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GEAR

SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM 2017

‘Interdisciplinary Understanding and Action for Health and Wellbeing at the Peripheries’

Grow in Experience Action and Reflection

VOLUME 7 YEAR 2017

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CONTENTS

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06 LEARN FROM THEM WHO ARE SMALL, WEAK, AND LEFT BEHIND

08 TAHANANG WALANG HAGDANAN (TWH)

10 FINDING THE TRUE DREAM THROUGH SERVICE

14 SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM(SLP)BY ELLA

18 BARANGGAY SAN ANDRES

20 EXTRADIORNARY MOMENT

24 SOME WORDS FOR MY FRIENDS

28 PAYATAS

30 SLP AS SELF LEARNING PROGRAM

34 INSTILLED LEARNINGS, FRIENDSHIP, AND MEMORIES

38 POST-SLP2017

04 SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM(SLP)

40 TESTIMONIALS

44 AJCU-APSLP2017TEAM

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SERVICE LEARNINGPROGRAM (SLP)

The Service Learning Program (SLP) is one of the programs of the AJCU-AP (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific) held annually. This program aims to provide a place for students in Jesuit universities to serve and apply the values of Ignatian pedagogy in everyday life. The university members of SLP are Sophia University (Japan), Sogang University (South Korea), Ateneo de Manila (Philippines), Ateneo de Cagayan (Philippines), Ateneo de Naga (Philippines), Ateneo de Zamboanga (Philippines), Ateneo de Davao (Philippines), and Sanata Dharma University (Indonesia).

This year, SLP was held at Ateneo de Manila, Philippines from the 29th July to the 16th August 2017. The theme was “Interdisciplinary Understanding and Action for Health and Well-being at the Peripheries”. As a host, Ateneo de Manila prepared this year’s SLP event very well and matched its theme of health and well-being. The delegates were also welcomed by the President of Ateneo de Manila Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin, S.J., In the first week, all delegates visited Intramuros, Home for Aged, and Children Hospital. The delegates also presented their universities and talked about health issues in their countries. In the second week, the delegates were divided into 3 groups and performed immersion for 5 days. Once the immersion was over, the delegates followed a 3-day retreat to reflect on what they had achieved during the immersion.

At the end of the program, the delegates presented the cultures of their countries. The delegates from Sanata Dharma University featured 2 dances, namely Manuk Dadali and Yamko Rambe Yamko. As a tenth batch of SLP, 26 delegates from different countries and universities were excited about participating in this year’s SLP, and hopefully in Post-SLP the delegates can apply what they already have learned to the community.

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Service Learning Program (SLP) 2017 was held in Ateneo de Manila, Philippines from 29 July to 16 August 2017. The theme of SLP 2017 was “Interdisciplinary Understanding and Action for Health and Wellbeing at the Peripheries”. This theme was chosen because health care is a basic need for the whole community but the cost of health care is still very expensive and access to health care facilities is also very limited, especially for people in marginal areas. The objectives of SLP 2017 were to understand the condition of the community in marginal areas, to experience in collaborating with various organizations that help each other to improve the health and welfare of people in the marginal areas, and to increase the ability to reflect, synthesize and take action in communities especially in marginal areas.

The SLP had a series of activities that all participants contributed in, such as introduction, classroom learning activities on social demographic and public health conditions in the

Philippines, field trips, immersion, retreat and cultural night. The field trip activity aimed to provide a real picture and experience for participants to see, understand, and engage in existing health situations in the Philippines. Participants visited three places such as Luwalhati, a nursing home in the Philippines, Children Hospital that has a special ward for pediatric patients with chronic diseases and terminals, and Area 5, a village in the Philippines with poor conditions, poor access to public facilities and health facilities.

After the field trip, the participants went directly to the community (immersion), took real action by applying the reflection result that had been obtained from the learning activities and field trip. Immersion was carried out at 3 different places, they were Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, Cainta, Rizal which is a neighborhood with special needs or disable people, Baranggay San Andres, Tanay, Rizal which is an environment with traditional rural communities of the Philippines, and Lupang Pangoko,

LEARN FROM THEM WHO ARE SMALL, WEAK, AND LEFT BEHINDPutu Dyana Christasani (Chaperon)

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Payatas, QC which is the final waste shelter environment. Participants gained experience, reflection and performed different actions at each immersion site which in return will be able to cultivate a sense of empathy and a desire to take real action to solve problems that existed in society.

