COVER STORY
That said, many have taken the initiative to
reduce the number of drug users in Indonesia. We
interviewed a young woman whose anti-drug cam-
paigns have made significant contribution to the
community, and to reflect on some of the important
lessons that have learned in her noble journey.
CHLOE PURNAMA
Chloe Purnama’s main focus has been on advocat-
ing for drug awareness and prevention through her
anti-drug campaign, Speak Up Indonesia. She was
motivated to start this campaign after witnessing
first-hand on how drugs ruined the lives of many
children in Jakarta. Recently, she was appointed
by the Chairman of BAKORNAS GMDM - an
organization under the Indonesian National Nar-
cotics Agency - as their Ambassador, tasked with
promoting awareness of drugs among schools
in Indonesia to prevent drug abuse amongst stu-
dents. As an additional part of her campaign, she
has also created an online public speaking compe-
tition aimed at emphasizing drug awareness and
prevention, which had over 350 applicants. She has
held more than 250 anti-drug & youth leadership
seminars across schools, orphanages and slum
areas in Indonesia.
Talk ing to us, Chloe gave staggering statistics
of narcotic use in Indonesia, especially in children
and youths. According to the data from the news as
released by BNN (the anti-narcotics division of the
Indonesian Police Department), there are reported
at least 5 million drug users in the country and
1.2 million of which are residing in Jakarta. In our
city, 10% of the populations are using drugs. She
emphasizes the need to say that the future of our
country depends of the next generation. Fascinat-
ed by her passion as being a global citizen of this
nation, I looked into her organization, “Speak Up
Indonesia”, and asked how her program reduces
drug use in ways that other programs cannot:
“Speak-Up Indonesia under the PIONIR
organization is started by youth and targeting on
youth empowerment. From years of experiences
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THE LINK JANUARY 2018
in giving anti-drug seminars at schools throughout
Indonesia, one fact stands out. When the youths are
the ones speaking, the students are listening. They
are engaging in the conversations with the speak-
ers. From interviews conducted after the seminars,
students admit that when youths are doing the talk,
they do not feel patronized. They can totally relate to
the speakers and feel unrestricted to discuss. They
feel that the speakers understand them better. And
at the end, they feel that they have role models to
aim for the better future.”
Chloe faces numerous challenges in her
fight against nationwide drug usage, primarily in
that people they are comfortable with, such as
friends at school or strangers that innocently offer
something to them lure many of the drug users
into usage. For instance, drugs nowadays come
in the form of candy, mushroom chips, brownies,
cookies, cakes, flavored drinks, and many more
creations that look incredibly tempting to these
unsuspecting victims. In many cases in Jakarta,
there have been found that these brownies have
led those who started as innocent teenagers to end
up in prostitution and human trafficking in a very
short time in order to get more drugs from the
ensnared addictions.
These cunning wars are hard to avoid even for
the intelligent youths who are already deliberately
staying away from drugs. Most students do not
suspect their own classmates. And this method
has found victims from all kinds of upbringings
and levels of economy, from the poorest to the
richest. It is extremely challenging to stay away
from it because it does not discriminate any races,
religions, ages, educational backgrounds, and
standards of living.
A major adversity faced in combatting the drug
war is government policy. The law and death penalty
in this country do not scare away these addicts,
primarily because Indonesian law is considerably
lenient towards drugs. Most victims aren’t aware of
the drugs inside certain common food products, es-
pecially children. They need to be aware of the dan-
ger of drugs; reminded constantly until they begin
to visualize and understand completely the dangers
and deliberately strive to stay away from drugs. That
is where Chloe’s work takes the spotlight.
Her campaigns become effective in educating
children about the forms of drugs, the effects,
and the dangers, although many schools still find
it difficult to spare time for anti-drug seminars.
She is currently still working on more approvals
form the Ministry of Education concerning this
issue. She mentions that another challenge for
her is to bring the young generation to the level
of understanding that their actions influence the
country’s leadership and future. “If they under-
stand that role to live not just for themselves but
also for hundreds of millions of people, they will
be much more careful with their lives,” she said.
Most youths in this country do not dare to dream
to become leaders, but look at our President. He
himself came from a very humble background.
Our youths of today need to realize their own
potential and hope for the absolute dream. Chloe
Purnama wishes to impart the public speaking
and leadership abilities in the right way - a new
leader generation that is free from drugs and free
from corruption.
This work is very important to Chloe, and to all
youths as well because it is for their future. Imag-
ine what our children’s world would be like when
the current generation that is leading the country
has been found to be affected by drugs during
their youth. If more and more drugs continue to be
exchanged and used in this country, think. Would
our future be safe?
If it is not us, then who else will? God created
this world for human to be responsible for. And
it is our responsibility to God to care for each
other even in any small way. Can PIONIR (Chloe’s
organization) really make a difference? We believe
that together with all youths, we can. That is why
PIONIR and other anti-drug organizations need
support in the internal leadership as well. Any
influential youths will add the strength to make a
difference. We are Indonesians, and it is time to
give back to this country.
JANUARY 2018 THE LINK
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