The invitation was started when my father offered me to join the selection for an event called ELMCC in Rome, Italy. Then I said yes I will join the selection, since that time I just need to wait for my undergraduate thesis approval and the right time to ask it to my Prof and I can finish all. I worked for the essay and its application. Climate Change and stuffs are not something new for me, I have been familiar with it since 2011 and also since we feel the changing of climate in our daily life, I think all of us familiar with it. My father is someone that continously work with it more than me. He is an expert for Muslim and Climate Change from Indonesia, while not everyone aware about this, include me. I am too busy with my campus life, especially with my final year. I worked with climate change differently, in 2011, I have been trained by Al-Gore in Jakarta and joined with Inconvenient Youth (@theclimateprojectid). I only worked with them at the beginning, around 2 years, be a youth trainer once in Bogor, together teaching elementary school at Jakarta, and also published an article about climate change in children rubric of national newspaper. The rest years, I spent on contributing in Bogor, where I got my bachelor degree. I joined with an organizations called IAAS (www.iaasipb.org), together we discuss about climate change, environment, and its problem solving. I also got fund from government for a social environmental project that I used for teaching and training children about environmental and climate change, also farming. I also helped my parents on a project called IWWASH (www.iwwash.net) as volunteer. Almost a year vacuum for this thing, I got another chance to contribute my self on this issues. Lucky me, because all of those stories and experiences, I passed the selection.
The event was held for 4 days, started on 27th June for the arrival and march preparation, 28th June for marching to Vatican City and met the Pope, 29th June until 1st July for the main convergence, which was filled with an interesting speakers, sharing session, discussion, and so on. From all I can get, the aim of this event itself was to converge a multi-faith communities around the world for sharing and having a future plan discussion how to address climate change and stuffs together. There were more than 5 faiths that gather on that event; Islam, Christian, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Judaism, so on. I met with more than 100 awesome leaders there. I discussed with Muslims from different countries, Lotifa from UK, an environmental activist, Sadyia from US, a nature photographer, Fathi from Malaysia, a young talented oil worker who care with the environment, Nana from Indonesia who domiciled at US till now, a super muslim woman that spreading her environmental wings around the world, and not least mba Nefa and kang Ipin, my Indonesian partners who jumped into this multi-faith circle newly same as me, and also another participants that I ever have conversation with. I met with Norman, a Christian and also green church book writer, Sean, a black gay man that really care with equality issue and environment, Fletcher, one of committees that made this event happened only in less than 2 months, Yeb, a Phillipine environment activist and also The People’s Pilgrimage initiator and many other awesome figures. Almost all of them have already familiar with this issue. They were trying to address climate change together with the society around them, church society, catholic school, islamic boarding school, mosque, and other religious communities. Something that very special for me is the fact that all of we work for the same goal, although we come from different countries, culture, and faiths.
I feel blessed being there with them, cause I feel and know exactly that I am not alone in protecting what it should be. People all over the world care about this, even Pope Francais that just now declared about our earth is. We are now doing what we have to be, climate is not anymore a science and economic talks, this is about something that every of us believing since we were born, which is our faith. Our God teach us many things about how important that is. Now, it’s our turn to run it, run the thing that our God asked. Keep moving!