After the immersion activity, all participants along with faculty members participated in a three-day retreat which purpose was to reflect previous activities starting from the classroom, field trip and the immersion learning processes so that participants were able to make their personal commitments related to their role in contributing to the health and welfare of the community.

The SLP 2017 was ended with Cultural Night where all participants performed the cultural performances of their country, and had dinner together.

The entire activities of his program provided new experiences for the participants which they were able to experience meeting new friends from various countries, interacting with the community, applying paradigm Ignatian pedagogy, being more sensitive and actively respond to problems in society, which all experiences can be a provision for participants in society. I believe that we can learn to live and to share from people who are the smallest, the weakest, the outcast, who rarely be reckoned with in society.

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TAHANANG WALANG HAGDANAN (TWH)

Tahanang Walang Hagdanan (TWH) is a non-stock, non-profit, and non-government organization that aims to uplift the lives of the person who is orthopedically handicapped. TWH is located in 175 Alda Street Manck Subdivision from Baranghay Santo Domingo, Cainta Rizal, Philippines and it was built in 1973. TWH means home without stairs which is friendly for PwD. TWH has some departments for the workers such as metalcraft, woodcraft, IT, and medicine packaging cooperating with Unilab. The people who live and work in TWH are the people with disability but are able to work. Most of them are disabled physically caused by different issues like accident, polio, genetics, etc. They work based on their ability, for example the people who have knowledge about computers and networking they will be placed at IT field. Furthermore, all the products they make are sold to the hospital, markets, and schools.

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What is your big dream in life? Continuing study? Going abroad? Visiting some places you like? Honestly, one of them is my big dream, I want to go abroad before leaving Yogyakarta since I realized that it’s quite difficult for me to make it come true when I have come back to my hometown.

Service Learning Program (SLP) was an international program that took me along to my dream. Honestly, my dream was just to go abroad and I thought SLP was the way to make it come true. Besides, I wanted to do my service learning (KKN) in a different way. However, that dream was changed during the program. Going abroad was a dream, but there was something

FINDINGTHE TRUE DREAM THROUGH SERVICE Ridhoel Marthin Zai

more than that and I started to realize it since I joined this

program. Before we truly jumped down to SLP, we did our pre-SLP

for two days at Wisma OMI. There, we were trained to know ourselves and each other more since there were six of us that would go to the Philippines as a delegation from Sanata Dharma University. Moreover, we tried to figure out and discuss the health issues that happened in Indonesia and the Philippines right now.

Interdisciplinary Understanding and Action for Health and Well-being at the Peripheries was the theme of SLP 2017. Honestly, I didn’t really master it since the scope was about health and I am in the educational field. However,

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through Pre-SLP I was invited to see health issues in the educational side. What could I do as a teacher candidate to solve health issues? The answer is by teaching. Teaching is the way I serve others, make them realize about what is going on nowadays especially about health issues and how they deal with those issues.

Moving to the D day, I was very excited and I enjoyed every piece of my trip starting from Yogyakarta to Manila. My new journey had been started, I mumbled excitedly. Arriving to Manila, I captured everything with my eyes and I started to adjust myself. I got two roommates from Philippines and we shared a lot of stories and information with each

other. Also, I got along with other delegations easily and surprisingly they were very nice even though we were from different countries. I really liked the atmosphere in the campus because it’s very green and clean, so I walked a lot when I went out. For the transportation, Jeepnee and Tricycle were the interesting and famous ones. Lastly, I did culinary with my friends; I have tried Jollibee, Halo-halo, Sinigang, Adobo, and the special one is Balot which is the boiled egg with duck’s embryo inside. Those experiences are very precious for me.

Now, it’s time to stick with the schedule. We had many activities to do and I divided them into three parts. First is observation, second

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is immersion, and the last one is reflection. In the first part, we tried to observe health issues that happened in the Philippines especially in Manila by visiting three places such as Home for Aged, Children’s Hospital, and Area 5 which is a rural area. Each visit gave me different experiences and emotions. The emotional moment was when we visited Children’s Hospital where there were many children with cancer who struggled to survive. However, they kept smiling and playing joyfully. Our visit always ended up with group discussion; we shared what we have learned and what we could do to solve the problems.

