The EngageMedia Team
Andrew Lowenthal – Co-Founder and Executive Director (Sydney)
Andrew Lowenthal has been working in the field of media and technology activism since 1998. He got started with video activists Access News in the late nineties before moving on to work as an editor and coordinator with Melbourne Indymedia for six years.
From 2006-08 he worked with the UK based Tactical Technology Collective as their participatory media project lead, editing the NGO-in-a-box series of free software packages and the more recent Message-in-a-box, as well as facilitating at training camps in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Thailand and India.
Andrew is a 2012/13 affiliate of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a visiting research affiliate at the MIT Open Documentary Lab in 2013/14.
Languages: English, Spanish + Italian, Indonesian (conversational)
Cheekay Cinco - Skills and Strategies Program Manager (Manilla)
Born, raised and living in the Philippines, Cheekay is a feminist activist who has been working in the area of non-profit technology for more than a decade. From 1998 to 2001, she worked with the now-defunct Asian Women's Resource Exchange (AWORC), a network of women's resource centres. From 2002 to 2010, she was a regular staff at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), where she was part of the Women's Networking Support Programme (WNSP) and the Strategic Technologies and Network Development Programme (STAND). At APC, she also developed the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM), managed the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX), conducted training on different internet-based technologies for other organisations, and wrote manuals on social media for advocacy.
Since then, Cheekay has been working as a freelance and volunteer trainer for various local and international activist groups, designing and conducting training workshops to support the strategic, secure and appropriate use of internet-based technologies for advocacy and activism.
Languages: English, Tagalog + Spanish, Korean (conversational)
Enrico Aditjondro – Southeast Asia Editor (Jakarta)
Enrico has lived and worked in Indonesia, West Papua, the US, Australia and Timor Leste. He started his journalism career in 1998 when he joined THE MARITIME WORKERS’ JOURNAL in Sydney, reporting on labor issues and shipping industry. Seeking for more excitement, he moved to Jakarta and joined the Southeast Asia Press Alliance in 2000, while also traveling and working in Timor Leste with UNESCO and UNTAET.
Enrico also campaigned around corruption issues for Transparency International-Indonesia and in 2005 he was the Southeast Asia Representative for the International News Safety Institute. The same year he co-founded and became managing editor for PARAS INDONESIA, one of the country’s leading bilingual social-political website during those years. Enrico spent almost four years running media campaigns and chasing chickens for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Avian Influenza Programme in Indonesia. He was a fan of EngageMedia before joining the group in May 2009. He is now based in Jakarta, writing, producing films and maintaining the Southeast Asia content for EngageMedia.
Languages: English, Indonesian, West Papuan creole, Javanese + Tetum (conversational)
Seelan Palay – Video Lingua Coordinator (Singapore)
Seelan Palay has been an artist, filmmaker and activist since 2005. For the past 6 years, he has campaigned on human rights issues in Asia, with a focus on Singapore and Burma. He has produced over 100 videos, and was one of the first contributors to EngageMedia. He has organized numerous exhibitions, demonstrations, forums and workshops to raise awareness and encourage action to bring about positive change in Asia. He is also part of the organizing committee of the Freedom Film Festival in Singapore.
As the current Video Lingua Coordinator for EngageMedia, he is working to broaden public access and communication on critical human rights and environmental stories from Southeast Asia by developing a regional network of volunteer translators and subtitlers.
Languages: English, Tamil + Thai, Malay, Indonesian, and Mandarin (conversational)
Hendriati Trianita - Program and Operations Manager (Jakarta)
She was previously working with a number of National and International NGOs in Indonesia, doing advocacy, research, and management work. She has 15 years of experience with NGOs like WALHI, INSIST, Plan International, and UN-OCHA, working on issues such as gender, human rights, interfaith dialouge, the environment, and community empowerment.
Her academic background in Studies in Communications and Media led her to work in some media projects, such as participatory video for children in disaster affected areas, producing a video for a HIV/AIDS campaign, and another a series of videos on the Merapi Volcanic Disaster Risk Reduction campaign.
