Project O: Revive 2012
RMIT’s Indonesian students association, PPIA RMIT, is tapping into school memories to help raise money for the underprivileged in Indonesia. Marcella Purnama tells you more about the creative project.
RMIT’s Indonesian Students Association is tapping into school memories to help raise money for charity. The team at PPIA has partnered with non-profit organisation Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa, or YCAB, to host a series of events around the concept of reminiscing. The initiative is called Project O: Revive and it aims to help educate and encourage young Indonesian students overseas to help social development in communities back home in Indonesia.
Project O’s head of media relations, Adila Harsono, says by trying to revive people’s school memories, the team hopes to raise awareness about the underprivileged people who are unable to attend school and thus do not share the same melancholy about school that many of us have.
She adds PPIA are thrilled to be supporting a charity again after the success of their collaboration with Care4kids on Project O: Reboot last year.
“The ‘O’ in Project O is born from the philosophy that our team would continue to give, to one day share the wonderful experience life has given us with those who aren’t fortunate enough,” she says.
“This is a legacy we would like to pass on for future PPIA RMIT students.”
Project O will be holding a Charity and Music Night on September 29, aptly themed “Reviving Memories of School”. The event will feature an educational quiz competition (much like the ones you had back at school) called Cerdas Cermat and celebrity guest stars will be present to entertain the crowd, including Ronal Surapradja and Tike Priatna Kusumah as MCs as well as rock and roll band, The Changcuters. During the show, the audience will be able to get to know the stars, while also supporting their friends in the competition.
The majority of proceeds from ticket sales (70 per cent) will be given to one of YCAB’s education programs, HOLD (House of Learning Development), also known as “Rumah Belajar”. HOLD is a place where school drop-outs and street children can continue their education, receive vocational training and job placement assistance.
Adila promises the night will be entertaining.
“It’s a fun way of gathering people together while raising such an important issue,” Adila says.
“We’re hoping that we will inspire the Indonesian community here. I can bet, knowing them or not, if you come to our event you’ll leave satisfied.”
In order to raise awareness before the event, the project held a series of campaigns including “Dollars for Memories”. At this event, people picked “memory cards” featuring their favourite school memories- for example “I miss my basketball team”- before a picture of them holding the card was taken. The picture was then posted on Facebook.
Another initiative was “Memory Lane Snacks”, where a variety of food was sold tho entice the customer to recall favourite memories, such as eating in their school canteen.
Adila is hopeful Project O: Revive will be a success.
“In a nutshell, we have a vision to help give a decent education for unfortunate children in Indonesia,” she says.
“We want them to experience what it is like to be in school, to learn, to feel you have achieved something.
“We as a team truly believe that when you have the right tools, and by that we mean education, you are set. You have everything you need up in your brain.”
Project O: Revive’s Charity and Music Night will be taking place at 6.30pm on Saturday, September 29 at Storey Hall, RMIT University. Tickets can be purchased for $20 by contacting Adila Harsono on adila.harsono@ppia-projecto.com.
Project O: Revive is giving a lucky Meld Magazine reader a double pass to the event. For your chance to win, tell us what your favourite school memory was in the comments section below. Remember to provide your real name and email address so we can get in touch with you.
The competition closes on Thursday, September 20 and is only open to those living, studying or working in Victoria. Winners will be picked in a random draw and announced via email on Friday, September 21.