Nesianetwork.id - Nijmegen, Netherlands (27/09/2023) a Diponegoro University (UNDIP) student named Meyndi Christy took part in the student exchange program, Indonesia International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA), contributing to socializing Indonesian culture through the introduction of batik and traditional dishes that are open to local and international communities.
Together with 14 other IISMA Radboud Universiteit (RU) awardees, everyone in the team ensured that the event ran smoothly, including cooking the food, serving it, and socializing with the participants who came. Collaborating with the local student community, Meet and Eat, the IISMA team successfully held a social campaign event aimed at providing community service in providing food at affordable prices as a way to introduce rich culture through traditional Indonesian culinary delights.
Before leaving for the Netherlands, Meyndi was assigned as one of the event coordinators, along with 3 other awardees, who was responsible for implementing event ideas, overseeing planning, coordinating and monitoring divisions, and acting as a liaison/contact-person with collaborative partners. The process which took almost a month has succeeded in getting 50 participants in the event, with a strong interest in learning about Indonesian culture through culinary delights.
With the theme, Indonesian Night, the social campaign served traditional cuisine consisting of 3 consecutive dishes, made a presentation, and ended with a game of Kahoot for all event participants. Each dish is rich in culture, including a variety of fried foods (bakwan, stuffed tofu, tempeh), gado-gado, chicken satay and martabak.
The event continued by providing presentation material regarding the historical aspects of batik, food dishes, and the importance of being active in broadening your knowledge of other cultures. All IISMA awardees also wore batik clothing to represent Indonesian culture, each material showing off the beauty and pride of batik prints from their own country.
From this valuable experience, it is hoped that in order to preserve Indonesian culture, we must propose a strong initiative to share knowledge and strengthen relationships with various communities locally and internationally. So, a culture that is very rich in culture will always be a legacy that can be proud of from generation to generation, even to people all over the world.
Editor:
Achmad Munandar
