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Reflective Essay IDU

Field trip IDU
Mrs. Peggy, Pak Ivan, Pak Agung, Bu Yanti
March 6 2015
Reflective Essay IDU
During the field trip to Yogyakarta, we visited NGOs that helped me
increase my understanding, become more open-minded and aware of the
issues surrounding Human Rights and Fairness and Development.
On the first day of our field trip, we visited a village called Sukunan
and there I learned how the villagers are so hardworking to develop their
village using their resources, which are not that much because physically
theyre not a really developed village. However they found out that the
waste that the village produced such as trash, urine, and etc. are valuable
when they are separated, thus they started separating them and sell it or
use it as something else. They have a great system for their waste
management, for the trash, they would sell the boxes or make bags and
pencil cases from it, and the urine as compost for the hydroponic plants
they have. This has led me to think about how despite their economic
struggles, they can still develop their community starting from the
smallest things.
Then we visited an NGO called Dian Interfidei, which is an
organization that tries to create peace in between all the religions,
specifically in Indonesia. When they were explaining about what the
organization do, they also bring up some conflicts such as religion clashes
that are still happening in our society. One of the stories they have told us

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is about a church that was attacked by a Muslim group. The group
attempted to destroy the church by throwing rocks and kicking down the
fence. This raised my awareness about how there are still some people
being biased towards their religion and thinks that their religion is the only
one that teaches the correct things, and the other religions are all wrong. I
think this issue shouldnt be ignored about, but tends to be overlooked by
the society, because sometimes we still have our own ego. Its an issue
where the members of the society are being unfair towards each other
because we all have rights to freedom of speech and freedom of what we
believe. What we believe is truly from ourselves and not anyone can
change it for you.
Then we also went to an NGO, called CD RS Bethesda, which
supports people with HIV/aids. Here we were told about how the virus can
be transmitted, what medications they should take, and how people
should treat people with HIV/aids. This definitely raised my awareness
about people with HIV/aids and gave me tips on how to treat people with
HIV/aids, which is to treat them they way you want to be treated. Some
people think that HIV/aids can be transmitted only by a touch, however
its false information and that HIV/aids can only be transmitted through
blood, breast milk, and sexual contact. With this information, it made me
feel guilty when I know some has HIV/aids I tend to avoid them afraid to
catch the virus, whereas the people in the NGO told us that usually what
people with HIV/aids need is actually a little hug or at least a sign of
affection by other people which makes them feel like they are being cared
for. People tend to discriminate people with HIV/aids and it violates the

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human rights because everyone has the right to be treated equally no
matter what.
From the various NGOs that I visited during the field trip, it made me
realized on how ignorant I am with the issues happening today and gave
me a deeper understanding about the issues such as religion clashes,
waste management, and discrimination against people with disabilities or
a sickness, that surrounds the topic of Human Rights and Fairness and
Development.