Brighter future for young people of SOS Children’s Villages, Indonesia

AkzoNobel Indonesia and SOS Children’s Villages Indonesia have been partners since the beginning of the global partnership in 2017. Building on this great collaboration, this year kicked off with the renovation of the SOS Kindergarten in Jakarta, followed by an extended youth entrepreneurship program in two cities in the Aceh Province.

Support in challenging circumstances

The pandemic is a challenge for all communities in Indonesia, and even more so for children in foster care. To provide a comfortable living environment for children, Let’s Colour carried out repainting projects in January in five foster homes, including an SOS Children’s Village Kindergarten in the Jakarta metropolitan area, known locally as the Jabodetabek area.

The foster homes have been enhanced with inspiring new colors and murals, creating an uplifting environment where children can thrive. For this initiative, Dulux EasyClean Anti-Viral was used, ensuring healthier and sustainable living conditions.

Courage to Rise and Shine

From February until July AkzoNobel Indonesia conducted the youth entrepreneurship program. For the first time, the program took place simultaneously in two cities in Aceh Province, Indonesia – Banda Aceh and Meulaboh.

Aceh was chosen due to the severe impact of the tsunami and COVID-19 pandemic on the youth unemployment rate in the area. With this year’s theme ‘Courage to Rise and Shine’, the youth program aimed to ignite confidence in youth so they can move forward and welcome a brighter future. It supplied soft skills such as decision-making, communication, and negotiation, and technical skills like branding, preparing financial projections, and managing a business network. The training was held by experts from AkzoNobel and SOS Children’s Villages Indonesia to enable young people in Aceh to flourish and become independent adults.

In addition to employability and entrepreneurship training, the program also focuses on character and capabilities development. The young people in Banda Aceh underwent training in making furniture from wood and iron, while the youth in Meulaboh had a chance to learn about the construction of tubular structures for plant nurseries. The trainees were involved in every step of the process, and 48 young people aged 13-24 benefitted from the sessions.

At the closing ceremony of the partnership program in Aceh, around 20 young people and 8 mentors of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh participated in another Let’s Colour project. After having received trainings on colors and basic painting techniques, they used their knowledge to paint the walls of the SOS youth house and make their living spaces more fun, livable, and enjoyable.

Empowering young people

As a result of this year’s youth entrepreneurship program, about 68 young people were educated, of which 6 already secured a job and 2 opened their own businesses.

Gregor Hadi Nitihardjo, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages said: “I really appreciate this program because both SOS Children’s Villages and AkzoNobel Indonesia see the need to provide our young people with knowledge, skills, and attitude. With the various activities and training provided in this program, I hope that young people in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh can build a good future for themselves by acquiring useful entrepreneurial skills and they could also contribute to reducing youth unemployment rates in Aceh. Nothing is more fulfilling in our life than to see our children growing up happily chasing their dreams.”

So far the partnership in Indonesia has inspired and empowered over 1,000 young people by helping them develop their professional and individual skills and giving them tools to get well-paid jobs and change their lives for the better.

Find out more about Dulux Indonesia.