Amiya - My Blog

Scenario 1: High

In only five years of our operation, Students For Tomorrow has managed to lay a widespread impact in Indonesia and the Philippines. Furthermore, it has extended to other parts of Asia where the rich-poor and ethnic disparities are alarming.

Although rooting from small neighborhoods in Jakarta and Baguio City, SFT had expanded throughout the entire cities by 2011. Today over thousands of schools in Indonesia and the Philippines are members of SFT. Students from middle and high schools throughout Southern and Southeastern Asia also participate in online discussions and SFT activities in their respective countries.

SFT is partners with various international and local youth organizations. AIESEC, One World Youth Project, Interact and Oxfam International Youth Partnerships have joined us in the pursuit of a more prosperous and just tomorrow. Other international organizations such as UNICEF and USAID have also lent their support to SFT.

Some nationwide transformations, which have accompanied SFT’s five year-long existence are the 15% increase in the number of non-Indonesian background students entering the public school scene, interracial youth forums and less student disputes in Indonesia. In the Philippines, high school students had initiated developmental works in the rural areas. This was possible due to the greater communication between public schools in underdeveloped areas and urban public and private schools, which took place via SFT. Prestigious private schools have also increased the number of scholarships for public school students. In Indonesia, schools are also employing more teachers and enrolling more students from diverse racial groups. In both the Philippines and Indonesia, the number of interschool events, such as nationwide and local debate competitions, sports tournaments, spelling bees and educational workshops, has increased significantly. Today, SFT is recognized in the countries it operates and worldwide and has received focus in national newspapers and magazines, international youth conferences, etc.

Apart from the government, UNDP and USAID now fund these works. Local businesses have been also sponsoring various community development-based works and have shown their support through funds, free supplies and etc.

Backcasting for Scenario 1:

Before officially beginning SFT, schools had expressed immense interest in our project. Right after opening the online discussions, around twenty-five schools in Jakarta and thirteen in Baguio City joined us.

The generous grant from Microsoft had been sufficient to start the project in full swing. This was followed by three major SFT events including a fundraising activity in Jakarta and a student marathon in Baguio City. Both were tremendous successes and helped spread the word on SFT. The number of member schools shot up by more than twofold after them.

Technical backing from the Department of Education of the Philippines and the Ministry of Education of Indonesia assisted us in legalizing SFT and increasing its effectiveness. We received regular advice and information on social issues from the government bodies. Schools were greatly impressed by SFT’s support from the government. The government also helped in making SFT’s program compulsory in many areas.

One of SFT’s initial objectives was to collaborate with already-existing local youth groups and organizations. This helped us further promote ourselves on both a nationwide and worldwide scale.

We decided to take a brave step in our third year of functioning when we sent proposals to different international youth organizations. This helped SFT reach a more global existence. Our joint existence with these organizations has changed people's take on SFT and they truly encourage our work.

SFT maintained regular correspondence with schools and visited schools for meetings and promotional work. This helped retain our members and students. We updated and monitored the online threads daily. To ensure the students’ interest, SFT employed its research team to decide on more creative and effective approaches to accomplishing our goals. This also involved surveying students, teachers and partner organizations. We successful started student exchange programs in our second year, mini community projects and annual fundraisers and events in our first year. SFT’s constant activity greatly helped achieve its position as a successful youth organization.


Scenario 2: Medium

Today, SFT is running in approximately 400 schools in Indonesia and the Philippines. We are partnered by several local youth organizations, which assist in promoting and support us during annual events. Schools have responded surprisingly well and apart from student exchange programs, around fifteen schools in both cities have been participating in interschool community development works.

Schools and our partner organizations claim that the previous indifference faced between students of public and private has relatively decreased. Today, an ordinary public high school student in Jakarta may indeed be friends with a student from a private school. In Baguio City, a passerby may spot a private high school student improving houses of the poor alongside a public school student. These are no longer unusual and are very basic but significant changes. The students of our member schools are well connected. They can relate to one another despite background and race.

Scenario 3: Low

Students For Tomorrow’s progress in the last five years has been somewhat lower than initially forecasted. The response we received from schools at the start was highly commendable but during the course of our operation, we received very little support from similar organizations and the government. Our staff was underemployed and local volunteers were also low. As a result, we have not been able to successfully expand. The reasons behind this lie in our inability to communicate and coordinate amongst ourselves and potential stakeholders efficiently. Students For Tomorrow however strives to grow as an organization and we aim to try to boost up our progress. Starting from last year we have been resuming our recruitment processes and promoting our project. We also plan to start a fundraiser in both Jakarta and Baguio City involving our 16 member schools.