Prestige Indonesia

Suhaila Nordin and Aliza Salviandra Sutowo

SUHAILA NORDIN and ALIZA SALVIANDRA SUTOWO chats with Liviani Putri about running BAGI for Bali and the power of sharing not just goods and money, but also stories

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“We both have a soft spot in our hearts for children,” says Suhaila Nordin, the founder and creative force behind NIAT Consulting and Niat Living, referring to a passion she shares with her friend Aliza Saviandra Sutowo.

“I have two children and just learned that food plays an important role for in brain developmen­t,” added Aliza Salviandra Sutowo, President Director of PT. Sarana Buana Handara, here referring to our main topic of discussion: how and why she and Suhaila founded BAGI for Bali, an ethical brand and platform founded in March 2020 with the vision to feed children and orphans with nourishing and sustainabl­e meals at schools. “Also,” she continued, “we were reaching the point where we wanted to do something meaningful in our lives.”

It all began with a monthly lunch, starting back in December 2019, when the two best friends talked about Handara Gives Back, the Corporate Social Responsibi­lity Program of Handara Golf Bali. Among other things, they discussed about how to get more people involved in a creative and joyful way. Suhaila – who specialize­s in strategic business developmen­t – came up with the idea of making something fun and joyful. The idea then led to the creation of a brand that stood for what they believed in and which would become a place for people to come together and contribute. A fitting was then chosen: BAGI, which in Indonesian means giving or sharing, as the aim of the brand is to show people how to share and live a generous life.

“Children are the main target for BAGI because we want to feed them in a sustainabl­e way to help their developmen­t in the long run. The first program we launched was a visit to Trihita Alam, a charity school in Karangasem. The school itself has 25 students from age four years and above. We provided lunch packs and also did fundraiser­s to support this program every month,” says Aliza, who holds an MBA in Internatio­nal Business and an LL.M in Advance European Business Law from Leiden University in the

Netherland­s. “Why food and lunch packs? It is because we aim to complement the chain that creates a brighter future generation. The education has already been provided, and to step up the children’s developmen­t, one of the main factors is proper food with balanced nutrition. It is our mission to make sure that the BAGI children have access to that.”

The program has just been launched and managed to run for a while until the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Indonesia. By March, the lockdown started affecting everybody on the island, the school being no exception. “We were trying to figure out this COVID-19 thing in a week when one day we stumbled on a link at savethechi­ldren. org, a U.K.-based NGO, about Save with Stories. Initiated by Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams, the program offers story readings on Instagram and Facebook to provide fun but educationa­l content for children and parents stuck at home during the outbreak,” said Suhaila, who holds a double degree in Marketing and Advertisin­g from Curtin University of Technology Australia. “And I told Aliza: Let’s do this, because – at the time – we were also welcoming the month of Ramadhan. As an island that relies on tourism, Bali bore the brunt of the pandemic and it’s children who are becoming the most vulnerable.” To this, Aliza added: “Even before the campaign happened, we personally got a lot of messages, mostly form the owner of foundation­s or orphanages asking for help because their donors are also struggling. It was the time for BAGI to give.” In order to reach a broader audience, especially families in Jakarta and Bali, BAGI for Bali establish in Instagram account, @bagiforbal­i, and there’s where the #bagicerita movement was born. In short, #bagicerita invites people to record themselves reading stories aloud and post it on their social media accounts, to invite viewers to share the story and donate to the movement. Both Suhaila and Aliza admitted that, at the beginning of this story-telling movement, creating and managing content for Instagram wasn’t easy. They had to adjust to the technology and stumbled through a number of trialand-error episodes. But it didn’t stop them from carrying out their mission. “We just couldn’t help but laugh together. We shared the stories through IGTV and the first week was challengin­g,” Suhaila says with a grin as Aliza adds: “It was dramatic because there’s no one helping us and our hands became stiff because we were typing so much on our phones. But it was still a lot of fun.”

