Cadre's Stories: A Garage for Young Generation

Every small step taken to build a generation will have a big impact on future generations. If you do not start eating there is no movement change. That's what prompted me to create a business called Workshop for Generations.

My name is Agusnoor, I am 43 years old and I am a father of two. I am a staff member of Jono Oge Village, Central Sulawesi at the Head of Village Planning Affairs. I have big dreams for the youths in my village, especially for children affected by drug abuse and who have dropped out of school.

I am very concerned and struggle to encourage them to be free from the threat of drug abuse. I often organize activities for them using my resources to distract them and they can have positive activities such as chess matches and other sports. I could see that they were very enthusiastic and enthusiastic.

I also have a small workshop in front of the house. I use this workshop as a medium to reach out to children, especially teenagers in Jono Oge Village. I allow them to tinker with motorcycles to learn about automotive and as they learn I convey positive encouragement to support them to leave bad habits.

Even with minimal knowledge and equipment, I still do it because of my belief that small things can make a difference. I can see that there are positive impacts that occur as the focus of teenagers who have been contaminated with illegal drugs is slowly starting to change. Their ability to repair motorbikes is getting better, so they can repair motorbikes at least themselves, and the children have supported each other so that those who are still in school don't drop out.

Besides being a government servant, I am also one of the Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) cadres in Jono Oge Village. I was very happy when there was dissemination carried out and saw that there was a connection between my dream and what WVI was doing, namely, there was a change for children and especially about child protection. I learned a lot from WVI about children's rights and this helped me when spending time with the teenagers who came to the workshop. So I have other materials that I can share with them.

I also provide a place near the workshop to serve as a meeting place for youth groups in the village, so that I can still monitor them and make things that need to be followed up with WVI easy to do. My workshop is still running today. However, I still adhere to strict health protocols.

The most satisfying result for me after doing mentoring with WVI is that several children have stated that they want to complete their education through the existing packages. I am very grateful because the village government is also very open to supporting these children.

Written by: Agusnoor, Head of Village Planning Jono Oge, Sigi Regency and Wahana Visi Indonesia Cadre