Against all odds, these youth in Indonesia fought to bring clean water to their community. This is how they did it.

Ferina Futboi, 26, walks with members of the ChildFund youth circle in her community.

Growing up in a rural community on Timor Island, Indonesia, what Ferina Futboi remembers the most is the drought.

It was inescapable, affecting every aspect of life. It caused shallow wells and water reservoirs to dry up for much of the year, resulting in a scarcity of water for drinking and bathing. Children had to walk half an hour away, through a dense rainforest, to collect water from a small spring. They would often get injured in the process.

“This drought problem had a very big impact on our youth, one of which was that we were often late to school, since we had to fetch water from the spring before school started,” Ferina remembers. “Well, the result of being late to school was that we were often beaten by staff.

“We didn’t have time to study. We had little time for play. Some children had no playtime at all.”

Still, she never thought there was much of anything she – or anyone else, for that matter – could do about it.

“I used to think that I was just a child and didn't have to play a role in our community’s development, in changes in society,” Ferina, now 26, says, a smile catching the corner of her mouth. She remembers the day she was proven wrong.

Youth in Indonesia find their voices

When Ferina became a sponsored child at the age of 10, she started to receive the extra support that most sponsored children do: help with school fees, supplies, uniforms. But what she remembers most was joining the ChildFund youth circle in her community at age 15.

Around the world, ChildFund’s youth circles provide a platform for young people to come together, share their thoughts on local issues and build their confidence. As a teenager and young adult, the youth circle in Ferina’s community helped her find her voice.

“I got involved in youth groups like the youth circle that I [eventually] facilitated and that brought a huge change to my life,” Ferina remembers. “The lesson I learned when joining in and participating in these activities was, first and foremost, self-confidence. I used to be very shy. I did not like to hang out in groups, but because I was consistently participating in this activity, I finally became confident, enough to where I became a facilitator.”

By the age of 19, Farina was regularly leading and moderating discussions with about 20 other teens and young adults from her community, covering a range of issues from civic engagement and leadership to child protection and reproductive health. But there was one issue that weighed heavily on their minds: the recurrent drought.

The youth wanted to bring light to the tremendous challenges children were facing and improve access to water in the community. But they had to come up with unique ways of making their grievances known. Adults – especially respected government officials – were loath to listen to the voices of children.

“In my village, priority is usually given to the opinions of adults over young people or children,” Ferina says. “It is a challenge when we want to create something positive, but it cannot be accepted by our society, which usually adheres to traditions that have been passed down for generations.”

Youth in Indonesia fight for clean water

The youth started by urging their parents to bring up the issue of water access to the local government. It took some time, but eventually, the parents obliged, and the issue was adopted by village leadership. With the ice broken, in subsequent village council meetings, the youth themselves spoke to discuss their ordeal and lobby for change.
Later that year, they were invited to the village chief’s office, where they presented a prototype diorama of the village and proposed an idea for a borehole – one that would drill down deep to the water table and pump up enough water to be piped to houses all through the five hamlets of their sprawling village.

The proposal was accepted. The plan was implemented, and today, all 40 families in the village – or about 200 people – have piped water to their home compounds, eliminating the need for children and youth to make the perilous journey to the spring.

A girl enjoys fresh, clean water from one of the taps the ChildFund youth circle advocated to install.

Ferina’s journey, however, was far from over. She knew she wanted to continue to help improve her community even after she aged out of ChildFund’s programs and sponsorship. Today, she works as a project officer for ChildFund’s local partner organization Yayasan Cita Masyarakat Madani (“Civil Society Hope”), identifying and collecting data on children who do not attend school and continuing to facilitate the youth circle she first participated in at age 15. She’s in the business of inspiring other young people in her community to make a change.

“I am even more daring to take a role in positive changes in my village,” she says. “In the past, I considered my duty only as a child and followed all the policies and provisions prescribed by the government, the village and the community. But at the youth circle, I realized I needed to take part in that change by getting involved as well.”

We’re so glad she did.