1. CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT OF INDONESIAN FUTURE LEADERS www.imanusman.com | e: imanusman@gmail.com M. IMAN USMAN, 19 LEADING TO INSPIRE
2. Iman has been passionate on community development and youth empowerment since he was child Muhamad ImanUsman (Iman) was born on 21 st of December 1991 in Padang, Indonesia. He is well-know in the country as Founder and President of Indonesian Future Leaders, youth activist, public speaker, consultant, blogger, Founder of Youth-Parliament, and ASEAN-Indonesia Youth Ambassador. His interest and passion to empower and struggle for children brought him to join and develop numerous activism led by kids. He has been an active volunteer and community member since he was ten years old. At that time, he established a free course and library for children in his neighborhood. When he was 14, he founded and developed an online shop for Harry Potter marchandise and led numerous events in various subjects in his town. His involvement in child rights area became more intensive as he elected as General Secretary for West Sumatera Children Foruma children led organization that struggling and promoting for child rights in West Sumatera, Indonesia, and founded a youth led community, Komunitas Anak Kritis Indonesia in 2007
3. In 2009, he founded Indonesian Future Leaders , a youth led non profit organization that aims to empower young people to be able to bring constructive changes and be solution for social problems. In Indonesian Future Leaders, he led numerous programs in community service, capacity building, as well advocacy to government for issues related to young people. Today, Indonesian Future Leaders has more than 4 estabslished chapters, 500 active volunteers, and more than 40.000 beneficiaries that spread around the country. He also utilizes the power of media to amplify his message, as he appeared and shared in numerous TV programs, radio talkshows, magazines, and newspapers. He has shared directly to more than 15.000 students through his sessions/ trainings. He has been experienced to represent Indonesia in various international conferences, symposiums, training, and forum, including G20 Summit 2010 in Toronto, Canada; UN High Level Meeting on Youth in New York 2011, Mondialogo World School Contest – a largest world collaborative project competition for students – in China as he elected as world finalist among 2200 projects entries worldwide; ASEF Meeting in Belgium, Global Changemaker Summit in London, and more. Lately, he just received a 5 weeks full scholarship for winter course program, Study of United States for Student Leaders on Religious Pluralism in United States of America. These experiences led his passion to promote intercultural dialogue and collaboration in Indonesia and the world. His projects has impacted more than 40.000 beneficiaries
4. Spaking at UN High Level Meeting on Youth, in New York, July 2011
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6. What Inspires Him? Since he was child, he was the one who believed in dreams. For him, a life without dreams was just like driving without a destination. Dreams became the stepping stones and foundation of enjoying his life – making it valuable to the world. His dream was simple, but most people thought that it was too big, or even too idealistic. But he believed that there is no dream too big, because it is not a dream if it is not big. He just wanted a better world, a better place for every single child in the world to live, to survive, and to develop. When he was a child, he was treated unjustly. His opinion was dismissed. His voice was deemed meaningless by society. He had nowhere to speak his ideas, and bring them to action. He also saw that many kids felt the same as he did. He did not come from a wealthy or well-educated family. But, he believed these challenges should not be justifications to undermine or discriminate against him. That 10-year-old kid insisted, and reminds me every day: that no matter what your background is, no matter how old you are, you are a human being with rights and liberty. The painful realities he endured led him to embark the journey in improving his own quality of life, and step-by-step, try to improve the quality of human beings around him. He believed that he couldn’t wait for someone to come and fix his life – and then his journey of changemaking was started. “ I couldn’t speak any language beside my mother tongue but I know I can speak the word of change. I couldn’t play any musical instrument, sing, dance, or anything else that I can be proud of but I listened to the tune in my heart. Each one of us, can do something” – Iman in New York, August 2011