Congrats to organizers and thanks for the invite.

You are a key constituency because you are unique bridge-builders having succeeded in both Indonesia and America.

Many of you have expressed your interest in giving back and helping build US-Indonesian relations.  Thank you!  We accept!

Here are a few ways you can help:

1. Establish contact with us and other Indonesians who have attended US universities and participated in exchange programs.

   • Download our Alumni app and send us your email and contact info to exchangealumni@state.gov.

2. Participate in our programs.  You are living the dream that many young Indonesians have of studying or living overseas.  At @america, we are always looking for speakers to help inspire our young audiences.  We would love for you to speak to our many school groups who come to @america to learn how Americans and Indonesians are collaborating with each other in every sector of our societies.

   • Participate in @America programs by DVC.  We welcome participants with experience in business/ entrepreneurship/ innovation, education, climate change, human rights/ religious tolerance, and many more. Check out the website http://www.atamerica.or.id/ for more info on the programs we do.

   You might be interested to know, for ex, that in March 2013 and August 2013, we hosted some Congress of Indonesia Diaspora events at @america.  At these two events, members of the Indonesian Diaspora Network discussed plans to connect overseas Indonesians with Indonesians here.

   • To help you share your energy and expertise, we encourage you to plan @america events, which will increase connections and collaborations between our two countries.  We encourage you to submit your event proposals through @america’s website.  Just click on Contact Us and then Collaborate with Us.  There you can submit your event ideas.  We stand ready to collaborate with you.

3. Contribute to our RLO program:  we do a lot of outreach to our main posts in Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan but also to these other key cities and regions:

   •Cirebon, Semarang, and Solo on Java
   •Batam and Jambi on Sumatra
   •Pontianak and Balikpapan in Kalimantan

   If you are from any of these cities, we would welcome ideas of how we could work together.

4. Help promote US education in Indonesia:  would you be willing to record a video of your education experience in the U.S.?  Would you be willing to help promote US education when you come back to Indonesia either on holiday or for good?
5. Help promote Indonesia in the US.  Indonesia is the most important country in the world that few Americans know anything about.

   • Diaspora communities play a hugely important role in helping build knowledge and understanding about their country of origin.
   • Think about encouraging and supporting more Indonesian studies programs at your local universities or alma maters

6. Diaspora giving:  India giving.org example
7. If you are an American citizen, engage your Senators and your Representative, encourage them to join to the Indonesia Caucus and to travel to Indonesia.

By U.S. Embassy Jakarta | 2 August, 2014 | Topics: Speeches