Friday, June 20th, 2014 was a special night for Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (YCAB Foundation). Together with PT Multistrada Arah Sarana, the national tire producer of Achilles and Corsa brands, YCAB Foundation held the 6th Angel of Change Night which took place at the Kempinski Grand Ballroom, Jakarta.
This year’s Angel of Change theme was ‘Symphony of Hope’ – a concept that was adopted from a beautiful melody harmoniously arranged to create hope for underprivileged children. The spacious Grand Ballroom was beautifully decorated in a dark blue hue, carefully prepared to seat around 400 invited guests. By 6:30 PM, guests were arriving and had their photographs taken at our wall of fame.
Guests in the foyer were invited to meet Jumali, one of our gifted students who had skillfully produced bags and small pouches to sell. Jumali did not earn enough money to go to school after his father passed away and his mother became ill. He continued going to school despite of his difficult situation and studied at ‘Rumah Jahit’, one of YCAB Foundation’s vocational classes that taught students how to sew. Now, not only he is able to stand on his own selling bags, he still has a dream to pursue: to become a lawyer.
Also presented in the foyer was our coffee table book – an idea we came up with in collaboration with Indonesia Leica Community (idL) called the “Angel of Change: On the Flipside”. The book is a photo essay project to show the optimistic side of under privileged communities, where there is a genuine passion and dignity from several remarkable women who became the backbone of their families; five of which were present at the event. This year’s Angel of Change Night also aimed to promote the coffee table book, which was curated by Oscar Motuloh, an esteemed photojournalist.
With the proceeds from this event, we will be able to help more than 150 students to get proper education. A number of entertainers such as Addie MS Musicians, Tompi, and Joseph Nayaka Clarence enlivened this event.
“We believe that every child has the right to live life to its fullest. We are here to love and give them hope and opportunity so they can pursue their dreams. In the last 15 years, we have learned that although providing education is important, education alone is not enough. We have to create education opportunities hand in hand with economic empowerment. That is the only way that sustainability can be achieved,” says Veronica Colondam, the Founder / CEO of YCAB Foundation.
YCAB Foundation launched the Angel of Change campaign back on February 10, 2009 as an annual event that aimed to inspire individuals and corporations to invest in the education of underprivileged children in Indonesia. We believe that by providing these children with education, we are helping them break the poverty cycle and changing the outlook of generations to come.
Although widely known as a fundraising event, the Angel of Change is also an event where we express our gratitude to companies that have long supported YCAB’s vision.