1. Your organization educates some 300,000 youth on drug abuse annually. That is almost equivalent to the population of Brunei! How do you mobilize such a movement? What do you teach them on?

It is amazing to think that we are actually training the whole country like Brunei!

When it is seen from that perspective, we feel so accomplished. Unfortunately in Indonesia, there are 120 youth per hour experiment with drugs and with the speed of our HeLP (Healthy Lifestyle Promotion) we can only train 10 youth per hour. We need to do faster and expand more to tackle the problem more broadly.

We need to do more. And with our Ripple program which we launched in 08, we managed to increase the number of youth reached; from 2000-20,000 in the first two years of our inception, we grew to more than 300 thousand annually since. This is due to the success in empowering youth themselves to reach out to their peers. The rate per youth we train as master trainer or as peer educator is 1 to 200-300. It means one youth trained will reach out to 200-300 of their peers on their own, voluntarily, within six month after their received our training of trainer (TOT).

The TOT material is pretty much on the content of drug abuse and HIV/AIDS and public speaking skill. But before that, they must master our basic life skill material for both self discovery and self development. This includes communication and decision making skills in addition to goal setting, team building and leadership.

2. What you are telling us is, given the tools and correct attitude, you can turn around Brunei’s youth mentality (towards drug abuse) in a year. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Your advise on the first step to catalyze such manifesto, please.

Advise for Brunei? Well, no program fits for all and works anywhere when copied. I believe and in local adaptation and contextualization. I’m also big on numbers and survey. We need to know the landscape of the situation before deciding what to do. I suggest a national survey on youth and risky behaviors. Drugs isnt just a stand alone issue. Drugs is usually just the symptom of a larger underlying issue. In some countries, it is poverty and other structural problems (for example, lack of equal opportunity for education and/or employment). May be this wont be the case in Brunei. May be too much of everything can be suffocated too. Lack of challenge when everything is provided. Lack of purpose when everything is furnished before our very eyes. Find the core issues to the problem and work from there.

Then the question is how to scale things up, or how to scale it deeper to bring more meaning and all. That remains that single challenge for every non profit. When we start something, one must start thinking about sustainability. How to scale (to reach more) and how to sustain the good work is the art of non-profit! It’s like playing puzzle, the end game is predicted, how to get there is the fun part of it all.

As for YCAB, one year after its inception, I started one profit center to support its work. I believe in independence, I believe every non-profit institution must have predictable revenue stream to support its work. I came from business world, this is where I know I can make money for YCAB. At least, there is one revenue stream that can guarantee and support the very basic need of the non-profit. I’m thankful that God has given me wisdom at the very early on, by now we could have a pretty healthy portfolio in our revenue streams. A good combination between project based streams coupled with income from our profit centers (we have three companies so far!), corporate sponsors and fundraising effort.  The latter is important as thru fundraising events/initiative we are allowing and giving other people the opportunity to become an angel of change to the world. Like I said, everyone in their own capacity can always change the world of someone!

3. Your strategies seem to focus more on prevention rather than rehabilitation. Can you elaborate more on the preventative measures? Give us a snip bit of your top pitch to sway kids away from drugs?

Our program is always about stay active and be smart. Our study showed that positive activity is one of the powerful protective factors for youth. Engaging youth in an active lifestyle is equal to helping them avoid high risk hours (between fate school and dinner time) where drug experimentation often takes place.

The content of our HeLP program is 20% on medical perspective, the effect of drugs on brain. The rest is more about building youth's life skills. We also provide outlets for youth to express themselves through art, music and sport.   

But having said all that, HeLP is only one of the three major pillars of what YCAB does. HeLP targets in school youth, a more privilege kind. The reality is that every minute there are four kids drop out of school. That's one million per year! At this rate, the number of street children increases every year as well. One of ILO's research found that 92.8% of street kids involved in drug trafficking. In 2003, HoLD (House of Learning and Development), the second pillar of YCAB was born. It is a facility we established to provide hope and opportunity to school drop outs to continue their education, gain vocational skills and eventually jobs. This is where a more holistic youth development takes place.

The last pillar, HOPE (Hands-on Operation on Entrepreneurship) completes the whole process of education and empowerment through HeLP and HoDL. HOPE provides microloans for the low income families whose children studying at our facility (HoLD) who would otherwise hang out in the streets thus increasing their risk of being involved in street crimes including trafficking.

YCAB is about holistic youth development through HeLP, HoLD and HOPE.

4. One would imagine doing what you do could set you highly unpopular amongst the Drug Lords in Indonesia. Is personal security an issue? Does being a woman make it easier or more difficult for personal security?

I am fully aware of the risk and the kind of provocative action that may to some extend upset drug lords. But in eleven years of our work, we only received a couple of threats. Nothing much. It is more like phone terror and bomb threat to our office. All I believe to be bogus rather than real :) more from the drug addicts themselves calling to our toll free helpline. Our counselors are trained to deal with such calls.

One thing I do since is to never publish the face of my children anywhere. I always refuse any publicity or story done about my family; I go solo on to media. My Face Book is closed, only open to people I know firsthand. As per my personal security, I don't think being a woman makes it either harder or easier.    

5. As a parent with teenage children at home, it is almost mission impossible to prohibit them from social activities, which often lead to exposure to drugs. What solution do you prescribe? Confinement?

Well confinement never works in the digital age! Indeed this age is a very tricky one. I feel like being tested for everything that I have done through YCAB. Facing the battle at home is another story! Thankfully my eldest is super rational kid so talking about the consequences or the science of drug abuse and how it ruins one's brain is something he appreciate. And don't tell him, he's easily intimidated by health stuff. So this is good! But as I wrote the five steps in my book about how to drug-proof our kids from drugs, I believe being active in our kids' lives and have an open communication (talking eye to eye and listening to their heart's yearning) are very important. The key is to invest trust and know your child well; know their friends, their friends' parents and everyday habit including the growth and change in their personality and character, especially during the puberty. It's hard to tell between their engaging into risky behavior and having mood swings because of their hormone explosion, knowing them to their core will rule out many things.

6. Winner of Young Global Leader Award by World Economic Forum. Youngest Recipient of the United Nations- Vienna Civil Society Award. Both pinnacle recognitions of the world.  How does one prepare for such award? What do you do to uphold this responsibility?

I guess award and recognition are the byproducts of doing what we believe in passionately. It can never be the goal of doing our work, well, we don't mind getting any! But I think it takes away the purity of our devotion.  

I remember the feeling after receiving the UN Civil Society Award. I feel like a fish in aquarium. All eyes were on me, trying to justifying if I were worth the award. Everyone is surprise because I was completely nobody, unheard of, unknown, yet came home with this UN award.

I always tell people that one doesn't need to be someone to change the world, one humble ordinary person can do extraordinary things. And this is what it takes to make systemic change, is when everyone is inspired to do a little hints for the needy around them. It is such a great power when the people themselves are motivated to live a selfless life. Imagine the people power to make a difference. Imagine the collective effort to bring change!