Donate to and Fund Kota Kita
Kota Kita carries out commissioned work, but it also relies heavily on donations and funding.
Some of Kota Kita’s most meaningful work, including its landmark project Solo Kota Kita, has been funded by aid and philanthropic organizations like the Ford Foundation, USAID, and UN-Habitat. Your support to Kota Kita will contribute in ensuring the continuing efforts to improve the practices and studies of inclusive and participatory planning in Indonesian cities. We greatly appreciate your interest in supporting Kota Kita and our activities.
These are some ways to donate to Kota Kita:
- If you are based outside Indonesia, you can donate through Give2Asia portal.
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Any donation can be directed to:
- Bank Name: BNI Cab. Slamet Riyadi Solo
- Account Number: 721 023 983
- Name: Yayasan Kota Kita Surakarta
- Swift Code: BNINIDJA
- Address: Jalan Slamet Riyadi No. 348, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Feel free to contact Kota Kita to discuss how else you can help.
Join
Our Team!
We are always looking for talents that value creativity, innovation, teamwork, and looking for ways to realize more inclusive Indonesian cities. We will constantly update our career opportunities on our social media but if you are interested in the challenge, you can contact us here: work@kotakita.org
Kota Kita offers a selective internship programme to work with individuals that value creativity, innovation, teamwork, and looking for ways to realize more inclusive Indonesian cities. Internship applicants will be evaluated based on their qualifications, research or work interest, and suitability to our ongoing projects. We would expect the internship to last for a minimum duration of 3 months, based in Solo, Indonesia, or other cities we are working in.
If you are eager to work in a collaborative environment, and want to learn with real challenges as development practitioners with Kota Kita, please send your resume along with a cover letter and/or project proposal to work@kotakita.org
Learn more about what you could be part of if you join Kota Kita.
Volunteer or Intern
Participation is the spirit of Kota Kita’s work. These are volunteers and interns who have contributed to building better cities, while learning the ropes of inclusive urban planning and governance.
Contact us if you are interested in working with Kota Kita!
Addina Amalia
Addina Amalia
2011 & 2012
Addina Amalia remembers the excitement of winning the URBAN SOS design competition with other Kota Kita interns in 2011 with their Firm Foundation project entry. "When I was with Kota Kita, I got to work on almost everything, especially on urban design, taking projects from beginning to end, which was a great experience," she says.
Addina is now working as a junior architect in the capital, Jakarta. At Kota Kita, she enjoyed being in the field to survey community members. She helped collect data from stakeholders and governments, and became a pro at drawing up maps and other designs.
Alice Shay
Alice Shay
2011 & 2012
Alice interned with Kota Kita while studying for her Master of City Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and in 2012 she worked on the Firm Foundation project with Kota Kita, using her skills to engage residents of a dense riverbank settlement in Banjarmasin city to create much a needed public space.
Alice now works for Bloomberg Associates in New York City as part of their urban planning team, providing philanthropic consulting to city governments around the world. Alice has fond memories of making site visits in Indonesia for the City Development Strategies program, commissioned by UNHABITAT, to assess neighborhoods’ conditions, livelihood dynamics and infrastructure. “I also found visiting Banjarmasin's floating market at dawn an incredible experience,” she said.
Alex Warburton
Alex Warburton
2014-2015
Alex is interning with Kota Kita in Solo, where he is also studying the intricate art of gamelan, a traditional Javanese music, on a government scholarship. Yet what he finds challenging is dealing with the dramatic wet season. "Coming back from my first meeting at the Kota Kita office was also my first time driving in a rainy season downpour, without a raincoat to boot. I definitely remember that. The sky seemed fine to my eyes, but two minutes later, it just opened up," he says.
Alex is currently researching and summarizing Kota Kita's past projects for the organization's website, to make the valuable work of Kota Kita more accessible to diverse audiences. He plans to do a PhD in linguistic anthropology.