Personally, immersion is the main activity in this program because

through immersion I can know and feel what people feel by staying with them. I immersed myself for 5 days in Tahanang Walang Hagdanan (TWH) with other delegations. TWH is a place for PwD to live and work. Honestly, it’s my first time to stay with PwD and I was very excited because it’s a new experience for me. As usual, I observed and adjusted myself as quickly as possible. There, I learned many things from people who I communicated with; how they live their lives with joy and hope, and how they survive until now. Furthermore, I did what they did. I worked, ate, and slept with them.

After 5 days immersion, we reflected ourselves based on our experiences

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during immersion and it made me realize more the meaning of life. Life is not only about good appearance, money and other stuff, it’s about happiness and hope. Now, my true dream is how to live my life with

happiness and hope and how I can change others through my service which is teaching.

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AJCU SLP was my first International Program. One of the reasons why I joined this program was because the theme was related with my major, Psychology. The theme was about health and well-being. From this program, I expected I would learn a lot about health and well-being that would give me more knowledge. Besides that, I also had some anxieties and asked myself, Can I survive? Can I make a friend? Is my English good enough? But in the first day, I lost those anxieties and I could put myself to enjoy the program.AJCU-SLP gave me more than I expected. I had an experience that I had to do a conversation with people who only understood Tagalog. I also received a lot of love from AJCU-SLP

SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM Laurensia Aniella Hosea

participants which really made me comfortable so

that I felt I did not want to go home. I also got knowledge that

is larger and more than the topic we had. Everything that happened there was so great and amazing. If I told my full experiences when I join SLP, I’m sure it will be longer than this magazine. So now, I will just write about the experience in SLP that made me so overwhelmed. I had it in my immersion day.

My immersion place was in Tahanang Walang Hagdanan (TWH). It is a non-profit and non-government institution that provides a workplace and living place for people with disabilities. The first impression was I felt like I was

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the minority there and it was easy for them to know that I was a visitor. Just imagine when normal people become disabled and the disabled become normal. These experiences gave me a comprehension about people’s perspectives about people with disabilities. I also believe it was harder for them to deal with people’s perspectives about them. What comforted me was how they treated me so friendly. I also met a mom that really loved me and treated me very well like her own daughter.

When we arrived, we walked around the TWH to get close with the people and environment. I was so amazed when I saw they could make a wheelchair and so many things

from woodcraft even though they were disabled. I wondered how the founder had a brilliant idea to create a workplace for people with disabilities so they could work and live independently with their own money. From that experience, I concluded that if someone couldn’t use a part of their body, it doesn’t mean that they have dysfunction in their whole body. This really opened my mind.

Then in the middle of immersion day, we went to Bahay San Jose. It’s also a place for people with disabilities. Bahay San Jose is a home for 6 people with some disabilities, most of them have cerebral palsy and there are also three caregivers who took care of them. The PwD in Bahay San Jose could not

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live independently because they also have motoric dysfunction in most in their body. This place changed my first conclusion. I realized that I also have to notice and give more attention to the people that need other people to serve them.

I got the second lesson when we had sharing and discussion after having interaction with them. Suddenly when we went out from their room, my friend that is also a psychology student asked me about what is cerebral palsy and then she asked how psychology works in this case. And after that question we got speechless. My other psychology friend also shared that even he learned about psychology but he didn’t know how to treat them. He was

so worried if he treated them in some wrong way, it would hurt them. In that moment I asked myself, so what could I do after learning psychology for 3 years? Can I do something? Am I wasting time to sit down in the classroom and memorizing so many theories? This moment really changed me.

The angles’ (the named for caregiver) sharing stories in Bahay San gave me the answer for my question. They told us that they don’t have any basics how to treat people with disabilities there, but they tried the best as they can to serve them. They serve them as a family even though they come from different families. They don’t have anything. They said they don’t know

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what they will eat for tomorrow, but they believe in God. They only have a little money, but they have a lot of love. So my conclusion is that to serve you don’t need anything more than willingness and love. My AJCU-SLP friend completes that nice story with a quote, “Don’t say we will help them because when we say we help it means we have more than them, we are above them. What we should do is serve them because serve mean you have the same position with them”.

