by Adelia from Indonesia

Due to the current pandemic situation, the women’s meal in the Petrikirche in February 2022 had to be postponed. Adelia Putri was invited to speak and had already finished her text on „Live (in) your City“. We will publish her contribution here:

 

I’m Adelia Putri and I’m 22 years old. I come from Indonesia and finished my studies in theology. At the moment I work in the Evangelical Lydia Community in Dortmund’s Nordstadt. There I work in the kindergarden and in the youth club. I also help in confirmation classes. I carry out these activities as part of a volunteer year of the United Evangelical Mission. I have been living in Dortmund for 7 months.

I’m from Indonesia. My city is called Central Kalimantan. My city is known as the „lungs of the world“ because we have a large rainforest.

Yes, but we also have so many problems in the field of ecology. It’s not all green in this rainforest. We have a famous animal, it is the „orang utan“. We live together in my city, and we are still structured according to tribes. Many tribes are famous for so many languages and cultures.

My interests are ecology and justice of nature, feminism and justice for women and children, ecofeminism and the relationship between woman and nature, justice for all people of every nation and religion.

In my Church, the last year was an amazing year because for the first time we have a woman to lead our Synod.

Since 2013, a lot has changed in my church. Today, 56 % of pastors are women, and 72 % of vicars are women.

We give them the chance to learn so many things that they don’t get to learn in school. The Church has a program to strengthen each other in the Church. Because so many women have to fight alone for themselves and for their children.

But I want to be honest with you: in our government we don’t have that many women. And I wish that we women in the Church could perhaps be a role model for the government when it comes to gender equality. The church could cooperate with the city society. And I realized that politics also has an impact on women in the church when the government has a relationship with the church. The future could look very different if more women could be part of the government.

I am grateful for this women’s meal: Especially in Dortmund, I have seen so many women as leaders in the government and also in institutions outside the government. I was happy about women as leaders in church and also in government and education. I see this women’s meal, I see them all and I ask myself: do only women with education have a chance to speak today? What about the women out there without education or without opportunities? We, the women with education, can empower these women, right?