Alykhan Mohamed
Alykhan Mohamed
Summer 2012
Alykhan interned with Kota Kita while studying for a Master of Urban Planning degree at Harvard University. He worked on piloting SMS surveys for the SMS Rapid Urban Response in Solo, crowd-sourcing neighborhood data using cell phones, and helped organize and facilitate workshops for the Firm Foundation project in Banjarmasin.
Alykhan now works as an urban planner and designer in the city of Austin, Texas. He said of all the experiences he had with Kota Kita, the three-day Firm Foundation workshops were his favorite “because of the learning experience I had during the meticulous and thorough process of planning and preparing for the workshop.”
Barry Beagen
Barry Beagen
2010
Barry interned with Kota Kita while completing his undergraduate studies at Cornell. He worked on developing the Solo Kota Kita maps and mini-atlases for the city’s 51 neighborhoods. He is currently completing his Master of Architecture at MIT, and as a fellow at the Tata Center for Technology and Design, he is developing research and a pilot project for the delivery of incremental affordable housing in India.
He felt the best experience he had during his internship was the combination of neighborhood surveys and developing maps simultaneously. “And also working late into the evening and sharing moped rides to catch a meal at Spesial Sambal,” he said, referring to a famous restaurant that Kota Kita staff regularly frequent which serves as many types of fresh chili sauce you can imagine.
Daniel Heriberto Palencia Arreola
Daniel Heriberto Palencia Arreola
2014
Daniel interned with Kota Kita after graduating from the Unversidad Nacional Automa de Mexico. He helped create a database in Solo for the musrenbang, an annual community-level participatory budgeting process, so that residents could make decisions about their city based on data and evidence. Daniel now works in Singapore with Urban Launchpad and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) on different projects revolving around urban planning and technology.
Daniel continues to collaborate with Kota Kita, developing a digital database to map infrastructure projects in Solo. Daniel was heartened by the welcoming environment in Indonesia and at Kota Kita. “I really enjoyed my experience there. I was glad to learn about the government, culture and society of Indonesia, and to be able to see their similarities and differences with Mexico. I'm still impressed with how far and close those two places can be at the same time.”
Emily Schlickman
Emily Schlickman
2011
Emily contributed to Kota Kita as a landscape architecture graduate from Harvard University. She worked on developing maps and mini atlases to support the participatory planning in the city, and contributed to an assessment of climate change vulnerability in the Pabean district in Pekalongan city, a hub for the production of batik, Indonesia’s famous hand-dyed artisanal fabric.
Emily now lives in San Francisco and works for SWA Group, a landscape architecture and urban design firm, while teaching digital representation courses. She enjoyed visiting and surveying the neighborhoods of Solo. “This qualitative perspective always seemed to shed new light on our analysis and allowed us to connect faces with data,” she said.
Emily Lesk
Emily Lesk
2009
Emily interned while studying her Master of Architecture at Harvard University. She worked on the Solo Kota Kita community mapping project, helping to create maps and mini atlases that illustrate living conditions in Solo’s neighborhoods, including access to public services, income levels and child school attendance rates. She also researched the process of making batik, Indonesia’s celebrated hand-dyed textile, in a Solo neighborhood.
Emily now works for the city of San Francisco, facilitating real estate development projects that also aid economic development. “My favorite experience interning in Indonesia was riding my first becak (rickshaw) around the neighborhood of Kratonan to gather information for the mini atlas,” Emily said, referring to the historical area that once included the sultanate’s palace.
Hector Salazar Salome
Hector Salazar Salome
2011-2012
Hector interned for a full year with Kota Kita as a Luce Scholar after he graduated from MIT with a Master of City Planning degree. He worked on an extensive review of the musrenbang process in Solo.
He is now in Jakarta serving as the Executive Director of J-PAL SEA, a research organization that conducts policy impact evaluations throughout the region. “I really enjoyed collaborating with a dedicated team that was committed to their community and driven by the belief that development is enhanced by participation,” Hector said.