Everything that I learned in my immersion day I used when we had our post-SLP program. The target for our Post SLP Program was children with mental retardation and deafness. In my life, that was the first time. But

I tried to serve them with what I’ve learned and with love. From the Post-SLP program I also can answer my question above that through serving I’m learning, and through learning I can give a better service to others.

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BARANGGAY SAN ANDRES

Barangay San Andres is a village located in Tanay Rizal province which is surrounded by the mountanous areas and forests. Even though the village looks very peaceful, The isolated place condition makes people there should take 2-3 hours to go to the nearest public health service or hospital. This condition becomes the prominent reason of the lack of health quality and service in that village. People living in Barangay San Andres are the combination between the indigenous people and ‘modern’ people because all of them already can adapt with the openness and variety found in the society. For the living, people fulfill their basic need by farming because the majority of people are farmer. There are several exotic and beautiful tourism attractions already provided by the nature like the mount Puro and waterfall.

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WOW! Such a wonderful thing I could join SLP batch X. All of our activities always give me a new experience that I can apply in my daily life.

For more than two weeks, we had lessons about society that related to the theme “Interdisciplinary and understanding in action of health and well-being at the peripheries”. I enjoyed all of the moments that we shared together and also they made me engage in the situation. Before our immersion, we went to the Home for Aged, Children’s Hospital, and Area 5. After we went to those places, we had a reflection time to think about our life, our activities and take the meaning from the session. When we were in reflection time, it is a right time for me to know deeper about myself, my friends, and activities that already passed in a day. It made me feel grateful and challenged myself to be better than before. I know there are people who need us in this world. As a human being, I would like to be God’s soldier to help and care for others.

On the immersion time, my group and I went through our immersion in indigeneous people at Barangay San Andres. One day, when we went to climb the mountain, I had a touchy experience when my nanay’s nanay mirna catched me with fastly before I fallen down to the mud. She was really care of me, than anybody else at there. Eventhough she doesn’t know how to speak English she tried to made me understand what she wanted to say, and from this I learned that we could understand each other not only by the same language but our body and soul also could define as a sincere language that anyone could understood.

The other nanay that also made me miss Philippines is Nanay Nini. When immersion, she taught us about barangay san andres area. She cooked traditional food from Philippines for us and the taste was delicious. I still remember when we ate together after took a bath and took a wefie group picture, I felt so happy. Oh yeah, in immersion place my friend from Korea, Kim Minji cooked us a

EXTRAORDINARY MOMENT Elisabeth Ines Rosario

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common food from Korea. It was a funny thing when all of us tried the food, and just laughed at each other no matter why?! Haha...

On the other hand, we felt a tense situation, when our friend from Japan, Hiru was sick. When we had night assambly with barangay andres society, Hiru joined us whenever he only set down on the chair. All of us were panic and curious what happened to Hiru but after he went to the hospital, the doctor said that he got diarhea. From this moment I could see that all of us were care for each other. We always visited Hiru’s place and pray for his health.

Oh yeah, in immersion place we had

such a long time in togetherness. We did all of the activites together, such as played with the kids, omg... all of us really enjoyed and happy when we played with the kids and we felt blessed when the kids also happy played with us. They really accepted new people. The other moment of our togetherness happened when we washed our clothes together in nanay hilda’s house. Hahaha... we are like brother and sister by blood. we shared many things like our study, our home town, our next plan and also our dreams in the future.

The last but not least, our togetherness still stuck in my mind when we spent our time in Nanay Lucresia’s house. In our togetherness, nanay gave us the

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advice about how to being strong in our life. She shared about her story and asked us to achieve our dreams. What I learned from her is that she really accepted her life. She even didn’t sad because she lived only with her grandson and still grateful for it. I really admired her and really thankful for her advice.

Until now, my happines still burned my self to communicate with them and I hope that we could keep in touch, cause they are not just being my friend but also my family.

From all of our exeprience in the immersion place I know now that “There’s always a new lessons from a new place wherever I go”.

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SLP had its own way to evoke my willingness to find friends. Perhaps several people questioned the condition why it was so easy to find friends there. I assumed that most of the participants had similar hopes and goals which were making friends. Plus, SLP itself gave to all of the participants’ suggestions and a great atmosphere which helped us to inaugurate with the others.

