by Tenzin
Web Correspondent
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund
My name is Tenzin, I’m from Minnesota, and this fall I’ll be a first year Pharm.D student at the College of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University. But right now, I am studying Indonesian and interning at the Planned Parenthood of Indonesia in Bandung, Indonesia.
My internship was made available through the Freeman Indonesia Non-profit Internship Program in order to strengthen the relation of Indonesia and U.S.A through non-government organization internships. I had chosen the public health sector due to my interest and experience in the health field. I believe that health education should be a right to every human being since this knowledge is essential for well-being. When I found out I was placed in the Planned Parenthood of Indonesia (PKBI in Indonesian), I felt it perfectly suited my beliefs and aim in life
My internship experience includes many different aspects of family planning and reproduction education in Bandung. I work to educate the general public/students as well as doing outreach work to female sex workers, the HIV positive population, injection drug users, street children, and other marginalized communities about reproductive health. In Indonesia sexual education is forbidden in schools and the general public is very secretive when it comes to talking about sex.
I am learning so much about family planning, the role of the government and the importance of NGO’s like PKBI. I am planning to give back to the community here by organizing an event on a college campus to raise awareness about sustaining Bandung socially, economically, and environmentally and by presenting materials from Planned Parenthood MN-ND-SD to help organize volunteers.
My experience here feels so surreal. This internship has given me the opportunity to meet courageous people and hear unbelievable stories. I have observed and listened with a strong heart and held the tears, but sometimes it’s too much to hold back. One particularly moving moment was when I was helping a young woman whom I had only met a week before while I was doing outreach work. This woman is HIV positive, a former drug addict, pregnant, a mother of a young child, and a sex worker who lives on the streets. She’s about the same age as me but with unimaginable experiences.
Ibu, a co-worker convinced the young woman to get help. Through our work she will be staying at a center for HIV+ people, no longer living on the streets, for the next 6-12 months. She also will receive job training for the future. The name “Ibu” means mother in Indonesian and that was exactly who she was to the young woman. Ibu held the young woman’s hand throughout the journey and kept repeating words of encouragement. She told her to try her best here to help herself and her children. Ibu kept repeating a word, “senang”, and each time was followed by a hand on her heart. Senang means happy in Indonesian. Later I found out she kept saying that the only thing she wanted from the young woman was for her to be happy, which would only come if the woman did her best to change her life for the better. When we all said goodbye, I felt my strength weaken and tears silently rolled down my cheeks as Ibu gave her words of encouragement for the last time that day.
The inspirational people I have met here, like Ibu and the young woman, gives me more motivation to continue my interest in helping others in the public health field. This internship keeps giving me these unbelievable experiences, which I am proud to be part of and am forever grateful for.
