In recent years, Indonesia has witnessed a spate of violent extremism, including terrorist attacks. A growing phenomenon of intolerance, including radical and violent extremism from a religious perspective, has also been observed, particularly on identity politics. They spread within communities via education institutions, organizations, youth engagements, social media, and direct meetings.

In response, UNDP Indonesia launched the regional project “Preventing Violent Extremism through Promoting Tolerance and Respect for Diversity” which was implemented in four countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, with support from the European Union. It conducted key activities to support the government’s efforts on countering violent extremism, including commissioning research to support evidence-based programming, supporting the issuance of the National Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (NAP on P/CVE), as well as seeking to build and enhance the resilience of communities against violent extremism, through promoting tolerance and respect for diversity at a grassroots level, including for youth.

UNDP Indonesia, in collaboration with INDIKA Foundation, has hosted a series of activities promoting tolerance and respect for diversity targeting youth: Story-telling Festival, Workshop of Tolerant Narrative, The Adventures for Tolerance, Festival of Diversity: Symphony for Tolerance, and Act for Tolerance.

(1)  gender, to ensure the gender balance arrangement fulfilled, which was 50:50 between male and female;

(2)  Place of origin – to ensure that within each group there would be diversity in terms of geographical and cultural background;

(3)  Religious background – to ensure that within each group there would be diversity in terms of religious background;

(4)  Past travel experiences – to ensure that each participant got to see something totally new/different during the camp that he/she had never experienced before, thus enriching his/her knowledge of Indonesian culture diversity and maximizing the impact that targeted want to deliver; and

(5)  Response to a short essay –applicants had to explain why they were interested in joining the Adventure for Tolerance. This would help the project understand their motivations and determine whether the program was the right fit for them.

 

The Adventures for Tolerance tapped into experiential-learning approach, formulated in a way that was relevant to youth, enrich the conventional approaches such as training, workshops, or open discussions, also added a “fun” element by giving the participants a chance to travel to a place to have the first-hand experience of different cultures that never exposed before. The adventure chosen provides more challenging opportunities for youth, suitable for their age group, and helped to developed their self-esteem. It also offered a concrete solution to tackle key drivers of extremism such as lack of social cohesion, absence of exposure towards people from different backgrounds, and the lack of  media coverage of events to promote peace. It also engaged youth as the group believed  to be exposed to extremism.

The Adventure for Tolerance constituted of 3 (three) core activities:

1.    Pre-camp, this event has been conducted between 27-29 September 2019 to develop and enhance participants’ planning capacity and adjustment to the new environment and culture, through various topics such as basic knowledge about journalism, as well as cultural adaptation, conflict resolution, and creating impactful content, to optimize and ensure the completion of the required tasks during The Adventures.

The objectives of Pre-Camp were to enhance participants’ capacity in:

(1)  to create visual content through a well-planned and well-structured report;

(2)  to answer questions about creating a collaborative video;

(3)  to create an action plan;  

(4)  have the interpersonal and teamwork skills required to get them ready for The Adventures for Tolerance; and 

(5)  have the conduct themselves in a manner that promotes peace and tolerance.

Those objectives will be achieved through following topics delivered: (1) Critical Thinking; (2) Cultural Adaptation; (3) Basic Journalistic skills; (4) Conflict Resolution; (5) Creating Impactful Content; (6) Mindfulness for leaders;
(7) Collaborative video; and (8) Project Planning, all of which were delivered by various resource persons from Tempo Institute, Facebook, and Kok Bisa.

Participants were divided into 10 groups and had to prepare a group project, group workplan and content to be created during the adventure. A presentation was also required during the post-camp session.

2.    The Adventure for Tolerance was conducted between 1-5 October 2019, during which participants visited selected cities for fieldwork and were able to get a deeper understanding of the dynamics of conflict resolution. They were also taught the local wisdom in each city. 

The cities selected for the adventure were considered for its unique values: a peaceful, tolerant, and diversity background. The cities were chosen for their historical, cultural, or religious background and stories, such as a history of religious and/or racial riots such as in Ambon, Maluku Province and in Poso, Central Sulawesi Province; and cities that had established peaceful multicultural societies such as in Batu, East Java Province, in Pangandaran, West Java, and in Wonosobo, Central Java.

The project also designed a close and intensive interaction among participants and local communities to enhance their mutual understanding regarding the importance to promote tolerance and respect for diversity in broader aspects, not only with regard to peace but also on social cohesion, social welfare, economy and security.

During the Adventures, participants were expected to complete their journalistic checklists based on their action plan developed during pre-camp. The checklists covered the needs of participants’ group-project and included a collaborative video with KokBisa; the largest educational YouTube channel in Southeast Asia with more than two million subscribers-- to create a series of animation videos based on their insights journal.

