” My mom was sued for 10 years criminal confinement and charged for 10 billion rupiahs penalty.”
Alanda Kariza, never had imagined even in her wildest dreams that her piece of writing could change her mom’s fate. Back then at 2011, her mom, Arga Tirta Kirana who worked for Century Bank as Head of Corporate Legal was accused of credit disbursement.
Not only she had to acknowledge this heartbroken truth in the middle of her exams week, she also had to let go of her mom’s presence at her home. In a blink of a moment her financial condition also started to change gradually.
“I want my mom to be at home, to be at Indonesia. Not in the jail, not in any other places, but in our home, along with my dad, Aisya, Fara, and me.”
Alanda Kariza (left) and her mom, Arga Tirta Kirana (right)
Then she expressed her crippling sadness in a form of a blog post, and who would expect that a very small act of sharing could lessen her mom’s penalty? Because of her blog post, the stuck negative stigma started to shift, and believe it or not, because of it the court also decided to reconsider the penalty. As a final result, her mom was sentenced to 5 years in jail and charged for 3 billion rupiahs in total.
Despite the bad situation she needed to face, she chose to arise from the complete despair and came up with plenty of impressive achievements.
I’m willing to work part time, do internships, and work my ass off to publish more and more books if it would help my parents, especially my mother. Although I don’t have my own car and I can’t shop luxurious stuff just like my friends do, I’m happy, and I’m willing to live like that.
At the age of fourteen, she had written her very first book; Mint Chocolate Chips, and at the current time she had published 5 other fiction books and 3 non-fiction books.
Aside from her love towards literature, she founded a non-profit organization, The Cure For Tomorrow when she was at junior high school. She also represented Indonesia in Changemakers Global, an international young activist network at Bern, Swiss. And it brought her to an international event like G-20 London Summit 2009 and there she became the voices of young souls about global financial crisis.
She’s also the brain behind Sinergi Muda, a social organization that aims to influence young generations to be ready to make social impact in Indonesia.
What we adore from this woman who born on February 23rd, she really lives up to the words she uttered. Inside one of some her non-fiction books, Dream Catcher, stated “just because I was too young, it doesn’t mean I cannot do something.” She didn’t let her problems stop her from dreaming and achieving. Because like what people say, life could give us hundred reasons to break down and cry, but we need to show them that we have thousands reasons to get back up.
Beauty & Beyond 