Bachelor of Psychology from University of Indonesia

“Neira co-founded Tabu ID, which is the largest social media based SRH intervention for Indonesian youth. The platform speaks boldly about issues that are considered taboo and are virtually never discussed elsewhere regarding youth sexuality.“

– Bobzie Tiewul, Innovation Fellowship Project Manager at United Nations Population Fund

Describe your contributions to and achievements in family planning.

My biggest contribution in the field of family planning is the fact that I co-founded and is currently leading one of Indonesia’s first, and now largest, social media-based, sexual and reproductive health (SRH)-focused intervention for youth: Tabu ID. After only a little over 1 year of operating, every day, Tabu ID disseminates evidence-based, comprehensive SRH information to its nearly 45,000 followers and garners nearly 400,000 weekly views. Through Tabu ID, I am able to successfully leverage the use of mobile technology, specifically social media, in order to improve access to evidence-based, comprehensive SRH information, increase young people’s awareness regarding the importance of SRH, as well as scale-up demand for SRH services among thousands of Indonesian youth.

What sparked your passion for family planning?

I grew up in a conservative environment where I was conditioned to think that anything related to sex was taboo & immoral. As a result, I had a lot of unanswered questions about my body & struggled to make informed choices about my sexual health; and when I look around, I see the same thing happening with my fellow Indonesian youth. I saw how our sexual and reproductive health rights, even basic ones like comprehensive sexuality education and access to family planning, were not being fulfilled.

Give one or two examples of how you display leadership in your family planning work.:

My leadership in family planning can be seen through my work in Tabu ID as a Co-founder and Program Director. Despite the fact that we’ve only been operating for 16 months, we’ve grown to become the largest social media-based youth SRH intervention in my country while being entirely youth-led and volunteer-based. Our team works hard throughout the year to deliver the SRH content that young people need every single day, breaking walls of taboo and stigma to help them exercise their SRH rights.

If you are named a winner of 120 under 40, how will you use this new platform and the $1000 grant to advance your work? 

I will support the development of Tabu ID’s website, which will better serve Indonesian youth’s needs as a one-stop online portal that provides access to a comprehensive package of SRH services, including information through various forms of digital media & links to youth-friendly SRH centers. I will ensure that our website will be accessible to those with limited internet connection by having “lite”/low data mode & having information pages downloadable to be read offline.

Photos of the nominee in the field/at work:

Publications/Articles:

• http://instagram.com/tabu.id