To maximize the use of media, participants had to create visual-focused social media content then posted in their personal social media accounts and to write an insight journal. Some participants created comics, some created a photo-journal, and many created videos.

In each city, participants’ activities were assigned by local partners, such as  visits the different religious houses of worship and discussions with the management regarding the efforts undertaken by those communities to establish peaceful societies, meeting local leaders who promote peace and tolerance, meeting former perpetrator of violence who later started promoting peace, discussions with local influencers, including female leaders, to learn the role of women in sending messages regarding peace, tolerance, and diversity, as well as visits to places of  cultural heritage with a history of  contribution to the establishment of peace, tolerance, and respect for diversity. All of those activities were conducted to ensure that the objectives of the field visit as part of the adventure of tolerance: (1) exploring local values and local wisdom on peace, tolerance, and diversity; (2) exploring local effort on establishing and maintaining peaceful context in their area, including its impact; (3) creating content development; and (4) reporting responses to questions on insights gained during the adventures.

The project collaborated with local partners responsible for facilitating planned activities and being part of a sustainability strategy to maintain the continuation of the idea of the project in promoting tolerance, diversity, and peacebuilding. The local partners selected with several considerations, which included previous experience in collaboration, track record on a peacebuilding campaign, promoting tolerance and respect for diversity, having direct access and network to influenced local leaders. The selected local partners were: (1) SMK Bakti Karya Parigi in Pangandaran, West Java Province; (2) Gen Peace Sintuwu Maroso in Poso, Central Sulawesi; (3) Wonosobo Mengajar in Wonosobo, Central Java; (4) Peace Generation Ambon in Ambon, Maluku; and (5) Encompass Indonesia in Batu, East Java.

3.    Post Camp, this event was held between 5-6 October 2019 to wrap up the programme and finalize their group project videos with the results of the activities.

This event was conducted to amplify the content developed by participants, and to encourage them to continue their works on creating peaceful content independently, and express a more peaceful mindset. During this event, a few  resource persons were invited to provide inputs. They included Tempo Institute, Facebook, Kok Bisa, and a representative from the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs.

RESULTS

The result of the series of activities conducted under the Adventures for Tolerance were:

1.    More than 500+ shareable content and 10 items of visual-focused-content on Instagram

2.    Producing some educational videos on peace and tolerance, for publication on KokBisa’s platform.

3.    The alumni of the Workshop of Tolerant Narrative and the Adventures for Tolerance collaborated to conduct an offline campaign in their hometown through a “Call for Proposal” mechanism. These offline campaign activities, called “Act of Tolerance”, were conducted between 24-29 October 2019 via a discussion about tolerance, tolerance-themed art exhibitions, a seminar about Nationality,  and other activities. This series of offline campaigns and partners involved 396 participants in 10 cities throughout Indonesia.

4.    The publication of 10  group-project videos in the form of visual-focused content from their journalistic findings during the exploration of 5 (five) cities: Ambon, Batu, Pangandaran, Poso and Wonosobo. The group-project videos can be accessed  here.

5.    The alumni of the Adventure of Tolerance in collaboration with the alumni of the Workshop of Tolerant Narrative and Symphony of Tolerance contributed to a collection of Human-Interest Stories in a book entitled “Mencari Cinta dan Toleransi Hingga Ujung Negeri” or Seeking Love and Tolerance to the Edge of the Country about their experiences, thoughts, perspectives, skills, and interests in various forms.

6.    Participants experienced an enhanced understanding of peace and diversity, understood the significant role of women in peacebuilding, the importance of local wisdom and history in building peace narratives based on local wisdom, and enhancement in behavioural level through continuously crafting peace narratives on social media.

7.    Two alumni of the Adventures for Tolerance from Aceh organized a program where they  took Aceh Youth to visit a remote area in North Sumatra to experience a society focused on tolerance. They were required to upload their experience on social media.

8.    The Project also produced videos in collaboration with KokBisa, listed as below:

·       The first video “Why human can be at the top of the food chain?” can be accessed here: bit.ly/KOKBISAAoT3 This video received more than 11,000 likes and has been viewed  by more than 275,000 users.

·       The second video “Why issues related to SARA (Ethnicities, Religion, Race, and Inter-Groups) make people fight on each other?” can be accessed here: bit.ly/KOKBISAAoT2. This video got more than 7,300 likes and more than 154,000 views.

·       The third video “What would it be when there is only one race in Indonesia?” can be accessed through the following link: bit.ly/KOKBISAAoT5. This video got more than 9,200 likes and more than 163,000 views.