I believe that it was my precious moment to find friends there because the background of the culture which was so various and I just had approximately 20 days to find my love and share it with someone that I called as friend. Even I recalled the reason why I wanted to join the SLP and one of the reasons was studying other people and culture. In SLP, we were taught to pay attention to our surroundings especially people around us. It also evoked our willingness to be a volunteer who wanted to share our love to other people. For me, I wanted to dedicate my 20 days there to find friends because it was such

a precious moment in this life. All of the participants and people there were unique because I assumed that I couldn’t find a person who was similar with one of the participant/persons in the SLP program. This rainbow, the variety of backgrounds, cultures and characteristics were the result of the prism that symbolized our diversity and uniqueness.

It also filled my desire to have friends there because I also wanted to learn about their cultures and characteristics. I want to say thank to all of my friends and people there because they brought their own paint brush to paint my canvas in my life. All of them gave different colors in my life in SLP because they painted me with their willingness to acknowledge me as their friend (or even more than friend?). I really liked the moment when I was in the middle of conversation with all of them and I just closed my eyes to realize that I had a lot friends there. All of the memories and experiences in SLP are like monochrome photos.

SOME WORDS FOR MY FRIENDS Joshua Yuka Govanda

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In the future, when I want to recall and see all of those photos, I will try to remember the color of the building, clothes and leaf. The memories there are the fuel that keeps the spirit in my heart to still memorize all my opportunities there. It means that even until now, I will always try to

remember our togetherness. In case all of my friends read this, I have some words for all of you: for me, right now, we are in the middle of the rail road and we should make sure that life must go on. We will take our journey separately in different roads. We can look back, but if we walk and go back,

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we will be hit by the train. The train symbolizes our life, problems, and obstacles in this world. We need to choose our destination and go ahead. But, always remember that our friends still pray and hope for us in their own stations in different roads. Briefly, I really enjoyed our bonding time together. I also felt splendid when I

could learn about their culture, eat and try food/snack from another country and have deep conversation together. Friends, just remember our time when the reflection section started but Instead closing our eyes, we just let our senses to make a contact with the other participants, looked into the eyes from each other and made a smile.

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PAYATAS

Payatas is a barangay located in the 2nd district of Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.[1] Nearby barangays are Commonwealth, Batasan Hills and Bagong Silangan. Located northeast of Quezon City, Barangay Payatas occupies a little less than twenty percent (20%) of the city’s land area and has about fifteen percent (15%) of the city’s total population. A distinguishing feature of Payatas is the Payatas Dumpsite, a 13 hectare garbage dumpsite in Area B. In the 1970s, the area was merely a ravine that was surrounded by farming villages and rice paddies. Payatas dumpsite is still the largest open dumpsite in the Philippines and was reopened only months after the 2000 disaster at the request of scavengers and other residents of the area who depend on it for their livelihood

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Sometimes in your life, some events that happen become an unforgettable memory for you which teaches you such a lesson that it becomes one of the basic guideline in your life. The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities – Service Learning Program 2017 (AJCU-SLP 2017) was my first international program which brought me to the moment when I can learn more than I ever did before. My life has always felt like a rollercoaster with all of its ups and down, but by joining this program I got the meaning of the life again.

We had many activities during SLP which made us close to the people with various backgrounds, conditions

SLP AS SELF LEARNING PROGRAM Sharonita Lahai

and situations whom we never met before. One of our

field activities outside the campus was at the home for the elders. We

spent almost half a day at the place to talk to the elders, share our feelings heart to heart and also entertain them by dancing and doing karaoke. We had so much fun talking to the lolas (grandmas) and lolos (grandpas). But one thing that really touched me about them is their spirit to continue their life in the hope that life will be better. Some of them have been abandoned intentionally by their own family with nothing other than their clothes. However, they still put a big hope that one day their children and grandchildren will come to pick them up and take them home. One thing

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that I realized is that the only thing that keeps them alive with smiles on their face is a hope. Although no one knows when the hope will come true. After we experienced directly the events that occurred at that time, I finally began to understand the real form of a prayer and hope. I feel that, behind all their misfortunes, there is always hope and prayer that makes the sadness become meaningless.

Through a deep reflection, I try to understand myself as a part of this life. Life is not a simple thing, life is not as narrow as a human heart that is selfish and does not care about each other. Therefore, during the SLP, whether in group dynamics, fieldtrip or immersion, I tried to release my ego

as an individualistic human being. I began to open up to listen more and do something for others.

