In CLC Titian Bayat there is a program which is frequently being asked and longed for by the local society. The End of Year Festival. This is the pinnacle of CLC Titian’s programs and is designed to review what we have done during the year. Moreover, this program also aims to conduct marketing and socialization of the programs to the local community so they know better about our programs and are encouraged to visit the CLC.

In 2018, the festival was held between 12-22 December. This time we had a greater variety of competitions for it was not only about culture but about our programs during the year. The competitions covered activities such as Batik, Tie Dye, Poem Reading, Book Review, Storytelling and Design using Ms. Word. Batik was chosen as the opening competition as well as at the peak of the Festival. The competitions engaged 168 participants, both children and adults.

A famous proverb says, winning or losing is common in life. If you win you will get your present but if you lose you will be wiser. Like this proverb, the committee’s hope was that these competitions were also a mechanism to strengthen the relationships among our community and as a medium for people to learn as well.

In this festival, besides encouraging people to compete, we also encouraged them to learn more about the topic of the competition. A good example is the coloring competition. While waiting for the winners to be announcement, Lisa, one of the judges, delivered some creative tips and tricks on how to color an image, like shading techniques, color choice and making use of free space on the drawing. It was felt to be very useful for the participants because these tips and tricks allowed them to obtain new knowledge in order to improve their skills. In this case, the tips and tricks session in the coloring competition inspired children to try these new techniques and the result was better and more beautiful drawings.

After five days of competition, Saturday (22 December) was the last day of the festival. On this day people were coming to Titian to witness the winners of the competitions and to enjoy the performances as well. There were some performances by the scholarship beneficiaries and the students of the Skill Class of Titian Bayat such as dancing and music. Moreover, this part of the program was brightened by the hundred prizes given to the winners and the lucky visitors. In the end, as part of the socialization process, we invited the visitors to enjoy the products of the Micro Finance programs and the alumni, like Siomay, Mung Bean Porridge, Ice Cream and Roasted Bread.

Overall this program ran well as we had intended. As we expected, this program brought happiness and many benefits to the participants. Similar to the proverb, we got two birds with one stone, one program with multiple benefits. (NL)