Let's Meet Up Face to Face to Avoid Discrimination!

Why is Tolerance, Empathy, and Meeting Spaces are Absolutely Necessary to Achieve Inclusive Job Opportunities? 



Tolerance cannot just be taught, it has to be experienced and felt. This saying has become my creed throughout the years.



Seven years ago several friends and I established SabangMerauke, a live-in program inviting junior high school students from various regions in Indonesia to live together with families of different religion and/or ethnicity. The objective is to provide positive interactions that can break down the wall of stereotype.

The impact of this program is very uplifting! Comments we gathered post-program show a mind-set change: “Oh, it turns out that people with X religion are not as mean as I thought”, “Oh, not all of the people with Y religion are terrorists”, and “Oh, actually there are a lot of nice people from outside of Z island”.



When my friends and I started the “Milenial Islami” program last year, we also proved once again the important role of meeting space. On a short Islamic crash course for children (pesantren kilat) managed by us, we gathered information on the prejudices these kids had.

The result was more daunting than what we expected. They written in full honesty their prejudices, such as “People from A religion will destroy my religion through their songs”, “People with B religion are weird for praying to a statue”, “Prayer site for C religion is creepy and its people are mean”, and “People with D religion are anti-social”.



The following day, we took them to visit various prayer houses. There, we let them ask any questions to religious figures they could find. Afterwards, we invited friends of their age who are non-Moslem to break the fast together. Here, interesting things started to happen. 



The day before, these children were so full of prejudice and scared to interact with their non-Moslem friends. But after a real interaction, which did not go on for very long – only a few hours – they could be really close with their non-Moslem friends. They asked questions unique to children, like “On religious holidays, what food do you like best?”, or “Have you ever get sleepy when you are praying?”



Experiences interacting with different people will leave a positive mark and will protect them from hoaxes. If one day they hear bad information on people with different religion or race, they can proudly say, “I don’t believe in this news, because I have interacted with them, and they were kind to me.”



Interaction opens inclusive opportunities


Inclusiveness and tolerance are not merely about religion and ethnicities. I will also tell you stories about gender, smoking, and disabilities.



I will tell you the importance of interaction to help build empathy to people with disabilities. One of my first interactions with a wheel chair was when Suharno, my college friend, had a motorcycle accident and injured his spine. After the accident, he was paralyzed from the waist down and had to sit in a wheelchair. I learned a lot from this incident, as I often took Suharno to campus. 



The process of moving Suharno from wheel chair to car, and vice versa, was never easy. And the campus was not wheel chair accessible at first. Suharno was not even the first wheel chaired student there. As it turned out, students using wheel chair had to be carried (along with their wheel chair) up and down the stairs to the second floor. Thus, to get around it, emergency ramps were built. Despite helping with mobility, the terrain was still too difficult to be navigated by Suharno alone.



My second interaction with the world of disabilities occurred when I was working. At the time, I was working as a staff for Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama at the DKI Jakarta City Hall. One of the intern staff there, Surya Sahetapy, who is deaf. At first, we did not know what kind of facilities we should provide so that Surya could perform his activities. Fortunately, after further discussion, a sign language translator was assigned in the City Hall to accompany Surya.


These real interactions opened my eyes and left a mark in my heart. That is why, even though I do not work full time in disability advocacy, I always try to fight for access for people with disabilities in my activities. In short, interaction with people with disabilities has made me the ambassador of disability.



For example, the name cards of my team and I are equipped with braille letters; all of my videos are included with subtitles to make it easier for the deaf; I provided a special session for women with disabilities in the midst of my monthly Improv Comedy Workshop; I introduced the MRT Jakarta’s construction team with disability communities so that MRT can be disability friendly; this year SabangMerauke will accept 2-3 physically disabled participants to the program; and this year Indika Foundation is planning to recruit one person with disability, and opening a booth in job fairs especially for people with disabilities.



Establishing disability ambassadors in the professional world, in my opinion, is one way to achieve more inclusive work opportunities. These professionals will be the ones recruiting people to work in their organisation. If there is at least one person with a disability perspective in every office, and they can drive changes toward inclusive work opportunities, this will accelerate change.


Three things I can suggest to achieve inclusive job opportunities are:

1.    Provide experience. Find ways to provide real inclusive interaction in our organisations.

• Recruit people with disabilities. Could be an intern, or full time. If you are worried our organisation is not ready, and you know what, we will never be ready. We have to try, while at the same time conduct improvements.
• Ask your teammate to volunteer in disability organisations.

2.    Provide affirmation. Find ways to provide ‘footing’ for groups in need.

• Help them get jobs. When I was in Australia, I visited an organisation called Fitted for Work (FFW). FFW aims to help women get jobs. How? By doing many things, starting from finding a mentor who can revise CV and train them to do interviews, to lending appropriate clothing and bag to be worn on interviews.

3.    Provide support in their daily lives.

• One of the things I am grateful about in my current workplace, Indika Foundation, is having a boss who is willing to protect my rights not to be exposed to smoke. Since the beginning, I mentioned I have an allergy, and do not want to be exposed to smoke. Meanwhile, my boss always smokes in his office. So, we came to an agreement, which is kept until today by my boss, namely every time he needs to chat with me, we will find another room that has never been used for smoking. When I listen to my friends’ stories about working in smokers’ environment, I am always reminded about how lucky I am to work in a place that protects my needs.
• At Indika, there is also a nursery room, complete with comfortable sofa and refrigerator to store breast milk.

My creed, once again, is that tolerance cannot just be taught, but needs to be experienced and felt. To achieve a more inclusive job/work opportunities, decision-makers must have experienced and felt interacting with vulnerable groups. Because often, the negligence to help is only caused by ignorance, not willingness.



 

Ayu Kartika Dewi is the idea trigger for sub-theme 3 of IDF 2019: Creating Inclusive Work Opportunities



Have ideas to create inclusive working opportunities? Please write your response in the comment section or send us your ideas using blog/article, vlog, or infographic format through IDF Proposal Submission 2019. The ideas will be published on IDF’s website, and some will be selected to be presented at the Idea and Innovation Market.