Besides all of the things mentioned above, the other participants are also very influential in changing my perspective on many things. All sorts of differences that exist between us become a bridge for us to recognize the meaning of diversity and harmony. We who come from different places, with different languages, environments, and different backgrounds, are united by the same goal of making changes. They taught me about the meaning of a sincere affection. They made me feel that we were family. Unconsciously, their presence make the Philippines feel like a second home. Although it

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was only 3 short weeks, the days with them had matured me and made me more acquainted with myself. It is because among these people, I see myself as part of them and they are part of me. Therefore, through the dynamics during this program, I can find a new family that will always be part of my self-transformation to become a better person.

As the result, this program gave me such a memorable experience and story that I will never forget. As one of the AJCU-SLP 2017 participants, I learned so many lessons of life. I learned about friendships, simple happiness and life appreciation. Not only had the chance to meet a group of people who turned out to be an important part of my life,

I got the chance to learn about myself through the situations that I faced and the people around me. Once again, for everyone involved, I want to say thank you for this beautiful chance. SLP is more than a Service Learning Program, for me, it is also a Self-Learning Program that changed my whole life.

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I thought everyone would have known about SLP, right? Briefly, it was an academic process and practical experience through a community service. In 2017, SLP was held in the Philippines with Ateneo de Manila University as the host. The SLP theme for this year was Interdisciplinary Understanding and Action for Health and Well-being at the Peripheries. Lasting for 18 days, the program was attended by 26 students from 4 countries and 8 universities. 6 students came from Sanata Dharma University, 4 students from Sogang University, 5 from Sophia University, 2 students were from Ateneo de Naga, 2 from Ateneo de Zamboanga, 3 students came from Ateneo de Davao, 2 students were the representations of

INSTILLED LEARNINGS, FRIENDSHIP, AND MEMORIESAmelia Rosary Dewi

Ateneo de Cagayan, and 2 students were from Ateneo de

Manila. We all met cutie pie from ADMU, though, heheheh...

In the first day of SLP, all participants were doing team building. We were divided into three big groups and given several missions which needed to be finished together with other members of the same group. This activity was useful as a “bonding time” for all of the SLP participants before the whole program was getting started.

In the next day, the understanding of health was given to the participants. This session was facilitated by a doctor as the speaker about the health system in the Philippines. It

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was continued with the presentations of all SLP participants about the health state and well-being in each country. Guess what? Sanata Dharma got some compliments from the Japanese professor and the Filipino doctor. It was cool, wasn’t it? At least I thought so. After that, SLP invited some communities that worked on health to share about the current health situation. Not only that, SLP participants also had the opportunity to experience a field study which always ended up with a discussion about the problems and the solutions that could be offered. A reflection about what the students had had before was done at the end of the day.The first field study was in “Luwalhati: Home for the Aged”. Here, all SLP participants could obtain new knowledge about the health state of the aged. We were given the chance to engage with all of the lolas and lolos (grandmas and grandpas) by dancing, singing, playing bingo, and even talking to them personally over what we had been through after all this time. I was definitely touched by their presence and joy and I imagined about my own grandparents, this was why I asked for their blessings before I left the place. I cried and I thought it could be the first and the last opportunity I had to meet them all.

The second field trip was in the Philippine’s Children Medical Center. This hospital was the place for the kids who suffered cancer and blood

problems. By interacting with the kids, SLP participants could get the comprehension of the health state of the children. The participants played some games with the children; had conversations with them and even with the parents and I even took one of the children for his medical check-up because he did not want to leave without me. Wasn’t it too sweet?

The last field trip was in Area 5, a periphery. Like the other two fields, by visiting this place, SLP participants could know the health issue in the peripheral area. This activity began with the sharing given by the local public figures and after that, the participants went around the area and stayed in the people’s houses within five hours. I have been fond of little kids and I met one in Area 5. I carried her for a pretty long time, really, since she was so cute, and chubby! I kind of could not stand it all.

