Indonesian "YES" Students to Depart for USA

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - As many as 103 Indonesian students under the YES (Youth Exchange and Study) program sent away by the US Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy’s premises here Friday. US Deputy Chief of Mission, Ted Osius, warmly welcomed the young delegates and reminded them that they were among the few lucky Indonesians chosen for the program and shall be Indonesian ambassadors to America.

As ambassadors, the Indonesian delegates are expected to introduce the Indonesian culture and modern Islam in Indonesia to the American people, especially to their host families.

"Many Americans don’t know much about Indonesians, and that is their main job to introduce how Indonesians live and they also need to introduce Americans to Indonesians after they return," Ted Osius said.

Besides introducing Indonesian culture, they also need to counter American tendency that identify Islam with terrorism since the 911 incident in 2001, which has caused misunderstanding about Islam as a faith, said the Indonesian foundation for intercultural learning (Bina Antarbudaya) National Director Ridwan Derida.

"The delegates will explain about Muslims’ image to their host families so that more Americans will understand Islam and change their wrong perception, especially that they are staying in the US for about 11 months," he said.

He said that in order to create a world peace, there should be no hate among the peoples, and to achieve that, young people who are still innocent, are needed to build a strong inter-nationality friendship.

Both nationalities’ values are to be introduced in the 11 months program that is supported by a joint partnership of the AFS Intercultural Programs and the US government and Indonesian Bina Antarbudaya. The students are selected from many Indonesian provinces who had applied for the program then filtered by an open competition selection.

According to a delegate that will be placed in Littlerock, Arkansas, Annafi Avicena Fikri, he is exited about the program and will fight his home sick during his stay there. He also said that he will do his best to introduce the Indonesian culture to his host family and had brought along an Ambonese traditional costume to be presented.

Source : kompas

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