By joining EngageMedia, Nita hopes to learn more about how we can help activists to “talk to the world”, and provide more spaces for them to share ideas with wider communities.
Languages: English, Indonesian + Javanese (conversational)
Diah Sekarwidhi - Southeast Asia Logistics Coordinator (Jakarta)
After graduating as an accountant, Diah pursued her long held passion for culture and the arts. In 2006, she was a co-founder of the now biannual Vidiot: Indonesia-Dutch Video Festival in Semarang. For the next 3 years, Diah managed Importal, an arts collective focused on promoting artistic and visual literacy to youngsters in Semarang. Importal organized various video participation workshops, screen-printing workshops, photography exhibitions, film screenings, and published video compilations; Direct Documentary #1 and #2. After taking part in Curatorial workshops run by ruangrupa, Jakarta, Diah joined the team at the Jakarta Biennale 2009 as the fringe events coordinator.
When Diah received a fellowship from Yayasan Kelola, as she began a cultural management internship at CCF (French Cultural Centre) Yogyakarta. She also worked at the Jakarta-based art gallery, Nadi for several years, where she acquired essential competencies in management and organisation.
Languages: English, Indonesian + Javanese (conversational)
Yerry Niko Borang - Indonesian Content, Training and Projects Coordinator (Jakarta)
Borang Yerry Niko is an independent journalist based in Jakarta. While studying in university in 1998, he joined the student movement and produced several propaganda bulletins. From 1999, working with publishers in Yogyakarta, he helped translate several English books on politics and literature into Indonesian, including Orwell's Animal Farm.
In 2004 he participated in early meetings to rebuild Indymedia Jakarta. He worked as a radio/web/video journalist for more than six years at vhrmedia.com. During that time, he also worked with community radio and media networks.
Languages: English, Indonesian + Javanese, Malay-Manadonese, Japanese (conversational)
Dhyta Caturani - Migrant Workers Project Coordinator (Jakarta)
Dhyta has been an activist since the early 90s when she was in still in high school. When she was in college she joined a student movement group and then became a member of the national executive of a progressive non-electoral political party.
In 1999, she was leading a demonstration and was shot and beaten by the Indonesian police. Since then, she has worked for various NGOs and grass roots organizations, focusing on a range of issues such as women; children; workers; LGBT; involuntary disappearances and the case of 1965; and sexual and reproductive rights for young people. She has been a founder of several women's and LGBT organizations, both in Indonesia and in New York.
Since 2006, Dhyta has divided her time between Indonesia and New York. In 2009, she co-founded JAVIN, a network of documentary video makers, which brought her in contact with EngageMedia. She dedicates all of her work to justice and equality for all.
Languages: English, Indonesian, Javanese + Manadonese (conversational)
Anne Beatrice - Project Coordinator (Malaysia)
Anne Beatrice is a graduate of Information Technology at the Multimedia University of Malacca, Malaysia. She has been involved in the student movement since her time at University and has worked full-time in the student movement in the Southern and Northern regions of Malaysia from 2004 to 2010. She has campaigned for several human rights issues such as student rights, indigenous (Orang Asli) rights, migrant worker rights, refugee rights, and womens rights.
From 2004 to 2011, she was the Secretariat of the Malaysian Catholic Students Movement. She has co-founded the SALT Program and SALT group, and the North South Initiative, which is a support and advocacy group for peace in Southern Thailand, Papua, and democracy in the region. She is also part of the Malaysian Support Group for Democracy in Thailand.
She is a co-advisor to the video documentary and advocacy project, Projek Anti Kaiduan Dam, Sabah. She is currently also an active member of the Community Action Network and the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ICMICA).
Languages: English, Malay + Tamil (conversational)
Maxim Solovyev – Finance & Administration Coordinator (Melbourne)
Maxim Solovyev has a degree in Accounting from Monash University and has been a bookkeeper in the not-for-profit sector for three years. Prior to bookkeeping Maxim worked in the retail industry as a Junior Administrator. He also has a passion for sports, in particular soccer.
Languages: English, Russian
