A Rainbow by the Riverbank, Yogyakarta

The children are drawing, coloring, and having fun.

Written by: Intan Ravanza, Tanoto Scholar from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta

“Sister, will you color my drawing?”

“I’ll do it later. Please wait until mine is done.”

The conversation is heard while I was accompanying my sisters as the she joined the Drawing and Coloring Competition at the Jetisharjo Excursion Village, a village by the Riverbank of Kali Code in Yogyakarta. The event is held on Sunday, 8 November 2015. The event was my first after I became Tanoto Scholars Association from Gadjah Mada University (TSA UGM), a community of Tanoto Foundation scholarship recipients at UGM.

For some people, drawing and coloring might be just a typical activity, especially for school kids. However, this perception was gone from my mind within seconds. Drawing is not just a mere sctach of pencil colors on a white sheet of paper. Coloring is not just about combining colors with one another. Apparentlyy, there is abundance of meaning in the process of drawing and coloring, such as time management, creativity, and courage.

I am appaled by the enthuasism of the participating kids. In the case of two sisters, Shifa and Sheril, for example, they opened my eyes in understanding the meaning of support. Sheril, the younger of the two, found it difficult to do the coloring. She was not confident after looking at the work of her older sister, which is a lot nicer and organized. Sheril was whining and crying, asking for her sister to complete her work.

“Your drawing is good enough. Just continue with this purple color,” said Shifta while helping her sister in picking colors for her work.

Beyond helping her sister, Shifa also told other participants to refrain from saying negative comments regarding her sister’s work Whatever the result of the work is, Shifa thinks everyone has to say positive things in order to boost her sister’s confidence in herself and her capabilities.

At the end of the event, all of the participants bravely came forward. They all showed their individual work, and all of them received a massive welcome from the residents of Jetishardo who attended the event.

Apart from sharing with the kids at Jetisharjo, the activity is also beneficial all of my friends from TSA UGM and myself. We were able to learn about teamwork in realizing this program. More importantly, we learned a lot from these children on how to support one another and to motivate each other’s confidence in their capabilities.