After all these activities were done, SLP participants now had to do the step called immersion. The immersion lasted for 5 days and the participants had to stay and engage with the communities. In this immersion, the participants were divided into three big groups that later would be placed in different areas, such as Tahanang Walang Hagdanan in Cainta, Rizal; Baranggay San Andreas and Baranggay Cuyambay in Tanay, Rizal; and Payatas. Tahanang Walang Hagdanan was a private community that employed

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and gave shelter for those who were with disability. The second one was Baranggay San Andreas and Baranggay Cuyambay in Tanay, Rizal. It was an isolated place which had no electricity yet and was still very associated with traditional-natural ways of life. The last one was Payatas, a place close to a dump site. I had been thinking of it as the worst one and…, that site was the place I was about to go. Ouch!

Yes, I imagined many yucky things. Uncomfortable place to sleep, unhygienic food to eat, everything seemed so wrong! However, as we really went and stayed there, I thanked God that Payatas was not like what I thought. We slept in a pretty good room although the restroom was under the standard of the Japanese. I, as

Indonesian, was really accustomed to it, so there was nothing wrong at all. There were many stories I got from engaging with the people in Payatas. I heard that they had to work in the dumpsite for some hundred thousands of hours in order to get one house near the dumpsite. The other option was to go back to their hometowns using some allowance from the government to buy plane tickets. Many of them chose the first option since the allowance would not be sufficient for them to buy plane tickets for every member of the family. I got some letters and remembrances from the people I knew the most and I still save them all up to now. They gave us all the best though they were in deficiency. They did not really assess something by its value, but togetherness was

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simply their joy anyway. It was very touching that even though it only lasted for five days, the memory would linger on my mind forever.

The last activity was retreat. Here, SLP participants shared the experiences that we got from their immersion. We were also required to conduct a social analysis which was related to the global problems so that it might help them to find the right solutions. As usual, after doing their activities, we were invited to have a reflection. The aim of this was to make us able to keep our commitments based on the lessons we had got from the whole program. These commitments were expected not only to be useful but also applied in our daily life.

The program prepared us very well right from the basic needs, and they gave us materials related to health and well-being, but they did not only stop there. SLP sent us to the places that needed us; it sent us to the places that could teach us many things about life, too. Everything ran in balance. However, the hardest part of SLP was exactly when you knew you were about to leave the place, when you were about to let go of your new friends. It hurt a lot when you realized that it was probably the first and the last time for you to meet them all, to laugh together, and to be busy at the same activities. It was such the nicest good bye for me personally. Although it only lasted for 20 days, but I know SLP must be very important for my life ahead.

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Service Learning Program (SLP) is one of the programs of the AJCU-AP (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific) held annually. This program aims to provide a place for students at Jesuit universities to serve and apply the values of pedagogy in everyday life. SLP activities are divided into 3 sections, namely Pre-SLP, SLP, and Post-SLP. Pre-SLP is a preparation for delegates before leaving for the host university. The SLP is a core event and the SLP 2017 was held in Ateneo de Manila, Philippines from 29 July to 16 August 2017 with the theme “Interdisciplinary Understanding and

Action for Health and Well-being at the Peripheries”. There, the delegates attended several activities such as Field Trip, University Presentation, Immersion, Retreat, and Cultural Performances.

After the SLP was over, the USD delegates returned to Indonesia and carried out Post-SLP activity. Post-SLP was a follow-up activity of SLP that has been held in Manila, Philippines a few months ago, and aimed to apply what the USD delegates had got for campus, community, or the community. In actualizing Post-SLP activity, the USD delegates collaborated with Suara

POST-SLP 2017

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Hati Yogyakarta as a community of social volunteers and moves in the world of children. The event was held in SLB Puspa Melati Gunung Kidul on October 14, 2017. The USD delegates chose SLB Puspa Melati Gunung Kidul because it was quite far from Jogja so that it was rarely visited by communities from Jogja and its surrounding.

This activity began with a welcome from the USD presented by Ms. Putu Dyana Christasani, M.Sc., Apt. who was a chaperon of SLP 2017. Further activities, students were invited to decorate the tote bags that had been

prepared by the USD delegation with a variety of decorations. This activity aimed to hone the ability and creativity of SLB Puspa Melati students, then those tote bags will be sold and the sale will be returned to be managed by SLB Puspa Melati.

Post-SLP activities were welcomed by the SLB Puspa Melati Party. Hopefully with this Post-SLP activities SLB Puspa Melati students are more creative and many communities from Jogja and surrounding areas are willing to visit and share with friends in SLP Puspa Melati Gunung Kidul.

