Indika Foundation

There is one similarity between my students who grew up in post-conflict areas and the Cathedral suicide bomber: they despise people who are different.

Indonesia is not okay. Tyranny majority is on the rise, numbers of intolerance acts are increasing, hate speech is everywhere, and critical thinking skills are low. I fear that this country will reach a point of no return.

I have tried-tested-improved my work over my 9-year journey as peace educator and activist. I will use the funding to scale up my work.

Firstly, I will run a massive anonymous survey to uncover unspoken concerns and suppressed opinions about (in)tolerance.

I learned that the must-have skill in building a tolerant society is critical thinking skills.

Using the survey results as a basis, I plan to teach critical thinking at large-scale. I will create animated video series, to teach critical thinking, debunk misconceptions in Islam, and teach empathy through kids friendship stories. The videos will be aired on social media and national TV, and included as learning tools in the national curriculum. 

Also, I will teach critical thinking intensively to thousands of high-multiplier individuals e.g. religious leaders and teachers, and teach them digital content creating skills. 

Fueled by anger and frustration towards the intolerance situation in Indonesia, I’ve started and led peace-education movements.

Nine years ago, I started an intra-nation student exchange program. Few years ago, I declined an offer from Google because I wanted to build Indika Foundation (IF) full time. Last year, I was appointed by the President of Indonesia to be one of his Special Staffs. 

My vision is to create a more peaceful Indonesia where people celebrate and protect diversity. To reach this vision, through IF, I aim to empower the peace-education ecosystem. 

Through both our in-house and collaborators’ program, IF created various educational social media contents and animated videos that have reached millions of youths, and various training programs for youths with innovative approaches.

This year, IF’s programs aim to reach 100 million people through digital contents, train 10,000 youths in critical thinking (and improve the skills in at least 80% of them), and empower 100 organizations through funding and mentoring.

In my other role as the Special Staff to the President of Indonesia, I give advice and suggestions related to tolerance. My goal in this role is to drive real change through better policies. 

Indonesia as the biggest Muslim population in the world with over 200 million Muslim is prone to radicalism. 

Indonesia is in a deep crisis of intolerance. Recently there were slaughter of villagers by jihadists and suicide bombing in the Cathedral. The perpetrators are young people who are misled by hateful religious narratives.

Most Indonesian youths learn about religions from the internet (more than from books, TV, or teachers). Unfortunately, the most popular religious websites or YouTube channels are the ones that promote intolerance.

The situation is worsened by the fact that Indonesian youths have low critical thinking ability, making them unable to filter information. 

To address this problem, Indika Foundation (IF) has various programs that are proven to be highly effective in teaching critical thinking. 

We create animated videos, such as “Why Indonesia only Recognizes 6 Religions” (http://bit.ly/videoIF1), “Jews and Christians are the Enemy of Islam. Is it really?” (http://bit.ly/videoIF2), and “Breaking Fast Alone” (http://bit.ly/videoIF3).

We train thousands of youths. Pre-COVID, we run “Adventure of Tolerance.” We invited 50 youths to visit post-conflict areas.

We empower hundreds of organizations and content creators to teach critical thinking through funding and mentoring.

Peace narratives are often delivered in boring ways: seminars, one-way training, or long readings. Indika Foundation (IF) is determined to not fall into this trap.

We have been using pop culture to teach tolerance. We venture out from the traditional way of teaching Islam (i.e. religious gatherings in mosques), to utilizing popular online platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and podcast. We even use TikTok to teach tolerance in a bit-sized way.

Our pre-COVID offline activities have been highly popular among youths, and have garnered tens of thousands of applicants.

We have “Adventure of Tolerance” (we bring youths to post-conflict areas to learn about the recent history from the locals), “Narrative of Tolerance” (immersive digital content creation training program), and “Symphony of Tolerance” (collaborating with choirs and dance clubs in universities to perform in musical acts that show Indonesia’s diversity).

We also have “Diversity Tour” (visit various houses of worship) and “Ask Me Anything” (a human-library where youths can ask any questions to young religious leaders).

In all activities, we ensure that participants are able to learn and exercise critical thinking skills. We do meticulous monitoring and evaluation to ensure we invest only in the most effective programs.

Peace is the only way for the survival of humanity (Dalai Lama). Unless we live in peace, humanity will never have enough chance to advance itself.  

Indika Foundation has proven impacts. As a learning-oriented organization, we diligently use past learnings to continuously improve our approaches to create even bigger impacts.

Our monitoring and evaluation results showed that 73% of the training participants had improved critical thinking skills. 100% of “Adventures of Tolerance” participants experienced increasing knowledge on peace and diversity after learning from communities in post-conflict areas. One viewer said that after she watched our animated videos, she learned a new way to look at Islamic values through critical thinking lens, and that she will use the videos as the basis for discussions with her father.

We also carefully plan our programs. We do meta-analysis to understand the issue. We speak to experts. We run surveys and FGDs with youths to understand their concerns and preferences. We meticulously plan our monitoring and evaluation process. We create the curriculum. We publish content in various popular platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Podcast. And we do monthly, quarterly, and annual “backward looking” and “forward looking” analysis, to continuously learn and improve.