Leading to Inspire - Profile Iman Usman

LEADING AND LINKING COMMUNITIES

CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT OF INDONESIAN FUTURE LEADERSwww.imanusman.com | e: [email protected]

M. IMAN USMAN, 19

LEADING TO INSPIRE


Iman has been passionate on community development and youth empowerment since he was child

Muhamad ImanUsman (Iman) was born on 21st of December 1991 in Padang, Indonesia. He is well-know in the country as Founder and President of Indonesian Future Leaders, youth activist, public speaker, consultant, blogger, Founder of Youth-Parliament, and ASEAN-Indonesia Youth Ambassador.

His interest and passion to empower and struggle for children brought him to join and develop numerous activism led by kids. He has been an active volunteer and community member since he was ten years old. At that time, he established a free course and library for children in his neighborhood.

When he was 14, he founded and developed an online shop for Harry Potter marchandise and led numerous events in various subjects in his town. His involvement in child rights area became more intensive as he elected as General Secretary for West Sumatera Children Foruma children led organization that struggling and promoting for child rights in West Sumatera, Indonesia, and founded a youth led community, Komunitas Anak Kritis Indonesia in 2007


In 2009, he founded Indonesian Future Leaders, a youth led non profit organization that aims to empower young people to be able to bring constructive changes and be solution for social problems. In Indonesian Future Leaders, he led numerous programs in community service, capacity building, as well advocacy to government for issues related to young people. Today, Indonesian Future Leaders has more than 4 estabslished chapters, 500 active volunteers, and more than 40.000 beneficiaries that spread around the country. He also utilizes the power of media to amplify his message, as he appeared and shared in numerous TV programs, radio talkshows, magazines, and newspapers. He has shared directly to more than 15.000 students through his sessions/ trainings.

He has been experienced to represent Indonesia in various international conferences, symposiums, training, and forum, including G20 Summit 2010 in Toronto, Canada; UN High Level Meeting on Youth in New York 2011, Mondialogo World School Contest – a largest world collaborative project competition for students – in China as he elected as world finalist among 2200 projects entries worldwide; ASEF Meeting in Belgium, Global Changemaker Summit in London, and more. Lately, he just received a 5 weeks full scholarship for winter course program, Study of United States for Student Leaders on Religious Pluralism in United States of America. These experiences led his passion to promote intercultural dialogue and collaboration in Indonesia and the world.

His projects has impacted more than 40.000 beneficiaries

LEADING AND LINKING COMMUNITIESSpaking at UN High Level Meeting on Youth, in New York, July 2011


GLOBAL TEEN LEADER AWARD 2011 UN RECOGNITION AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE ON HUMANITARIAN DEVELOPMENT 2011 ASHOKA YOUNG CHANGEMAKER AWARD 2010 YOUTH ACHIEVER RECOGNITION 2009 BRITISHCOUNCIL GLOBAL CHANGEMAKER 2010 YOUTH OF THE NATION 2010 BY HARPER’S BAZAAR INDONESIA INDONESIAN YOUNG HERO 2010 BY HAI MAGAZINE INDONESIAN YOUNG LEADER 2008 AWARD BY PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

ACHIEVEMENTS:

For his activism and efforts to uphold child rights and promote intercultural dialogue both in Indonesia and overseas, he has achieved numerous honours. In 2008, he was named an Indonesian Young Leader 2008 by the President of the Republic of Indonesia and a Mondialogo Junior Ambassador for intercultural dialogue by Daimler and UNESCO. In 2009, he was one of ten youth worldwide to receive a Youth Achiever Recognition Award and was elected by the UN Population Fund Indonesia as one of the youngest participants on its Youth Advisory Panel. In last August, he was chosen to receive Be The Change Scholarship with other four volunteers worldwide by Global Volunteers Network. He also appointed to represent Indonesia in the Global Changemakers – a global network of a select group of young who have a significant track record as social entrepreneurs, social activists and volunteers (ages 16-25), based in Switzerland. In the beginning of 2011, his blog named as the 1st winner of Microsoft Bloggership 2011 Competition, and he is invited to New York as one of Recipients of Global Teen Leaders 2011 by We Are Family Foundation.


What Inspires Him?Since he was child, he was the one who believed in dreams. For him, a life without dreams was just like driving without a destination. Dreams became the stepping stones and foundation of enjoying his life – making it valuable to the world. His dream was simple, but most people thought that it was too big, or even too idealistic. But he believed that there is no dream too big, because it is not a dream if it is not big.

He just wanted a better world, a better place for every single child in the world to live, to survive, and to develop. When he was a child, he was treated unjustly. His opinion was dismissed. His voice was deemed meaningless by society. He had nowhere to speak his ideas, and bring them to action.

He also saw that many kids felt the same as he did. He did not come from a wealthy or well-educated family. But, he believed these challenges should not be justifications to undermine or discriminate against him. That 10-year-old kid insisted, and reminds me every day: that no matter what your background is, no matter how old you are, you are a human being with rights and liberty.

The painful realities he endured led him to embark the journey in improving his own quality of life, and step-by-step, try to improve the quality of human beings around him. He believed that he couldn’t wait for someone to come and fix his life – and then his journey of changemaking was started.

“I couldn’t speak any language beside my mother tongue but I know I can speak the word of change.

I couldn’t play any musical instrument, sing, dance, or anything else that I can be proud of but I listened to the tune in my heart.

Each one of us, can do something”

– Iman in New York, August 2011


LEARNING

POINTS

PASSION

STRENGTHS

NETWORKS

CONFIDENCE

FOCUS

INNOVATION


web: www.indonesianfutureleaders.org blog: www.imanusman.com email: [email protected]

“MAKING CHANGE IS FUN!”

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Leading to Inspire - Profile Iman Usman