A desire to reconnect with his community and gain values-aligned professional experience led Queen’s University graduate, Damai Siallagan, to apply to the Pathy Foundation Fellowship. Returning to his ancestral home in Lake Toba, Indonesia, Damai’s Pathy Fellowship initiative, “Pasadahon Parsolu: Enriching Tourism Livelihoods through Cooperative Digital Capacities,” aims to address technological inequities by developing accessible digital infrastructure in the village of Tuktuk Siadong. “It felt like it was time to go back to this place that I call home and connect with it in a way that’s meaningful,” Damai explains. 

  

Pathy Fellows are supported in designing and implementing an innovative project with a community where they have a meaningful connection. Over the course of one year, Fellows bring their visions to life while benefiting from a rich support network, generous funding, state-of-the-art training, and a committed cohort of likeminded changemakers. 

 

Community and belonging forms the foundation of Damai’s initiative. Pasadahon Parsolu, meaning “bringing together those who row the canoes,” serves as metaphor for the core values that drives his work in digital education: by aligning community strengths and interests, his community can better navigate the “uncertain waters” of digital technology and literacy. “The ethos of my initiative is putting the metaphorical oar back into the hands of the community,” Damai shares. “Making technology and knowledge that is valuable to the community more accessible will mean that community members will be able to develop and capitalize on [both new and emerging] skills.”  

 

Damai began by engaging in various community spaces, connecting with community members and local champions to gain a deeper understanding of the diversity of community values and interests. Through collective visioning, the community began to develop a plan to bring the initiative to life.  

 

Pasadahon Parsolu centers on three core pillars: expanding digital infrastructure, developing community-led digital governance strategies, and establishing partnerships with external institutions. Although the project aims to benefit all community members, the initiative has gravitated toward centering youth in digital capacity-building. “Youth engagement is a main focus because of their leadership in this digital space,” Damai shares. “Youth generally have a more developed baseline understanding of [digital] technology, partly because they grew up with it but also because it is being more widely used in educational spaces.”  

 

Local livelihoods in Lake Toba centre around agriculture, hospitality, and tourism, often leading young people to leave the community to pursue careers outside these industries in cities like Jakarta or Medan. “Making digital technologies more accessible can open up opportunities for emerging livelihoods in the creative economy, meaning young people can stay with their communities,” Damai explains. 

 

Expanding digital infrastructure encompasses the creation of centralized digital technology hub that will be accessible to all community members. The hub will include computers, software, and various other auxiliary technologies. “It’s going to be a lot of fun to set up, plan everything out, and then actually have people in the space,” Damai explains. To engage youth in the digital technology hub, Damai is spearheading an annual writing competition where elementary-level students share about their relationship to the land. “I hope to kick things off on a good note, where young people are actively involved in the development of the space so they are aware of it and know they can use it for free,” Damai says. 

 

The second pillar, community-led digital governance, forms a vital element of the long-term sustainability of initiative impact. This includes gathering a body of representatives from local community groups and associations to oversee the digital hub, carry out programs, develop strategies and policies, and promote digital learning in the community beyond the Fellowship year. By embedding his current activities within robust, community-owned governance structures, Damai hopes to mobilize his community creativity and passion to drive ongoing impact for years to come. 

 

Although community leadership lies at the heart of the project, Damai also recognizes that external institutional partners can play a valuable role in enriching outcomes. The final pillar of Pasadahon Parsolu entails partnership-building with institutions from across North Sumatra, ranging from government bodies to universities to corporate sponsors to NGOs. These partnerships offer financial and knowledge-based resources that will be crucial to the longevity of the initiative. 

 

Mobilizing these pillars, Damai looks to promote self-motivated skill-building within the community. “By working with local schools and associations, we hope to cultivate local digital educators equipped with the knowledge and passion for digital education who will later champion digital learning within the community,” Damai explains. 

 

While implementation comes with its challenges, Damai remains optimistic. “Navigating regulations and the digital technology landscape in the context of Indonesia poses uncertainty, but what I look forward to is talking to people, coming up with ideas, and collaboratively problem-solving,” he says.  

 

As to what success would look like in this initiative, Damai reflects, “I would be happy to see that people actually feel this work is making a meaningful impact for them. It would be nice to be able to say, ‘This is something I did with my community.’ The Fellowship is such a great opportunity to think about my capacity for making change.” 

 

Working to build youth leadership and digital engagement in his community, Damai also reflects on his own relationship to this space and work as a returning youth after nearly a decade away. “When it came to feelings of belonging in my community, I didn’t know what to expect. The last time I was here I was quite young,” Damai shares. “But when I got here, day-to-day interactions where people would say ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ or ‘Let me introduce you to this person!’ made me feel accepted immediately.” 

 

“The engagement I’ve had with my identity and with my community over the course of the Fellowship has been a transformative experience for me,” Damai shares. “A year ago, my understanding of who I am was very academic. Logically, I could explain why I identify in the way that I do. Now I have a very rooted understanding of who I am in my identity, and it has significantly impacted aspects of my life, my relationships, and my personal learning.” 

 

To learn more about Damai’s Pathy Fellowship initiative, or the Pathy Foundation Fellowship, please visit www.PathyFellowship.com.