Depok – Wahid Foundation holds Muslim Leadership Exploration and Development (MLEAD) 2020. The agenda is a series of the Peace School program which runs from January 29 to February 2, 2020 at Wisma Hijau, Depok, West Java.
The activity that lasted for 5 days received high enthusiasm and a good impression for students and teachers of State High Schools (SMAN) from 4 different provinces.
Tatik Kustini, Teacher of SMAN 2 Surabaya said, “The Damai School Program is very good and should be applied not only in schools, but also in other government institutions, bearing in mind the impact of this School of Peace has succeeded in reducing disputes and creating peace in the school environment where I teach.” She said.
Previously, since 2017 the Wahid Foundation has committed to hold a School of Peace program to preserve a culture of peace in schools. This is the third year of the School of Peace program organized by the Wahid Foundation. The four provinces that participated in the event were DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java and East Java.
“The achievements of the School of Peace that can be felt directly are that the school community is now shoulder to shoulder to carry out commemoration of religious holidays without religious perspective,” she said, recently.
Even though they admitted that there were still many obstacles faced when implementing the follow-up plan for this activity, especially financial matters, the school and the school committee were committed to campaigning for the values of peace and tolerance to the school community.
Tatik added, government stakeholders should also support the activities initiated by the Wahid Foundation because the program is not only in the interests of schools but the overall integrity of the Nation, especially in the midst of rampant acts of violence and separatism movements involving young people.
In line with Tutik, Amalia Dwi Fitria, a student of SMAN 7 Semarang, admitted that she was happy to participate in an activity that presented 40 teachers consisting of Islamic subject teachers and school principals, as well as 40 Rohis (Rohani Islam) activist students.
“This program has greatly changed the way of thinking because we have better understood differences specifically. In addition, we are also fostered to develop an attitude of discipline, independence, responsibility and of course to respect differences in society,” she said.
The most attention-grabbing activity in the MLEAD 2020 program was the Ask me Anything session, where participants consisting of 40 students were allowed to ask 7 followers of religion and belief in accordance with reasonable limits. Amalia even said, “Ask me Anything is the most memorable session for us because in this session we are allowed to ask directly to adherents of other religions and beliefs outside of Islam which in turn makes us better appreciate differences in one’s beliefs,” she concluded.
