Passing on the opportunity that changed her mother's life

Schools near landfill sites in Bekasi. CintaIndo has worked with communities to renovate them, Elaine Hartono says, using durable, eco-friendly materials.

CintaIndo is a youth-led education organization in Indonesia. She built it over the past two years, and she describes its focus as democratizing access to opportunities "that too often depend on where a student is born or how much their family can afford."

“Growing up, I realized how extraordinary that opportunity was and how few Indonesian students ever receive anything comparable.”

Elaine Hartono

The cycle starts with her mother. She grew up in a modest family, and "education was the one opportunity that changed her life," Elaine says. Through years of hard work, it enabled her mother to build a future in which Elaine could attend an international school.

"Over the past two years, I built CintaIndo to continue this cycle," she says. The organization has partnered with organizations and companies including BCA, EDUALL, Djarum Bakti Pendidikan and Revociety to bring students opportunities that range from financial literacy to healthy living. It has published books of its programs. Teachers can access them freely, so they can continue teaching students.

Now the organization is developing an internship pathway for talented high school students with Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara, YKAN. The pathway is free. It connects students to research exposure guided by mentors, and these experiences, she says, give them research exposure "that strengthens both their scientific skills and future scholarship application."

She has just graduated from Monash University.