We called this collection "Voices of Silence", and hosted a gallery event at the Green School HOS showcasing the black and white portraits we took over the course of six months. Behind each photo is a person with an inspiring story to tell about their experience with social issues around Bali and how these stigmatized topics are often hidden away, to protect the image of the holiday destination Bali has become. We researched and found the marginalized communities in Bali, asking stories of their lives and gaining an understanding of what it is like to be in their positions. At the time of writing, we've raised 70,000,000 IDR (4,700 USD), going towards the people we've met.
Event photos are attached below
Check out my website for all interactions
Green Stone
Finally, at the end of the year, over the course of two days, the graduating class presents all their Capstone projects, TED talk style, and have the opportunity to spread their messages with the wider community. These days are beautiful, the entire community comes together to watch the brilliant ideas and projects the young students have to share. The Class of 2023 specifically had some incredible projects, ranging from designing a biophilic nest for endangered birds to creating the worlds first mycelium grown surfboard and many more.
I was amongst this amazing class and was able to work alongside them to collectively get to a point where we were able to present our years work. Working with these incredible humans has been an experience I'll never forget. My teachers and my classmates have all shaped me into the person I've become and each and every one of them is truly amazing.
Have a look at my talk below
Mini Quest
Mini Quest is an 8th Grade group project initiative at Green School. Students are allowed to choose their groups and decide on something we want to do to spread a positive impact. It is a stepping stone to the Quest project we completed later that year.
I was given this incredible opportunity at the age of 13 to work with 3 of my friends and help people around Bali.
In November 2017, there was an earthquake in the northeast of Bali, with a magnitude of 4.9. Thankfully there were no casualties but it did result in a few buildings collapsing. The northeast of Bali is generally a place quite badly affected by poverty due to factors such as lack of rain, tourism, etc. When all the earthquakes struck, many people's homes were affected.
My friends and I decided we wanted to help the people whose homes had been damaged and in doing so, make it easier for them to recover. With the help of a Green School Alumni and a teacher, we were able to connect with a family whose roof had collapsed and were unfortunately unable to pay for the materials to fix it. As a temporary fix, they had put a tarp over the still-existing roof structure but couldn't sleep inside due to leaks and it being unsafe.
Together, we hosted a bake-sale fundraiser to gather the money needed to fix the roof. It was a fun experience and after a day of selling home baked goods and some generous donations, we raised 14,000,000 IDR (950 USD) to go towards fully repairing the damaged roof. Thankfully, Pak Nyoman (the father of the family and man in the first slideshow photo above), is a skilled carpenter and was able to fix the roof himself, once he could buy the materials.
Along the way, we learned about Ibu Terna, an elderly lady living alone in the affected area. The Alumni working with us on the project explained her personal connection with the lady and how she had met her. She explained that the lady's family had abandoned her and moved to a more urban part of Bali. She now lived in a small house that was also in rough condition. To support herself, she collects trash all day and sold it, making roughly 10,000 IDR a day (0.67 USD). Over the years, the unsellable trash had accumulated and now covered her house, from the outside to the two rooms inside.
We wanted to help her in any way we could so, after meeting with Ibu Terna and getting to know each other, we gathered some student volunteers and returned. We started by clearing out the old trash around the house that we would take back to school to our recycling center. We then were able to paint the walls, replace the mattresses and pillows and carry out other small fixes around the house. I really enjoyed the whole process and being able to help Ibu Terna has been a really happy moment in my life. (video below shows the process)
In the end, with some donation money left over, we donated the remainder to Pak Nyoman's family to help his mother that had been sick for 3.5 years. They were finally able to bring her to a doctor and get the medication needed for her to regain her health.
mini quest - adopt a family.mp4Quest
Similar to Mini Quest, Quest is an 8th Grade project initiative at Green School. Students embark on the 6-month journey on their own, picking something we are passionate about and deciding what we want to do to spread a positive impact.
Following Mini Quest, we were placed into this scenario of complete freedom to embark on any project we felt passionate about. Personally, I've had a passion for football since I was very young, saying my first word "Ball" at the age of 1. I planned on organizing a football tournament at Green School, with an entrance fee per team, and using the funds to build and grow a football field. So I made posters and hung them around school, expecting that people would read them and sign up, but a week before, I realized I had underestimated how much work had to go into putting this event together. I'd talked to some teachers about booking the field and had made a game schedule but without teams to play, it wouldn't work. I realized I had wasted my time beforehand playing video games, neglecting my project.
So I decided to turn my project around, researching about the effects of technology on humans and how it can negatively impact our brains. I held a workshop, educating people about my research and then, still wanting to incorporate football, we went and played a game. I also put together a talk at an annual Green School event, Sustainable Solutions, where students, teachers and parents come together in a series of presentations about world issues and what we can do to solve them.
Finally, as a way of having measurable impact, I held three trash walks, in both Bali and Dubai, collecting a total of 100kg of trash that we then cleaned and deposited in recycling centers
Voices
"A collection of performance pieces amplifying voices of strength and survival related to gender-based violence"
Every year, Green School students and teachers put together an evening of spoken word performances, sharing stories of gender-based violence and gender-related issues. It takes place every year on the week of Valentine's Day, or V-Day. We performed on the 17th of February 2023. We'd started selecting the spoken word pieces a few months before and started practicing them as early as possible. I chose Rifle by Rudy Francisco.
We had a lot of run throughs and spent a lot of time after school and on weekends practicing all aspects of the performance, from the musical pieces to the individual poems and the exact ways they should be delivered. Before this, the only performances or speeches I'd given had been with the help of cue cards but taking part in this incredible initiative really helped me develop my memorisation skills and my public speaking skills. At the end of the evening, through selling tickets, we raised over 20,000,000 IDR (1,320 USD).
Check out the full Voices performance below (39:20)
Voices 2023