Aruna Muda: A New Dawn on Alor's Coast

That morning, the hall of KSP Kopdit Citra Hidup Tribuana in Kalabahi was busier than usual. Fifty young faces had come from all five corners of Alor — Teluk Mutiara, Kabola, Alor Barat Laut, Alor Tengah Utara, and Alor Barat Daya — sitting side by side, wearing the same brown vests bearing the same emblem. They barely knew one another yet, but that day, 27 July 2026, they began sharing one identity: Aruna Muda.

Over three days, that room became the birthplace of a big idea built from small things. Nautika Foundation, through its Technical Guidance program for Strengthening Tourism Actors' Capacity for Sustainable Regional Economic Growth, hadn't invited them just to sit and listen. In front of a screen reading "Bimtek Wisata Bahari" (Marine Tourism Workshop), speaker after speaker opened participants' eyes to environmental conservation, destination management, community empowerment, small business development, and leadership. The program was held in collaboration with Indonesia's Ministry of Home Affairs and Wanita Selam Indonesia (WASI), the national women divers' association.

The Bimtek Wisata Bahari training at the KSP Kopdit Citra Hidup Tribuana hall in Kalabahi brought together 50 participants from five sub-districts. Over three days, facilitated by Nautika Foundation, they studied environmental conservation and small business development.

Nautika Foundation director Hansen Oei said Alor's future would be shaped not only by the richness of its sea, but by how ready its young generation was to protect and develop it responsibly. The workshop was opened on behalf of WASI Chairwoman Tri Suswati Tito Karnavian by WASI Deputy Chair Tintin Riyanti, with appreciation also extended by the Alor Regency Government, represented by Harun Al Rasyid Miran, Acting Assistant II of the Regional Secretariat.

But the real story wasn't only unfolding on stage. It was happening at the small tables, when participants split into discussion groups. In one corner of the room, four young people bent over a sheet of flip-chart paper together, pens crossing back and forth as they sketched out the potential of their own sub-district. Some wrote earnestly; others pointed and argued in good-natured bursts — the way young people do when they're just learning that their voice has a place in shaping their region's future.

Participants work in small groups, discussing and mapping out their sub-district's potential on flip-chart paper — a moment when creative ideas began to take shape.

The next day, the classroom moved outdoors. Beneath the shade of a big tree, with Kalabahi Bay and the surrounding hills as their backdrop, the 50 participants gathered in one long line — some raising their hands, laughing, as if to make sure the moment would be remembered forever. The field visit took them to see firsthand the coastal conditions they had only ever heard about from their parents' stories: coral reefs still holding on, a coastline slowly changing, and the reasons conservation could no longer wait.

Facilitated by Nautika Foundation, participants visited TSAP Sebanjar for a hands-on field session, getting an up-close experience of the coast.

And like a dawn always followed by a new day, the workshop closed not with an indoor ceremony, but with real action on the shore. As dusk approached and Alor's sky turned gold, dozens of participants stood among the mangroves they had just planted themselves. No longer just training participants, they went home as part of something bigger: a movement that, in Hansen Oei's words, "grows from the sub-districts, the villages, and the community."

Five sub-districts, five stories, one spirit. Aruna Muda is now a name attached not just to a program, but to a hope: that Alor's young generation will become the first guardians of the sea that raised them — caring for the coral, planting the mangroves, and carrying new knowledge back to their own villages to keep growing, together with their communities.

A group photo in front of the newly planted mangroves at dusk — Aruna Muda, ready to keep working for Alor.