8 April 2009 - Santa Monica, CA.  The Excelso Café in Jakarta's newest shopping mall provided the ideal venue for a scholarship award ceremony thus completing OUREI Indonesia's first national search for literary talent at the high school and college level.  OUREI Indonesia received a grant from OUREI (USA) in late 2008 to administer their first scholarship program, and over 120 entries were submitted for consideration.  In the end, only 6 awards were given, which included a trophy, certificate and a monetary award. Five of the six recipients were able to be at the Excelso Café ceremony on 2 March 2009 in the Grand Indonesia.  Orang Utan Republik Foundation President Dr. Gary Shapiro was in Jakarta to present the awards with Ridhwan Effendi, OUREI Indonesia Vice Chairman, and to address the news media in attendance.  

 

 

The recipients of the essay contest at the college level included: FIKAR DAMAI S. GEA, student at the School of Social and Political Science at  Christian University (UKI) Jakarta (1^st place),  DELI GUSMIANTI, student in the department of Indonesian language studies at National University in Medan (UNIMED) (2^nd place), and ENDANG KURNIA, student at the English language study program at Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati, Cirebon, West Jawa (3^rd place). Essay contest winners at the high school level included: ADHIAH JULIARTI HARAHAP from Bengkulu (1^st place), GENJAR SETYAWAN CAHYOAJI from Bekasi (2^nd place), and ANGGUN IKE MARISYAH from South Bengkulu (3^rd place).  Deli Gusmianti, from Sumatra, received her award on 5 March 2009 during the opening ceremonies of the Orangutan Caring Club office In Medan, Sumatra.

The significance of this type of contest is beneficial to OUREI's mission. The topic of the essay contest was, "Protect the Orangutan and Habitat for Life". The contest gave students a chance to research the topic and use their creativity to make a convincing case to the essay judges.  In the process of competing, these students learned a significant amount of information about the species and its plight. They will become advocates for orangutans and help the Orangutan Caring Clubs advance their programs of education in the schools. Ideally, some of the students will be inspired to pursue graduate degrees in primatology. To help promote the contest and advance their mission, OUREI Indonesia will publish the essays in their newsletters and on their website

OUREI will continue to seek funding to assist OUREI Indonesia continue this program. OUREI is grateful to the Arcus Foundation for providing initial funding for this innovative program.