Heni Wijaya
Heni Wijaya
2012
Heni interned with Kota Kita for three months, getting involved in several projects in Solo as well as Banjarmasin on Borneo island. In Solo, she worked on developing tools and a mapping methodology to improve the potential for tourism in the Sondakan subdistrict of Solo. She also had a chance to see the site of the Firm Foundation project, and join the early meetings with local government officials.
Heni is now working as a designer for IKEA in Japan. “During my internship, I enjoyed waking up really early in the morning to take a boat so we could see the traditional floating morning market in Banjarmasin. All the traders were women and they drove their small boats so professionally!” Heni said.
Hadar Sachs
Hadar Sachs
Summer 2015
Hadar Sachs is originally from San Francisco but she joined us from Ithaca, New York State, where she is studying for her undergraduate degree in Urban Studies at Cornell University.
During her two months in Solo, she helped the creation of the Urban Citizenship Academy, testing and improving the curriculum together with our team. Her responsibilities, including giving training and guidance to volunteer groups, mentor them, and develop their projects and advocacy tools. She was impressed by the power of the mini atlases in changing the way citizens engage with their government. Hadar brought extensive experience in community planning, having worked with towns in the United States, and has also been studying Bahasa Indonesia; she had a good time practicing it in the real life setting of Solo.
Karina Gilbert
Karina Gilbert
Summer 2013
Karina joined Kota Kita’s efforts in the capital, Jakarta, and in collaboration with the NGO Ciliwung Merdeka, she and colleague Christina Geros used mapping techniques and participatory fieldwork to assess the impact that the Ciliwung River normalization would have on two local communities.
Karina has since completed her Master of Architecture in Urban Design program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and is determined to put people at the center of city making. “In addition to experiencing the softer side of Jakarta in one of its many kampungs, the experience I most enjoyed was breaking the Ramadan fast with new friends,” Karina said.
Lucia Artavia
Lucia Artavia
Summer 2015
Lucia Artavia is a Masters student in City and Regional Planning program at University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Sustainable Transportation and Infrastructure. She is from Costa Rica and her interests are in equity and accessibility to mobility opportunities and the impact of land use and the built environment on travel behavior.
During the summer 2015 in Solo, she conducted research about women’s cycling in Solo, and createed and implemented a number of tools and implementing strategies that raise awareness of cycling for women. She conducted focus group discussions with different groups including schoolgirl cyclists, Department of Transportation, Surakarta City, and bicycle groups, like Bike2Work and Seli Solo Raya (local’s folding bike community). From her research, she created programs that target and promote access to cycling for women. Additionally, conducted fieldwork and research about the acceptance of electric bicycles as an alternative for a more environmentally sustainable mode of transportation.
Olivia Stinson
Olivia Stinson
2010
Olivia volunteered on the Solo Kota Kita project, helping to put together the maps and mini atlases, and to upload them onto a website for the community to access and use. She helped with the enormous task of editing and refining the maps before they went online. Olivia went to Haiti after her time in Indonesia to help with the earthquake reconstruction efforts and returned to her home country, the United States, to work on long-term recovery following a major flood disaster in Colorado.
She is now the Recovery Specialist for Planning with the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, working with two towns on their community-driven recovery plan after the 2013 floods, and a number of other mitigation and recovery planning projects across Colorado. She said she was excited to see Kota Kita grow in Indonesia. “The first data set Kota Kita started to develop was so basic, but it was so crucial,” Olivia said. “There weren't a lot of good maps or data sets for Solo, so doing any informed and substantiated planning or analysis would have been difficult without them. I loved being in Solo at the first Kota Kita office as well as getting to know that lovely city and spending time with the team eating sambal and bebek goreng! (fresh chili sauce and fried duck!)”
