'What causes matter most to you?'

Monique Natalia, Contributor, Jakarta

Who says that young people are not concerned about what is happening around them. We asked some young people in Jakarta about the causes that they care most about, and what are they doing to support them.

Anantya, 21, South Jakarta: I really care about environmental causes, especially those that concern animal rights. Animal rights matter more to me because caring for animals to me is like caring for my own pets. My affection toward animals is stronger than to other environmental causes.

For me it is easier to show my affection to animals than to, say, trees. With animals I can find out their response to my affection. Their expressions seem more real to me. Maybe it's also because I have lots of pets. I used to have a dog, and now I have a few turtles, fish and birds. When I was small I even wanted to be a vet.

To support my love for animals I like to buy WWF stuff. I buy them partly because they're cute and also because the profits helps the animals. I also used to join this activity organized by aikon called Gelar Kebon. Every week we would go to Ragunan Zoo to feed the animals and help clean up their cages. I only went twice, though, because it was very tiring, but it was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed it.

Another reason why I don't go anymore is that none of my friends come to this activity and it's kind of hard for me to break into a new group all by myself. I think this kind of activity is good to develop your environmental awareness. This is where your love for the environment can start to grow.

What I really want to do is volunteer at an animal shelter; unfortunately we don't have that kind of place in Indonesia.

Teto, 19, Bekasi: Right now, my attention mostly is on the all the floods that have been happening in Jakarta. There have been a lot of people who are suffering because of the floods. Fortunately my house didn't get flooded, but I know a lot of people that are close to me whose houses were flooded. The dangers are very real now.

I know that I haven't really done anything to help, but I really wanted to. It actually occurred to my friends and I to help collect donations for the flood victims. I don't know why but we never got around to doing it, but we did manage to collect some things which we put together with the stuff that the people from my school are sending to those flood victims.

I still want to help out, but I admit until now I still haven't done anything. The problem with me is that I lack the initiative, so it would be hard for me if I want to start doing something all by myself. I would, gladly help out if someone asked, though.

Putri, 17, South Jakarta: For me what is really important is the problem of drugs. It's really too bad to see a lot of young people waste their lives and time for drugs. There have been a lot of people who have become drug addicts, and most of them at such a young age, too. This is really bad. The sad thing is, it is hard to help them. Most of them take drugs to be and to look cool.

They don't think what they're doing is very wrong and dangerous. The bad thing is most of the time the drugs make them lose all their faith in other people so it would be hard if I wanted to try and help them.

Still, if any of my friends, or anyone comes to me for help, I would gladly help them. I would help them as much as I could. Maybe by taking and throwing out drugs that I find on my friends or maybe talk to them about going to a rehabilitation center.

Sarah, 14, South Jakarta: Drugs and smoking are the two things that I hate. Lots of people are killed from doing drugs. They use them just to be cool. In fact two of my really good friends died from drug overdoses. It was when I was still in Australia. They were really young when they died, 13 years old. It was very sad.

Smoking also kills, you know, plus it smells really bad!

I would do something by telling people I know not to do it or just help them out by telling them about the bad effects of using drugs. I would ask the people who are taking drugs why they are doing it and why do they need to take them. I want to help them realize that it's really bad.

Nicolo, 21, South Jakarta: What I really care about are natural disasters and crisis situations. For all the other causes, a lot of other people are already doing something about it, like the environment for example, there are all these groups that try to preserve the environment and protect animal rights and so on.

So I support causes that involves situational crisis, like the floods that are happening right here in Jakarta.

What I mean by situational is that it happens so suddenly that most people are not ready for it. I can try to help in this kind of situation. When a disaster strikes, you don't have time to sit and think things through like what most people at those social or environmental organizations do, you have to do something right away and that's what I like.

Right now I'm involved in something called the humanitarian aid for flood victims organized by my church. But they're not only doing things for flood victims, we've also done quite a lot in the past. Like in 1998 when there were riots and everything, we supplied food, medicine, and information for the riot victims. We also helped out in the flooding at Situbondo. It goes on and off, depending on the situation, which is right now the flood. So that's what we're doing.

I care about helping people. Bringing help for people who are in trouble often means putting ourselves into an adventure. That's what I like. You get to be involved in an adventure and help people at the same time.

David, 16, West Jakarta: The cause that I care about is the education for children. There are a lot of people my age that do not have the chance to go to school. This means that they don't have a chance in getting a better future for themselves. This is really sad. Unfortunately, there are a lot of these cases going on in Indonesia. There are only a few people who can afford a good education.

I would like to do something to help if I can, but, unfortunately, I don't have the resources to do that. I'm still a student myself. Right now, school takes up most of my time. Maybe when I get older, or when I get into college, I will start thinking more about doing something to support my beliefs.