source: Instagram @melatiwisjen
by: Asti Hayan
"Find out who you really are, and what person you wanna become. Are you the one that looks away, or are you the one that gets involved and jumps in even though you know you’re risking your life".
Melati is only 21. But age is just a number, she has achieved so much and aspires to achieve more for a sustainable future. She started her very first environmental movement at the age of 12. She founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags, along with her sister, which has now grown into a well-known international movement of inspiration. She has spoken on several world stages such as TED, and the United Nations and has been selected as FORBES’ top ten most inspiring women in the country. She also just released her film last year, Bigger Than Us, and premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Now, she's running YOUTHOPIA, a platform for peer-to-peer education to learn about frontline skills and how to be a changemaker. Sounds inspiring, right? Yet, it didn't always come with such confidence. Melati might have started her movement with all passion and excitement, but it was not all rainbow and sunshine either. Melati embodied persistence and ambition, and we might learn a thing or two from her journey to bring changes to life.
HER WORKS: She brings changes, gradually.
Melati started her Bye Bye Plastic Bags movement with optimism that it will work out just fine. She expected that she would ban all the plastic used before summer was over. She did all things that she believed would help her achieve her goals. She builds a team, creates a campaign, collects signatures, speaks in public, and meets politicians. Yet, the change didn't happen as quickly as she expected it to.
She learned and unlearned. Change takes a long time and that's okay. The lengthy process is necessary. Therefore, she needs to create a clear goal with a timeline. It helps her navigate what her priorities are and what her next step is. Melati knew she cannot do it all by herself. The change also takes a lot of contribution from a lot of people. Be it fellow changemakers, businessmen, politicians, or other people that she can learn from. Melati was fully aware that her movement is not a one-night project, it needs time, it needs people, to gradually create changes. And after 6 years of fighting plastic pollution, in 2019, she successfully banned one-time plastic bags used in Bali. Her persistence resists and remains.
HER ASPIRATIONS: A collective action for a collective goal.
source: Instagram @melatiwisjen
Melati saw that nowadays, many young people are getting involved to bring changes, refusing to wait for the adult to take action and start making a difference. She believes that every young person can be a changemaker, but oftentimes they need help to guide them on when and where to start. From here, she knew that she needed a platform for the youth to get together and learn from each other. Melati then started a network called Circle of Youth within YOUTHOPIA. It’s a call for all young people to share positive stories with an impact, a real-life example, and how to take effective action. Melati believes that we all are sharing a collective goal, for our sustainable future and a better environment. Therefore, we need collective action led by young people for young people in the most authentic way. Her struggle is not hers alone, but all of us. And she successfully accelerated change and her vision of our shared goal with YOUTHOPIA. She is indeed a visionary leader, changemaker, and movement builder.
"Throughout history, we’ve seen large gatherings of people really uniting. To a point where there is no other way of seeing things. That was the result of people feeling they belong again, that they’re alive again because they have found a bigger purpose, bigger than themselves."
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