Assila, the Karate Medal Hunter

Assila's hobby led her to become an athlete. It started with Assila's interest in karate, which she thought was fun and exciting. Since the age of 11, Assila began to take part in karate training and entered various competitions at the age of 12. Never giving up, Assila's karate skills were sharpen through extracurricular activities at school and the karate Talent Programme facilitated by WVI.  

In addition to diligently training with a skilled sensei, the full support of both parents is the key to Assila's success in winning medals. Although her parents work as labourers in Surabaya's wholesale market, it does not stop them from supporting Assila's talent interest. Instead, they hope to see Assila continue her dreams and enthusiasm in every match until she succeeds in making various karate achievements. 

All the international championship medals, from gold to bronze, Assila has won despite the long process. During his four years of karate training, he has won five gold medals, four silver medals, and five bronze medals. Currently, he is in grade 3 of junior high school.   

"I have been through a lot of hard things. I had to start feeling pain from martial arts training, until I forgot a move in the middle of a match and lost the competition. The defeat I received at that time made me insecure with other colleagues who already had many achievements," Assila says. 

Moreover, before actively practising karate, little Assila was a quiet and shy child. She had difficulty socialising with peers. Initially, practicing karate also became a time for Assila to learn socialising and building good communication skill with her friends. As it turns out, this is what made her the Assila today. A girl who is much more communicative, not only in the karate arena, but also in her daily life. 

The Talent Programme that Assila joined also enriched her skills. The senseis in the programme are able to train karate according to championship standards. "Coaches who are qualified in championships make me more mature to participate in other championships," said Assila. 

Assila hopes that the Talent Programme that WVI facilitates can continue to grow to produce many 'medal hunters' like her. She also encourages her friends to continue sculpting their abilities and spend many success also failures while they are young. "The Talent Programme held by WVI is very useful because not all schools around us provide programmes like this. Through this programme, children not only benefit from getting achievements and medals, but it also makes it easier to get into favourite schools because of our achievements. So this is all very useful both in the non-academic and academic fields, because we are students," she said. 

Author: Zulfa Anida (Field facilitator in Simokerto Area Program) 

Editor: Mariana Kurniawati (Communication Executive)