Denpasar, On Thursday, 21st of July, Yakeba together with Sloka Institute organized a writing workshop at the premises of Yakeba in Denpasar. The workshop served as capacity building for the Yakeba staff and its clients – members of “vulnerable communities”. Two facilitators from Sloka Institute were present, Luh Deh Suriyani and Anton Muhajir. Both are dedicated freelance journalists and members of the Bali Blogger Community. The workshop was attended by the complete Yakeba staff as well as a number of Yakeba’s clients.
Activities started with a short introduction of each participant. After this, Adi Mantara, director of Yakeba, held a short introduction statement. He explained that the purpose of this training was to equip the outreach workers, activists and members of high risk groups with new skills and knowledge related to writing. He emphasized that writing should be considered an important tool for outreach workers, as they are the ones who can best describe the situation in the field. This would not only improve their work performance but by writing they could also pass their experiences and knowledge on to the wider public. But also members of high risk groups should be able to voice their issues and concerns through writing as a way to empower themselves.
After a short break, Luh Deh Suriyani started by providing some basic information on writing. She explained that there are many types of writings and that through writing any issue could be addressed. She then went on to say that, most importantly, a text should be interesting to read and be easily understood by its readership. Participants then had to do a small writing exercise. After the exercise she equipped the participants with a technique called “5 w 1 h” which should help writers to start writing a text. This was very useful, as many people find it difficult as how to begin writing a text.
After the lunch break Anton Muhajir regained the participants attention with a short and amusing activity called “ice breaker”. Thereafter he encouraged the participants to create a short writing about personal change. Subsequently Anton discussed one of the created texts and gave inputs on how to improve it. Participants were then asked to revise and finish their article.
For many of the participants it was their first encounter with the world of writing and they were quite enthusiastic to gain more knowledge and improve their skills. “The workshop was very interesting and I hope it will help me to write better field reports in the future, so it will benefit my work. Even though one day is not enough to learn how to write better, it is a good start,” said Desak, an outreach worker of Yakeba in Tabanan. Harli, a client of Yakeba, added that “if we improve our writing we can also write better e-mails and this is very important these days.”
At the end of the workshop Yakeba handed over two symbolic awards. One to Anton Muhajir, facilitator and representative of Sloka Institute and another one to Nyoman Budaya, representative of the vulnerable communities.
As Desak said, the art of good writing cannot be learned within one day, it needs a lot of practice. But the workshop was a successful introduction and will hopefully stimulate the participants’ interest in becoming better and more creative writers. Especially when it comes to topics which are surrounded by secrecy and stigma, like HIV and AIDS, writing can be a useful tool to change public perceptions and is good for education more generally.
By Felix Neuenschwander