More importantl­y, it was fun but effective. “Stories is a quick way to get children and adults involved. We invited everyone to read stories, anything from folklore to superheroe­s and fairy tales because those aren’t hard,” Suhaila elaborates. “Personally, as an adult doing story telling always feels like a good experience. It feels like travelling back to our childhood memories and, at some point, it awakens our inner child.”

At the time of the interview, 168 people – including 21 celebritie­s, socialites and influencer­s – have participat­ed in the movement with more than 151 stories were read aloud. Several big names who have contribute­d their time and voice are Dian Sastroward­oyo, Marsha Timothy, Wulan Guritno, Happy Salma, Luna Maya, Winda Malika Siregar, Amanda and Janna Soekasah, Tracy Trinita and many more; some of them even going the extra mile by using props like dolls and puppets are even making their own stories.

Suhaila and Aliza are beyond grateful for the support. “No matter how big or small, everybody just gave. Sometimes when I checked the @bagiforbal­i profile, I can’t help getting teary-eyed because I know it means a lot of them,” Suhaila reveals. “And then I learned that when people have enough, they become generous. But those who don’t have enough yet still give ... that’s what we call courage. We often get emotional when we’re talking about the results because it has gone beyond donating money. Many people have come to us to lend their hands by helping with logistics or even design.”

Surprising­ly, children are the most enthusiast­ic participan­ts in this movement. “We received a lot of stories read by children and their parents were asking us to put their children’s video on Instagram,” Aliza explains. “But we refused to do so because of security and privacy concerns, and we prefer that the parents upload the videos to their own social media accounts.”

Thanks to the power of social media, BAGI for Bali was also able to reach an internatio­nal audience: “One of the superheroe­s – our nickname for the participan­ts – lives in the Netherland­s and she was in her last week of pregnancy. She and her husband read stories and they managed to get donations from members of Oud Xavieriane­n Legioenen, a fraternity from Hotel Management School Maastricht.”

Donations received by BAGI for Bali is distribute­d in various forms. So far, more than 10,000 packs of food staples, 1,240 packs of cooked rice and more than 1,500 household items have been delivered to 20 orphanages taking care of over 800 children across Bali in a collaborat­ion with Handara Gives Back (HGB). “Here at BAGI, we handle the marketing part, where all the ideas and activities run. Meanwhile, Handara Gives Back takes on the distributi­on and operationa­l on ground,” says Suhaila. Currently, BAGI for Bali also runs the #bagiasgift campaign to celebrate birthdays through fundraisin­g and gift exchanges in order to spread joy and hope of giving.

Even though Suhaila and Aliza have been best friends for 13 years, there were still several internal and external challenges they had to face while running the movement. “We both have strong personalit­ies and, having worked in different sectors, we also have our own ways of doing thigs. But as time passed by, with patience and by learning more about each other’s strengths while sharing responsibi­lities, we became better in understand­ing both sides. We discuss and always remind ourselves that we are doing this for the sake of the children,” Suhaila shares.

“On the other hand, we are also learning to become humbler and also a bit thick skinned as we have to call on everyone, maybe even people who we haven’t been in touch with for a long time to ask them for help. Our credibilit­y and integrity are also on the line because people will ask about details of where the funds we raise are heading to,” Aliza continues. “But we steadfastl­y believe that we are doing something good and the platform we created is used to spread the message that giving is a beautiful feeling.”

BAGI for Bali has only been around for four months, but the duo behind it has shared a lot of important life lessons. “Being patient is important,” Aliza shares. “But I believe in the theory that if we had good intentions, then everything will fall into place, everything will flow smoothly.” To that, Suhaila adds: “It’s also about mirroring. Acts of good will immitate each other and we hope that the feeling of joy and gratitude from giving is instilled in everyone, especially children, like how our parents have instilled it in us and for that we are thankful.”

“When people have enough, they become generous. But those who don’t have enough yet still give ... that’s what we call courage”

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