Real leaders can be defined by many characteristics: courage, empathy, creativity. Real
leaders are capable of envisioning a better future and coming up with a concrete strategy
to realize it. Real leaders know how to inspire and empower people, making them able
to actively contribute to the construction and realization of that vision.
But, in our opinion, there’s much more than that.

Real leaders have the capacity to become aware of their own privilege, understand its
consequences and put them at the service of less privileged human beings. They are
aware of the fact that this is is an essential step to take in order to achieve social justice
and concretely realize its vision.

18 years old Faye Simanjutak is the living example of a great leader incarnating these
values. Born and raised in Indonesia, she was only 9 when she became aware of a
tragedy affecting thousands of children as young as her, a tragedy that was taking place
not far from her home: child trafficking was an issue of enormous proportions, a horror
reality that was hiding in the dark corners of Indonesian society. Children her age were
being trafficked in the black labor and sex market, their rights being ignored, their lives
being broken, their dreams being shattered. The all of this was happening in front of
everyone’s eyes, yet nobody seemed to care or even be aware of it.

But Faye’s reaction to the problem was as real and concrete as the problem itself.
Despite her young age, she knew that she had the means to act and make a change. She
was aware of her own privilege and knew she could make the most out of it for the sake
of those young souls being ruined.
In 2013, at the age of only 11, Faye founded what is now one of the main Indonesia’s
leading independent foundations: Rumah Faye has become home to many
disadvantaged children, a safe place where young boys and girls can find much more
than a way out from the sex market. A place where they are not treated as numbers, but
as human beings having personal stories, hopes and dreams. Faye understood the need
for her organization to be structured on three programs: 1
1) Prevention
2) Rescue
3) Rehabilitation

She knew that without a prevention program, the cycle of child trafficking would have
not stopped. She knew that in order to stop the cycle completely, Rumah Faye had to
raise awareness among Indonesian society about the issue and become an empowering
actor, one that would give young children both educational and vocational
opportunities.

Becoming aware of one’s own privilege is an asset that every young leader should have.
It represents the first, essential step towards the realization of his or her own vision, a
step that takes place on the inside but that has huge, exponential effects on the outside.
Faye Simanjuntak and her organization are the clear example of that: thousands of
young children have benefitted and keep benefitting from the activity of her organization. Faye is using her privilege for changing the world for the better: and we
are proud to partner with her.

https://www.rumahfaye.or.id/what-wedo