Elisabet Ardiningsih Wiko: 

At first, I would like to tell how did I join IMCS Program. I get the information about IMCS from our Head of PMKRI branch East Jakarta. I felt happy when heard this because it is fresh from the oven program for me. I was too curious and I decided to join this event. I was surprised when I knew that all the participants came from different countries. It is challenging for me because I have to always speak in English to another, not in Bahasa. I have to face the music to improve my English skills.

I followed this event from the beginning to the end. During this activity, I learned many things, get new information that I have never known before, learned how to be patient and learned to be good in teamwork. Not only these but also I got a lot of moral lessons also. The difference is the common thing on this earth, but if the difference able to unite the diversity then it is extraordinary. International Movement of Catholic Students in the program that unite all participants of different backgrounds, of different ages, educational background, cultures and languages, and different countries too.  What does make us the one? All the participants came from different countries but we felt one as the Catholic students, as the children of Jesus Christ. We are one because we faced almost the same things in our own environments, in our social life in our country, in our lovely world. We cannot close our eyes to see the reality and we can’t always close our ears to the deepest lament of untouchable people. We can’t keep on pretending, we need to speak up and do something.

There are too many things that I got during this activity. I opened my eyes to the new information told by my friends from abroad. They share their information in their country, told about the history of their country until all the problems that they faced nowadays. We discuss with each other and sometimes we debated, and all were through as well. Diversity is common for us but the meeting is the first step in how we overcome all the conflict based on pluralism. Pluralism is a good thing if we realize that we are different and try to respect one another. But on the other hand, pluralism is the biggest root case of conflict if we unaccepted the diversity of our social life. With this program, we met and discussed all the current issues in society and we have to get critical thinking to understand all the case not only on the surface but also from the root case and tried to find the solutions to overcome the problems. We are different of course we had a different view to see the case based on our personal point of view but in this program, we learned to respect other opinions and discussed together to understand the root case and tried to fix it based on our ability.

In this era of disruption technology, we faced different kinds of problems. We faced another type of colonized. We have to always be responsive and is critical to all developments in the real life of our daily life. As Catholic students, we have to be responsible for social safety and prosperity. We are young. We are fresh. We are free to show who we are. Speak up and break down the silence. During the discussing in the IMCS Program, we practiced to be critical thinking and I think it is very suitable for us in this era.

Finally, I hope IMCS always holds the same program by discussing the actual and current issues faced by society. This is also the way to help the Catholic Children to be responsive to all problems and try to find solutions to each problem. We have to break the silence and show freedom. We are unhampered if we courage to take action together with the Love of Jesus Christ.

Elisabet Ardiningsih Wiko, Member of   The Union of Catholic University Students of the Republic of Indonesia (PMKRI)