Sebastian Dettman
Sebastian Dettman
2012
Sebastian spent a week assisting Kota Kita while completing his Master of Southeast Asia Studies at the University of Michigan. He helped evaluate Kota Kita’s own work on the musrenbang, the participatory budget planning process in Solo, and assisted in interviewing local community facilitators about their role in supporting the process.
Sebastian is now a third-year PhD student in the Government Department at Cornell University researching local politics in Indonesia. “In my short time with Kota Kita, I was deeply impressed by how extensively connected the organization was with local community leaders around the city. I most enjoyed seeing these interactions while accompanying Kota Kita staff, as well as hearing firsthand the perceptions of local leaders on the planning process,” Sebastian said.
Stephen Kennedy
Stephen Kennedy
2011 & 2012
Stephen joined Kota Kita while studying for a Master of City Planning at MIT. He worked on the City Development Strategies program, aimed at developing strategic planning documents for city leaders to help them communicate their visions to national-level planning agencies. While with Kota Kita, he also worked on an international student urban design competition called Urban SOS, developing the winning entry, Firm Foundation.
Now in San Francisco, Stephen is a Design & Technology Fellow for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and continues to contribute to Kota Kita, having designed this very website. “My favorite experience in Indonesia was probably the daily boat commutes on the Martapura river for field work and community meetings in riverfront neighborhoods,” Stephen said.
Kieran Micka-Maloy
Kieran Micka-Maloy
2016
Kieran Micka-Maloy is a senior at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, majoring in Urban and Regional Studies. He interned at Kota Kita over the summer of 2016, working on the Community Mapping Project. While at Kota Kita, he helped with outreach, graphic design, and research that went into the creation of mini-atlases, which help to visualize and prioritize issues that communities think are important using spatial data. He worked mostly in Solo, but also traveled to Banjarmasin to help kick-start a similar process there. Kieran’s studies focus on urban planning in the international context, and he has spent much of his time at university gaining international experience in places like India, Germany, and of course Indonesia. In the future, he hopes to work in sustainable development planning, helping to recenter the discipline around community participation and guidance, and away from top-down planning.
Célia Daoui
Célia Daoui
2016
Célia did her internship at Kota Kita while finishing a Master degree in Urban Planning at the Planning School of Paris. She specialized in the Global South and started to develop interest in the developing countries’ challenges with urban planning. During her internship with Kota Kita, she focused on the issue of gender and mobility with the Women On Wheels project and she helped to develop a toolbox to promote cycling mobility for women across cities. She had the opportunity to participate in debates and events at the Third Preparatory Committee for the UN HABITAT III Conference in Surabaya and interacted with people from all around the world about urban issues. She now lives in Brussels (Belgium) and working in a private architecture and urban planning office.
Ariege Besson
Ariege Besson
2016
Ariege is a senior at Yale finishing her undergraduate degree with majors in Race and Ethnic Studies and Geology. During her time in Solo (Summer 2016) her focus was on the community mapping project, Solo Kota Kita where she helped to develop neighborhood-level atlases for communities in Solo that used both satellite imagery and demographics to provide data about community resources and challenges. In 2017, she did research in Los Angeles on access to public space, particularly with regards to park space and public transport.
Mariel Kirschen
Mariel Kirschen
2016
Mariel Kirschen did her internship in summer 2016 when she was a Master of City Planning student at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States studying sustainable transportation and infrastructure. She is particularly interested in bicycle and public transportation systems and how they can increase the mobility of various populations in urban areas. She received her Bachelor’s degree from American University in Washington, DC where she had a double major in Law & Society and Women & Gender Studies. Her internship at Kota Kita focused on developing the Women on Wheels pilot project, which focuses on increasing women’s mobility in Solo by promoting bicycling in the city.