·       The fourth video “Why does Indonesia only have 6 (six) official religions?” can be accessed here: bit.ly/KOKBISAAoT1. This video got more than 18,000 likes and more than 447,000 views.

·       The fifth video “Why do we Fight for the Defending of an Idol?” This video can be accessed  through this link: bit.ly/KOKBISAAoT4. This video got more than 8,700 likes and more than 147,000 views.

9.    Alumni of the Adventure for Tolerance also produced some visual-based content and uploaded in Instagram as below:

·      “Female Fish Seller in Poso Who Remove Hostilities.” This video has been viewed over 4,570 times and can be accessed here:  bit.ly/AoTonIG1. This video was produced by participants deployed in Poso, Central Sulawesi

·      “What is the Key of Tolerance in Ambon? Sing!” This video shared on Instagram and had more than 1,500 views which can be accessed through the following link bit.ly/AoTonIG2. This video was produced by participants in Ambon, Maluku Province.

·      “Feeling Interfaith Peace in the Ngandas Village.” This video was produced by participants who has been placed in Batu, Malang, East Java. This video has been seen by more than 2,100 viewers and can be accessed via: bit.ly/AoTonIG3.

10.   The project also measured the impact of the activity of the Adventures for Tolerance for each participant. All participants noted they gained more  knowledge on peace and diversity; 74% of the participants noted that they gained an understanding of how to create and sustain a project, and 70% of the participants noted that they would be able to implement their project in their home town.

11.  Participants of the Adventure for Tolerance noted that they had a life-changing trip that enabled them to understand that peace could be achieved by local activists and society through various  activities, include creative ways of creating art, telling stories, and real-life interaction, such as utilizing stories and literature to teach people about the importance of living in peace together or how conflict can ruin lives. Also meeting former extremists was noted as one of the best experiences which left a deep impression.

• “The new things that I learned today are how to communicate tolerance not only through movement, but through art, education, environment, and community. Opa Rudy is one of the inspiring figures of tolerance; he promotes tolerance through literature. After learning new things, I feel at peace in my soul, more respectful of others, and faithful to God.”

• “Ronald Regang and Iskandar Slamet are former combatants. Both of them said they couldn't remember how bad they were during the conflict era. Now, after the dark period in their adolescence, both of them have changed to be “Provocateur of peace” and have become good friends. Both are working on campaigns to promote the importance of peace and don’t want the trauma of the past to be repeated. Ronald Regang and Iskandar Slamet for me are the inspiration for young Indonesians. Inspiration for being friends despite difference. Both of them did experience a dark story, but now they have found peace."

12.      Although we focused on content creation and empowering youth, we discovered three unintended outcomes: (1) The participants understood the importance of  the role of women in creating peace; (2) The participants understood that local wisdom (culture, tradition) can be used to develop values of peace in the community’s day to day lives; and (3) The participants learned to implement self-control while dealing with disagreements.

• “I got this lesson from Lian’s story. She founded the Mosintuwu Institute which spreads the peace value by offering a space for interfaith dialogue, especially Islam and Christianity. It’s also a place for women’s empowerment. I learned that a person's dedication is not seen by their gender or identity, but can be seen from their sincerity to resolve issues and problems in their area.” 

 

• “The phenomenon of acculturation can be seen from ‘Hajat Laut’ tradition in Pangandaran, which is a form of fisherman’s gratitude for the seafood they catch. In fact, many Sundanese people are farmers because Pangandaran has a very wide agricultural land. The majority of the Bugis are fishermen. So in the ‘Hajat Laut’ ceremony procession, each ethnic group contributed in different roles. Sundanese and Javanese peopled provided their agricultural products while the Bugis provided seafood. The development of ‘Hajat Laut’ also involved elements of the Islamic faith via prayers and dzikir after the ‘Larung’ procession-  immersing produce and seafood in the sea.” 

• “The peace education that I got has helped me make peace with myself. When discussing in a group and having different opinions, I need to be calm, more peaceful, and not be stubborn. I learned to accept other people's opinions and be open to others' thoughts.”

MEDIA COVERAGE

 

The Adventure for Tolerance also had some media coverage:

 

• NET TV- Official NET News dated 1 October 2019 “Indika Foundation Gelar Jelajah Toleransi” (Indika Foundation conducted The Adventures for Tolerance), the video can be seen through the following link (bit.ly/NETTVAoT).

• Kompas.id covered a story about Jelajah Toleransi on 2 October 2019 entitled “50 Anak Muda Jelajahi Toleransi di Indonesia”, (50 Youth participate for the Adventure for Tolerance in Indonesia). the article can be accessed by (https://bit.ly/KompasIDAoT).