Jakarta – The Special Autonomy (Otsus) Fund for education is deemed necessary to maximize its use to expand access and quality of education for young Papuans. Two accomplished young women, Cecilia Novani Mehue and Yunita Alanda Monim, believe the Otsus scholarship has had a tangible impact, but its outreach still needs to be strengthened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am a living asset of Papua’s special autonomy. So I must return to Papua to help the community in any way,” said Cecilia during a discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs in Jakarta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cecilia Novani Mehue, a recipient of the Otsus scholarship, is pursuing her undergraduate and graduate studies at Oregon State University in the United States. She currently serves as a member of the Papuan Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRP) and is active in various community empowerment activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cecilia explained that the Otsus scholarship she received during the term of Governor Lukas Enembe paved the way for her seven years of education in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her studies, she was also active in the Papuan women’s empowerment movement through the Papuan American and Canadian Student Association (IMAPA), and was appointed Vice President of the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cecilia’s humble family background was a strong motivation for her to pursue her education through a scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I come from a humble family. That’s why I sought a scholarship to study and returned home to help my parents and community,” Cecilia explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon returning to Papua, she immediately applied her knowledge by opening a cafe in Sentani and recruiting young Papuans. She is also active in social and educational activities, including serving as a contract lecturer at Swadiri University in Jayapura, being involved with the Ada Kitong Pung Rumah Foundation, and serving in church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the Special Autonomy (Otsus) appointment process, Cecilia was elected as a member of the Papua Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRP) for the 2024\u20132029 period after undergoing a series of selection processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As a member of the Council appointed through the Special Autonomy (Otsus) process, my job is to safeguard and fight for the customary rights of indigenous Papuans so that they can be included in regional government programs,” she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yunita Alanda Monim, Puteri Indonesia Papua 2023, has a different experience. She admitted that she did not receive a Special Autonomy (Otsus) scholarship during her education. She cited limited information as one of the main obstacles at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, Yunita has seen positive developments in recent years, with more and more young Papuans gaining educational opportunities through the Special Autonomy program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What’s important is that the government continues to promote the Special Autonomy programs so that more Papuans can benefit from them, especially in education,” Yunita said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yunita also highlighted findings of several boarding schools in Jakarta that accommodate Papuan students sent by the district government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In my opinion, education should be a focus of the Special Autonomy program so that more young Papuans can be empowered,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jakarta – The Special Autonomy (Otsus) Fund for education is deemed necessary to maximize its use to expand access and quality of education for young Papuans. Two accomplished young women, Cecilia Novani Mehue and Yunita Alanda Monim, believe the Otsus scholarship has had a tangible impact, but its outreach still needs to be strengthened. “I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5489,6854,5478,257],"tags":[690,7317,7302,7324,1861],"class_list":["post-35424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berita-utama","category-headline-news","category-keberhasilan","category-pendidikan","tag-papua","tag-humanis","tag-kamtibmas-2","tag-keberhasilan","tag-papua-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35425,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35424\/revisions\/35425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suaranewspapua.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}