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introducing
~ the ~
sustainable
eCOHOME
team
empowering people in powering homes.
indonesia, through our eyes :
a look at our lives
We grew up in a country of disappointments and dreams.
even though we lived fairly middle-class lives, our childhoods weren’t marked by picket fences, but by the shadows of aluminum walls.
though prosperous, our country’s flaws have a way of appearing at the oddest times and places - of making themselves known out of the blue.
over time, we learned to adapt - to normalize what we saw and what we heard and what we knew.
over time, we learned to watch.
we grew to stare in silence.
"As someone who lives near a local slum, I soon learnt what it meant to be poor in Indonesia."
— Rafi, Director of Finance
Our lives weren’t difficult, but watching others fight to survive was probably the greatest struggle of all.
it was a dance of ignorance we knew by instinct; something we were born with and taught to live with.
to ignore the poor, the needy, the marginalized.
to step on the cracks and walk away.
but one day came the offer:
a grant, and with it a promise.
we knew better than to throw it away.
the MYP innovators program:
our chance to take action
The offer to join the IB Innovators competition, from one of our teachers, Mr. Zaidan, was momentous.
this was our wake-up call.
the promise of change - of real, concrete social change - that came with the grant was incredible.
and along with that came the question:
what problems strike at the foundations of our country?
The answer wasn’t easy to find.
and as students, it was even harder.
but we narrowed it down.
we weighed our options, and chose issues we could solve.
we picked two that were close to heart.
issues that we could take action in.
issues where we could make a difference.
rising to the challenge :
our solution in the making
The issues we chose were issues we felt needed to be addressed.
problems that impact the marginalized, and are far too often swept under the rug.
And, with the SDGs to guide us, we got to work.
we planned, researched, and discussed.
soon enough, we found ourselves knee-deep in our work.
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with the hours we’ve invested, two solutions - brothers in visions and goals - came to light.
the former?
an amalgamation of different water-refinement systems to tackle clean water and sanitation.
the latter?
teaching people in rural areas ways of converting plant sources - abundant in Indonesia - into affordable and clean energy.
and their goal is simple:
greater, stronger foundations for Indonesia.
and it starts with better sources of energy, cleaner water, and a healthier people.
to crystallize our ideas
we constructed blueprints for a machine to purify groundwater running deep beneath Jakarta's soil,
read and learnt numerous research papers on creating bio-ethanol from cassava roots,
contacted renewable energy and water refinement experts,
experimented and developed a cost-efficient and fool-proof method of creating ethanol for those in rural communities.
partnered with two companies to ultimately build a renewable-energy-powered water refinement machine,
created near-industrial grade ethanol from household materials and affordable sources and successfully used it to run a generator.
going further:
our hopes and dreams for the future
We grew up in a country of disappointment and dreams.
but Indonesia isn’t just a country of disappointments
it is a nation born of hope in a time of conflict.
many of us forget our prosperity in the face of our poverty.
many only see our failures in spite of our successes.
many only know our poverty over the richness of our country.
we might be broken
but even broken, we can mend.
our flaws are worth our strengths;
our imperfections are worth our perfections.
our struggle is worth the journey.
and our destination?
it's worth the wait.