Arturo Cadena
Arturo Cadena
2016
Arturo is Mexican City Planner focused on the generation and use of ICT to improve city planning process by democratizing and co-creating open source technology along with organized citizens that are struggling with urban issues. In 2017, He interned with Kota Kita and helped in the adaptation of mobile devices as the organization’s data collection tools, digitizing their current methodologies in a variety of projects like disability and creative economies. He works in GIZ (German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation) as an ICT advisor for the development of tech platforms for Climate Change Adaptation working along with local governments and civil society in Mexican cities.
Cari Marie Krol
Cari Marie Krol
2017
Cari spent the summer of 2017 in Solo helping to create inclusive design especially to accommodate non-motorized transportation in the city. She holds a Master of City Planning degree, with specialization in Urban Design, from University of Pennsylvania, USA. She graduated with Bachelor of Science in Architecture, from Tyler School of Art, Temple University.
Brett Weber Davis
Brett Weber Davis
2017
Brett Davis spent the summer of 2017 in Solo, helping to build a city for all with Kota Kita. While there, he did on-site research, community workshops, and literature review with the Creative Kampung project, developing place-based strategies for informal economic development of craft industries in Indonesia. He also worked on the UNESCO profile of persons with disabilities living in Solo. After working hours, Davis drank locally-sourced coffee, studied Bahasa Indonesia and bicycled the Javanese countryside.
Davis is a City Planning masters student at the University of Pennsylvania, concentrating in Community and Economic Development. He is currently drafting a national policy recommendation to respond to gentrification-caused displacement and housing instability, as well as developing cooperative housing in West Philadelphia.
Maona Yui
Maona Yui
2017
Maona did her internship in Kota Kita in summer 2017. She helped improving the design of the survey for research about the condition and challenges of clusters of informal economy in Solo city. When doing her internship, she’s a first year graduate student at University of California, Los Angeles in Urban and Regional Planning. Her primary focus of study is in international development and sustainable urbanization through planning, and she has working experiences in the developing countries such as Malawi and Zambia.
Kaori Ota Cabrera
Kaori Ota Cabrera
2017
Kaori moved to Solo City after graduating her Bachelor in International Relations & Affairs at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Prior to her time in Indonesia, she worked at the Global Platform for the Right to the City, a multi-stakeholder network – in which Kota Kita is an active member. At Kota Kita, her main efforts went to the promotion of Right to the City in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia. In this role, she participated in workshops, discussions and events related to the concept, while also communicating, cooperating and coordinating efforts and international partnerships for the advancement of this topic in the general public’s mind and regionally.
Oukje Van Merle
Oukje Van Merle
2017
Oukje interned with Kota Kita while studying for her double degree Master of Science Communication and Master of Urbanism at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. In 2017, she worked with Kota Kita on developing a strategy and setting up the first design phase of a participatory design project in creative kampungs in Solo. Oukje also contributed to the design of a bike map, part of the Women on Wheels project, as a communication and activation product for the citizens of Solo.
Mega Febrina Kusumoastuti
Mega Febrina Kusumoastuti
2016
Mega interned with Kota Kita in 2017 while studying for her Bachelor degree in Urban and Regional Planning in Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia. She helped in the scoping research to find out about the challenges and opportunities of clustering of informal economy in Solo city.
Febrian Gerinosky
Febrian Gerinosky
2016
Geri is Kota Kita’s Urban Citizenship Academy alumni from Yogyakarta before he decided to join us for internship. He participated in the program in hope to improve his and his group’s community mapping and campaign organizing skills to improve lives of the riverbank community in Yogyakarta. During his internship, Geri helped with the implementation of UCA trainings in cities, including Bandung and Yogyakarta and the external outreach of the Urban Social Forum. He now works full-time for Kota Kita as an urban designer. Geri graduated from Universitas Islam Indonesia Yogyakarta with Bachelor degree in Architecture.
