It takes a village, and a partnership
Albertin's knowledge of colour helps her stand out
Albertin, a young woman from Indonesia participated in an AkzoNobel colour and painting training, which not only improved her confidence and self-esteem, but also gave her great insights in the theory of colours. This came in useful when the café where she worked was renovated.
Nurul Albertin, who is better known as Al, is a Care Leaver from SOS Children’s Village Indonesia. She was 6 years old, when she was invited to stay at the SOS Children's Village Jakarta. At that time, Al lived alone with her grandmother in a small village. Mrs. Sesilia, the caregiver at SOS who lives in the same village as Al, was seeing the situation and invited her to live in SOS Jakarta so that she could get a better life.
As time went by, Al grew into a smart kid and diligently helped her mother. Although it cannot be denied that she also went through sad times while she was a teenager. Al talks about how she questioned her life, which was different than the life of children at her school, who had two parents and a complete family.
“The biggest challenge was seeing children being picked up by their parents. From the deepest of my heart, I wanted to be like that. But at the end, I knew that not only I have a life like this. There are thousands or even millions like me, some are even worse,” said Al. She could get through that phase with the help by her mother and volunteers who used to come to the village every week and teach lessons. With their help, she realized that she was not alone, and that she is no different than other children. She just had to try harder than other people. She finally moved on with her life.
In 2017, Albertin was still an undergraduate student, but no longer lived in the village. She lived at a boarding house near her campus but still under the supervision of Julia, the Youth Co-Worker at SOS Children’s Village Jakarta. In December, Al was invited by Julia to attend a training by AkzoNobel. In the midst of her busy life, she made time to participated in the color and painting training held by AkzoNobel.
Fast forward to today, three years later. Al is working in the Food and Beverages industry while completing her postgraduate thesis—she got a postgraduate scholarship at Universitas Negeri Jakarta. The training by AkzoNobel turned out to be very useful for Al's career. Even though she doesn’t specifically work with color in her current job, there was one event that made her grateful for attending the training. At some point, the cafe where Albertin works was doing renovations. Several rooms were overhauled to change the concept and paint color.
When she had a meeting about the concept with her team, she remembered the lessons about color grading and the meaning of colors provided by AkzoNobel. Al directly contributed with ideas on color and overall concept for one of the rooms to be renovated.
“As I had participated in an activity with AkzoNobel and was told which colors are suitable for interior design, I tried to come up with an idea for the meeting room and give my input. I wouldn’t have been able to come up with the idea if I was not trained by AkzoNobel, or didn't have any prior insight/knowledge,” Al explained. Her idea was approved and put into action. Since then, Al has become well-known at her workplace.
Another benefit of the training by AkzoNobel, Al said, is that she is not afraid anymore to mix and match her clothes’ color. She used to be a teenager who only wore black and white because she was not brave enough to wear colorful clothes. After the training, Al realized that everyone is beautiful and can express themselves in colors.
