Why I am starting Bulan Project

If you don’t know what exactly Bulan Project is doing, you can read it here, here, and here.

Women create lives out of pure love. They carry these small lives around for 9-10 months, limiting their activities and movement, figuratively and literally speaking. In some cases they even have to give up the jobs they love. From then on, women can’t do whatever they like anymore because they have another person (sometimes even more!) living in their bodies they are responsible of. Their own bodies even change.

And then comes the birth process. What a sacrifice. If it’s not out of love, I don’t know what is.

But for some reasons, the world belongs to men. Men create rules for everything. Rules on how to do things, how to behave, how to think, and how to dress. In most parts of the world, women can’t have higher education, can’t have the same salary as men for the same position, and can’t be a leader. They better stay at home, take care of the children and do household errands. The sad part is, most women think this is the way it should be. This is their destiny as women. So they accept it, not realizing that there is alternative.

I’m a dad to two daughters, a husband to a loving wife, a brother to two sisters, a son to a loving mom, and an uncle to two nieces. My bigger and extended families consists of more women. The biggest reason why I’m doing it is that I want to make the world a better place for my daughters, my nieces, and all women in the next generation. I want them to see that they in fact have a choice. They too can rule, be a leader, speak for themselves, and define their own destiny. I want them to learn that men and women are created equal. A great human being is defined not based on gender, but on mind.

One way to achieve this, and to me it is the best way, is through education, the higher the better. Unfortunately, higher education doesn’t come cheap. A lot of young people have to give up their college seats and hence dreams because they cannot afford the costs. It would be such a shame, when a person couldn’t reach her potential just because she does not have enough money to achieve it. This is where Bulan Project tries to help.

Bulan Project not only helps girls and young women pursue higher education, but also supports them create businesses so they can support themselves and people around them.

I just hope Bulan Project can grow big enough to help enough girls and young women so the world will become a better place. Yes, it is a long shot, but I have to give it a try and start somewhere.

Let’s start the journey right here right now.

Photo by Kerrie DeFelice on Unsplash