Morgan Marteau
Morgan Marteau
2018
Morgan is a French urban planner holding a Master’s degree in Urban Planning with a specialization in Environmental Planning and Ecodistricts from the University of Versailles . After two years working in Dublin (Republic of Ireland) in an urban planning practice, he decided to move to Solo City for a one year internship (2018) and use his skills toward creating meaningful impacts on the lives of local communities. He contributes to developing a strategy and setting up the design phases of a participatory design project in creative kampungs in Solo. He also uses his graphic skills to develop ways to communicate data through graphic design and visualization as he firmly believes in the old saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Morgan likes to discover Indonesian cultural treasures and get lost in new places to explore the nooks and crannies. He is always keen on catching meals in small traditional warungs and is not afraid of trying the most surprising Indonesian dishes. “Being part of Kota Kita is a great opportunity. More than a NGO, Kota Kita is a big family where everyone helps each other” he says.
Khyati Rathore
Khyati Rathore
2018
Khyati is a Master of Regional Planning candidate at Cornell University. She is currently pursuing her studies in international development and public policy with the research focus on climate change adaptation and community development strategies. She pursued her interests through the engagement with Yayasan Kota Kita as an intern in 2018. She developed the conceptual framework and methodology for the Kali Pepe Co-Development initiative through baseline research, including site observations and interviews with the community leaders. As part of her continued research at Cornell, she is developing a toolkit for finance mechanisms to support the economic development of these communities. She also participated in an event with the school children in Solo to promote cultural exchange and knowledge sharing.
As an outdoor sports enthusiast, she also spent her time in Indonesia for trekking up the gorgeous mountains, scuba diving at the reefs and river rafting with the friends at Kota Kita. She believes, Indonesia has a lot to offer - rich culture, stunning landscape and above all, the welcoming people.
Rhea Lopes
Rhea Lopes
2018
Rhea is an Architect, currently pursuing her Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. She has a strong interest in addressing issues of climate change and ecological restoration while working towards social and economic development of communities. She worked with Kota Kita as a summer 2018 intern, conducting the preliminary study for the Kali Pepe Co-Development Initiative in Solo. She values this internship as it gave her glimpse into urban riverfront development within a new context and an opportunity to experience both the culture and hospitality of Solo during intimate on-site engagements.
Besides her work as a Project Architect in Mumbai, she has collaborated with several government and non-profit organizations, engaging directly with communities to develop action-based solutions to sustainability problems. She enjoys the challenge of projects in new and varied contexts and has worked with organizations based in India, the United States, Indonesia and Cameroon. She is an avid traveler and believes that exploring Indonesia through diving, hiking and rafting during the internship term, made the experience even more special.
Andriani Wira Atmadja
Andriani Wira Atmadja
2019
Andriani is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Urban Planning with concentration in Housing, Real Estate, and Urban Development at Harvard University. Prior to her study, she worked as an Architectural Designer in New York, Singapore, and Jakarta across various projects, including urban design, masterplan, commercial/cultural building, office, and interior design. Besides urbanism and housing, she is passionate about how technology can shape cities across Indonesia while creating positive socio-economic impacts on society.
The Urban Social Forum
If you want to take part in the annual Urban Social Forum, please contact us. Get to know the forum here and our social media, on Facebook and Instagram.
The Urban Social Forum is an annual event that creates an open and inclusive space for civil society organizations, students, academics and social leaders from all over Indonesia to gather.
The forum provides an opportunity for participants to debate ideas, exchange experiences and knowledge, and meet and network with other leaders and organizations working on pressing urban issues throughout the country
The event is aimed at promoting awareness of urban issues, improving understanding of current practices and promoting collaboration.
Together, the civil society community can develop a common vision about how to overcome the challenges that determine our urban future.
The Urban Social Forum organizers believe that inclusive, participatory and progressive policies are necessary for the development of socially just, sustainable and humane cities, and that the role of civil society is critical in developing solutions to our urban problems.
Not only are these socially inclusive cities needed, we believe they are achievable, and it is our responsibility to promote them.