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TESTIMONIALS

In SLP, I had many interesting impressions that I will never forget. I could understand better the meaning of real life and the meaning of me for the others. Firstly, I learned about sincerity that I got from people that I never met before. Second, I learned how to express my feeling to others even though we had different languages. Third, I

could understand the other’s habit and deal with it happily. After this program I still want to continue service people

because it’s like a sound of my heart. - Ines

Do you wanna go abroad? Do you wanna get new friends and experiences? Do you wanna take your Service Learning (KKN) in a unique and fun way? Or do you wanna improve your English skills especially speaking? Well, SLP is one of the way outs. You can get them all in one package throuh SLP. Being a part of SLP 2017 is like dream comes true because I learn how to live my life and serve others as

myself. - Marthin

It is such a precious moment when you can find and even share your humanity and love to other people in this SLP Program because this program is designed to evoke our

mind and consciousness to develop our sense in the society to help other people and connect our thought with people around us. It is also a great atmosphere to be there because

not only finding our ‘love’, but we also can learn about other cultures and environment. Plus, in case you are still

single or you want to have another soul mate, you can find a lot of handsome and cute candidates. Don’t forget to eat a lot of bizarre, delicious and even odd snacks/food from

many countries! - Joshua

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In SLP, I had many interesting impressions that I will never forget. I could understand better the meaning of real life and the meaning of me for the others. Firstly, I learned about sincerity that I got from people that I never met before. Second, I learned how to express my feeling to others even though we had different languages. Third, I

could understand the other’s habit and deal with it happily. After this program I still want to continue service people

because it’s like a sound of my heart. - Ines

Joining AJCU-SLP has been a more than life changing experience. I’ve met so many great people, and this is

definitely one of the best experiences in my life! I am so glad I did it. It shaped part of my character and changed my perspective about life. I had the best time of my life in the

Philippines. - Sharon

Remember this one: you don’t want to end everything soon. It may be the very first time of your life that you wish ev-

erything passes very slowly since you just happen to be into your new friends and, definitely, the new environment. You are going to feel proud of yourself. You’re young and you

still have many opportunities you can’t simply let go. Come and join us in SLP 2018! - Amel

AJCU-SLP gave me 18 precious days. Through that program, I could be more aware with what happened in the society. It was wonderful to learn what I could do for them through many discussions with other participants

from other countries. At the same time, I also got love and a home that was far away from home. One you join SLP, it will be hard to say goodbye because everything seems so

perfect. - Ella

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“The level of success you achieve will be in direct proportion to the depth of your commitment.”

-Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

AJCU-AP SLP 2017TEAM

2 Cecilia Paulina Sianipar

3 Brigitta Erlita Tri Anggadewi

1 Yurisdixta Menavia

4 Retno Herrani Setyati Catarina

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Participants and Chaperones of SLP 2017

Precious Kyrie Undag (Chaperon)

Jerona Krystel BostonRalph Christian-

ZorillaJang Marien

Carlo Berja TrinidadKatherine Chancoco

Urduja Amor (Chaperon)

Joco AmanteCasey Lumagbas

Dave Cervas Casey Lumagbas

Ivy Dianne Luna Enriquez

Fr. Sejin Ahn (Chaperon)Minji Kim

Shin Woo YoonJiyeon Lee

Yong Hyeon Cho

Theresa Rhea Rose B. (Chaperon)

Fangki BoresIsabela Alexandria-

B. Belen

Fr. Hideyuki Koyama, SJ

(Chaperon)Riku KatoMaria OkiHsin Bi

Hirotatsu FukuharaHaruka Yamada

Putu Dyana- Christasani (Chaperon)

Laurensia Aniella- Hosea

Elisabeth Ines RosarioAmelia Rosary dewi

Sharonita LahaiJoshua Yuka GovandaRidhoel Marthin Zai

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A R E Y O U T H E N E X T

D E L E G A T E S ?The SLP 2018 will be held at

Sophia University, Japan.

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A R E Y O U T H E N E X T

D E L E G A T E S ?The SLP 2018 will be held at

Sophia University, Japan.

BATCH 10

International Office Sanata Dharma UniversityGedung Pusat, Lantai 1 Jalan Affandi, Yogyakarta, 55281, IndonesiaP: +62 274 513 301 ext. 51227Email: io@usd.ac.id