In Aceh, the land of my birth and where I lived until high school, I grew up in a traditional environment full of religious values.

These values were so rooted in my consciousness I often fantasized about what my father, a religious teacher, told me about heaven. The image of heaven engraved in my consciousness from childhood was of a place full of trees and rivers flowing with clean, clear water, where everybody lived in peace and harmony and nobody wanted for anything.

And, of course, everybody in heaven was Muslim.

I lived for many years comfortable in my understanding of heaven until that cozy concept came under fire in a small town called Bairnsdale, three hours from Melbourne in Australia. I lived in a homestay in that rural town for approximately three weeks with my "adopted" family.

It had taken a lot for me to be chosen for the Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP). First, I lacked confidence sending in my application, believing that as a student from an undeveloped village I would be an unlikely choice. I had also come to believe that any selection process in my country would involve favoritism or graft, but I pushed on anyway and was picked.

When I arrived in the town, I experienced something that surprised me, impressed me, even made me feel dizzy, as I struggled to understand what I saw and felt every day of my stay.

It started out when I asked my host father about his religion and he replied, "I have no religion."

That answer did not exist in the set of beliefs I grew up with, because I "knew" that every human being must have a religion, be it Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism or Buddhism. I no longer knew how to position this man in my life: As a freak, an enemy or perhaps one of the infidels we often heard about in our religious classes.

I was confused, not least because these people were so kind to me, full of attention, both for me and my family back home. They worried if it was OK for me to eat what they ate, asked about my pocket money -- they behaved like the benevolent people I imagined populated heaven.

I did not have it in my heart to think of them as infidels. I really hoped that I had been wrong in my understanding and interpretation of the religious instruction imparted to me back in the village. I wanted so much for them to be my adopted parents with whom I could talk about many things.

My confusion deepened when an Australian friend from the exchange program introduced me to his family. Without a care in the word, she said, "Azwar, meet my mum and this is my mum's boyfriend."

How was it possible that her mother had a boyfriend? Where was her father? Was this allowed, or was it a sin! She would go to hell forever.

Good grief! I was scared to even think of hell -- a place of such cruelty and suffering where, as far as I knew, people who had illicit relationships were doomed to spend eternity. I was only a teenager and this woman was the mother of a teenage boy -- and she had a boyfriend! My world, or my concept of it, was falling apart.

These people were living in the same house as husband and wife and from the way they behaved, they seemed to be very much in love.

In my host family's household, the father cooked and served dinner. Then he cleared up and did the dishes -- the sort of things that are a woman's duty in my village.

Meanwhile, my host mother, dressed in man's boots, drove a tractor to cut the grass and after dinner would return to the field and do some weeding while the father eased himself into an armchair to watch television.

In my home village, I saw families who lived under the strict rule of traditional law; the man would order the woman around to do his bidding and neglect the children so that they did not even know what -- if anything -- they would eat that day.

What sort of world was this? What was right and what was wrong? I felt feverish with confusion, wrestling with the thousands of questions flashing in my mind. I told myself that one day I would have a wiser view of all this because I was sure there was no easy or perfect answer to what was happening.

Bairnsdale really was like heaven on earth for me because I actually experienced and felt all the things that I had only imagined in my view of heaven. Clean, clear water flowing down a river free of garbage and discarded plastic bags, trees and fertile land all around me, fresh air, good roads, no pollution, clear skies.

Houses were left unlocked although they were full of valuables. Horses and cows looked so healthy; all the animals had a name and every member of the family knew it. What sort of country is this? Is this what heaven is like?

And if the answer is yes, how come these people, including atheists, are in the sort of heaven that was described to me by the clerics in my village? What should I do to bring this heaven to my village or my country?

Looking back on my experience now, I am grateful to the AIYEP program because it allowed me to see another side of the world and to experience life from a different angle. I have learned how to appreciate diversity and how to walk together to face all future challenges.

I have a dream, if more of my people could see and experience life from another angle through a similar program, maybe conflict and war would no longer be part of our lives. Yet, Australia and Indonesia relationship is much more better and  people from countries are living in peace and no need to worry about terrorism, boom, no need travel warning, enjoy the beauty of nature in both countries.

To begin this dream, in year 2005, I started an initiative to send students from Aceh to Australia, to experience and to learn what I have experience in my life through the exchange program.  We managed to sent five selected students senior high school (SMU)  from Naggroe Aceh Darussalam. They are selected from over than 70 selected students across Aceh,  to study and to stay with Australian families. Three of them have already returned to Aceh, while the other two female students still finishing their last year study at King Khaled Islamic College  School in Melbourne (2006) and most probably will directly continue to university in Australia. 

This mini exchange is just a very simple program, the family where they stay support their daily expenses, while sponsored schools pay all related school fees or costs. We are the alumni through Forum Bangun Aceh (FBA) voluntary support them i.e preparing and conducting professional and slink process of selection and also support them with training prior departing to Australia. Thank you for alumni who have such passionate to make this mini exchange happen, no big bureaucracy, no big money, and gladly to say  no KKN (Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism) from selecting till they have return home.

This mini exchange program now are  getting fully support form the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) through their program called School to School (STS). Through Forum Bangun Aceh (FBA) will continue support this mini exchange in coming years and it is expected would be expanded soon in near future. We shall send students to Scotch College in Perth, Western Australia.

Through this mini exchange we’ve managed, it shows that it doesn’t take so much resources to do something real even small to create more and more opportunities for others who have not yet so lucky like us to see and to learn and to growth through exchange program.

Yes, we can do something to help other in our own capacity as long as we want it and committed to it. It’s not necessary off course every alumni has to send new person (student) to overseas for the exchange, but I do believe every of us, the alumni,  definitely could contribute something to make this world better and would not forget that we have owe the country, the community, the people from both countries who supported us during the exchange program.

I believe, thousand steps should be started from the first step to make our dream come true, to make thing happen is always started from a very little tiny thing as well.  So, if we would make this world better particularly at least in Indonesia and Australia, the idea of exchange program would contribute a significant contribution now and in the future.

Life should not only be benefit our self  but it should also bring more and more benefits to other people around us. It doesn’t need to be big and spectacular, but let’s make it happen into our day life by asking a question, what have I done today to make this world better?

The writer is  the Founder and Chairperson of FBA and the Alumni Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP)  and this article published in the Jakarta Post November 09, 2003