EngageMedia in Jogja: A chat with Kampung Halaman

Kampung Halaman

Founded in April 2006, Kampung Halaman is a non-profit organization that fosters the use of popular audio-visual media in community-based programs, particularly targeting youth, in pursuing transformation towards a better society.

Background

Kampung Halaman believes that youth should become the most important members of the communities in this world, as they are the keys to the success of the regeneration process.

Contemporary processes of social change are influenced not only by the distribution and exchange of goods/money and the transfer of people, but also by the exchange of images and imagination brokered by the media, particularly by audio-visual media, such as film and television.

It is a fact that in Indonesia, the young are the members of the community that are most affected by film and television today. TV shows and films produced in ‘other’ places and by ‘other’ people who have their own agenda (particularly economic), often confuse and encourage viewers to build dreams that are not realistic, distancing them from their actual environment, effacing their sensitivity and attachment to their own communities, and in the end, rendering them POWERLESS.

Mission

It is hoped that the youth involved in Kampung Halaman’s programs will be able to identify the problems they are facing, understand their positions as agents of change, and identify “social capital” owned by the community in the areas where they live so that they can initiate action to improve the conditions of their community (kampung halaman).