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UNAIR NEWS – Among 2,292 UNAIR graduates conferred by Prof. Dr. H. Mohammad Nasih, MT., SE., Ak., MCA., on Saturday, March 19, 2016, there were five foreign students. One of them was Danielle Tello Roija, the graduate from Colombia had finished her study in Management Master program, UNAIR Faculty of Economics through Developing Country Partnership (KNB) scholarship. During graduation, Danielle made a speech representing all graduates.

In her speech, Danielle expressed gratitude to Indonesian government and UNAIR for giving her an opportunity to learn through KNB program. She said that learning in UNAIR was not an easy task and the main obstacles was on how to adapt especially regarding the language.

After that, Danielle presented more serious matter in her speech. She urges the graduates to act and solve problems in Indonesia especially on poverty and gender gap.

“One of our greatest challenges is poverty. There are 805 million people in the world who don’t have enough food. Today, March 19, is also the day where 22,000 children die out of poverty,” said the woman from Colombia before went on gender gap problems.

”I, Danielle Tello, a woman, is vulnerable to rape or any domestic violence. The risk of violence is even higher than cancer, traffic accidents, wars and malaria. It is the challenge for all of us,” said Danielle seriously.

She also reminded the attendees on other global challenges, such as global warming, limited access to clean water and sanitation, hunger and other challenges. Therefore, she invited all the graduates to respond accordingly to solve the problems with their own ways.

”I want us to understand how lucky we are, as I am. I am lucky for being able to get a master degree, when 62 million women out there do not have access to education,” said the beautiful lady.

She expected all graduates to use the knowledge they have to build better future as it is the best way to establish ������’s reputation.

“These are my commitments. I want to provide solutions. We all can solve those problems. We can solve those problems from our career choice. We just need a small step to move. That’s how we make our life meaningful,” said Danielle.

Danielle did not only urge the graduates to give contribution to their nation but she also provoded example on how to mitigate gender gap and poverty. To diminish gender gap, she advised ‘you’ to give wages to employees fairly. She also advised ‘us’ to provide education to the employees’ children. But she did not explain who she meant by ‘you’ and ‘us’.

“Bring prosperity for their families as you bring prosperity to your family,” Danielle said.

While the way to mitigate poverty, she suggested her fellow graduates to provide trainings and give fair wages to house assistants (drivers, housemaids, baby sitters). “Help them to escape from poverty,” Danielle ended her speech. (*)

Author: Defrina
Editor: Bambang Bes