America at the Mall

The US outreach efforts in Indonesia seek to reach out to the community in new and innovative ways.  With the heavily urbanized nature of Jakarta, US public diplomacy efforts includes a location within a central business district mall to respond to Indonesia's mall culture.

This week, USAID hosted an event at @america to announce winners of a photo contest from various USAID activities.  It was also an opportunity to showcase the work of USAID in a public forum.   The Mission Director hosted the event and even included public media in attendance.  It was a good first event, and hopefully we can continue to improve upon and host future events in the future.

@america holds multiple events every day.  They commonly have embassy staff as speakers on various topics throughout the week to present to school groups.  A few months ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of middle-schoolers about my hometown, a little bit about myself and education, and about the work of USAID.  It was a great experience and I'm hoping to find the time to do it again in the future.