Girl Up UGM has one major principle that will always be the backbone of our activities, which is inclusivity. We believe that endeavours to achieve optimum gender equality require broad participation of all spectrum of society. Hence, Girl Up UGM shall function as a gender-neutral safe space for UGM students that is open and inclusive of any youth regardless of sex, gender identity, race, religion, ethnicity, political belief, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or physical ability to work together towards one goal: gender equality. This principle of ours will be put into realization by starting from the grassroots level, in which is done by giving education in regards of introducing the concept of gender equality and women empowerment, and if need be, to clarify the misconception about them. On the other hand, we believe that a holistic approach needs to be put into account to be able to deliver fully-functioning and well-impacted activities. As a gender-based movement based in a university, we are fully aware of our social responsibility to utilize our privilege to access education in one of the best institutions in Indonesia. Thus we aim to be able to contextualize our activities in accordance with what the society around us truly needs, instead of enforcing what we believe they need. For instance, Yogyakarta as a disaster-prone region still lacks gender-sensitive post-disaster assistance; or the archaic patriarchal Javanese culture that is still deeply rooted in people’s mindsets. Our activities will always be depended on thorough research and context-based.
