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Throughout history, it has often been the young who have initiated the biggest changes. In January this year, the Egyptian revolution was sparked by the country’s youth, who were fed up with the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. Something similar happened in Indonesia in 1998 when Suharto, president of the country for 32 years, was forced to step down after massive protests organized by students.

Indonesia’s young people are, once again, making their voices heard. Over the past few years, more and more of them have become involved in these social movements. But instead of calling for an overthrow of the government, they are hoping to revolutionize people’s attitudes toward a wide variety of social issues such as corruption, environmental protection and education.

Nisrina Nadhifah Rahman is only 16 years old, but her concerns about the rampant graft in the country drove her to establish an activist group called Suara Pemuda Anti Korupsi (Voice of the Youth Against Corruption, but using the Indonesian acronym Speak). The goal of the group is to raise awareness of the dangers of corruption and change people’s mind-set about the evil.

Nisrina is very passionate about human rights. She is an assistant youth programmer at Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan (Women’s Journal Foundation), which is operated by a women’s rights magazine. The teenager said it was time for the young to become active in the fight against corruption.

“I believe today’s young people can be agents of the anticorruption movement,” she said.

Formed in July last year, the group organizes events to promote their campaign. In December, they held an anti-corruption festival, which included workshops, competitions and music concerts.

The group’s festival is a good example of how young people often combine social activism with fun, light-hearted activities in order to get more people involved.

Take, for example, 21-year-old Angela Walandouw, a student at Bina Nusantara University (Binus) in West Jakarta. Along with 25 friends, she is organizing a charity event this Sunday called Binus FunD Bike 2011.

The goal is to raise money for a good cause while giving riders a chance to enjoy the capital on their bicycles. Riders will travel from the Binus campus to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and back. The event will also feature performances from Betawi ondel-ondel puppets and bands.

While the event is a fun one, Angela said ticket sales from the event will be donated to a worthy cause — The Foundation for Mother & Child Health (YBS).

“We chose the foundation after we heard that many Indonesian children under the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition,” she said. “Through this event, we hope we can do something to help those unlucky children.”

Many of the young social activists in Jakarta simply want to make the city a nicer place to live. For example, a group of young people launched an organization last year, Jakarta Berkebun (Jakarta Gardening), that encourages people to create more green spaces in the capital in which to grow fruits and vegetables.

Ridwan Kamil, a prominent architect, started the initiative in October. Dozens of people who shared his concern about the lack of green space quickly took up the cause. The group has already opened branches in several other Indonesian cities.

Milly Ratudian Purbasari, the group’s leader, said about 20 people attended their first meeting. They all agreed that something positive should be done with Jakarta’s unused tracks of land.

“We know that there are so many neglected areas in the city, most of which have been turned into dumping grounds,” she said.

The group got lucky when the Springhill housing complex in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, granted them a three-year lease on 10,800 square meters of vacant land at no charge.

Jakarta Berkebun managed to attract about 150 people to its first event at the site. Under the watchful eyes of several experts, each participant was given a small plot of land to plant kangkung (water spinach).

“We found that water spinach is a fairly easy plant to grow,” Milly said, adding that it only takes three weeks before it is ready to be picked.

Each week, members are encouraged to drop by and tend to their water spinach. Milly said the participants were also encouraged to bring along family and friends.

“Most children who live in big cities are not familiar with gardening, since they spend most of their time inside air-conditioned buildings,” she said.

One of the main characteristics of the organizations started by today’s social activists is that, instead of requiring a few people to dedicate huge amounts of time or money to a cause, they rely on the idea of lots of people contributing a little.

The Shoebox Project, a charity started by 25-year-old Beriozka Anita, is based on this concept. They ask large numbers of people to contribute small amounts of money, around Rp 50,000 ($6) each, or short stints of time volunteering in order to make a big difference in the lives of the underprivileged.

Although the Shoebox Project was started just last year, it has already completed eight projects, including renovations on an orphanage and a school.

Gita, a member of the group, said it had received a great response from the public. The amount of money the group has been able to raise has grown steadily with each project.

“I would say that we are a bunch of young people who simply want to remind others about the importance of sharing,” he said.

According to Dessy Sekar Chamdi, a longtime social activist, there has been a significant increase in the number of youth activists in recent times.

Dessy said people could thank advances in technology, particularly social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter, for the increase.

“I think social media has made things easier for people who are interested in getting involved in a cause,” she said, adding that in the past it was much more difficult to promote charity events than it is today.

Dessy, who has been involved in activism since 1993, said that, today, everybody has the power to start a social movement.

“There are lots of really young people out there who are engaging in activism,” she said.

“I think that’s a great thing.”

Gita echoed Dessy’s sentiments, saying social movements has become trendy among young people. He said getting volunteers for the Shoebox Project has been surprisingly easy thanks to the power of social networking.

Dessy said young people are passionate, which helps them to find other like-minded individuals to join their causes.

But she warned that passion was not enough.

“There are many things you need to consider to ensure so that your social movement can last,” she said. “You need to have clear long-term goals in order to survive.”

Whether the recent growth in social activism turns out to be a fad or the beginning of something greater, there is no doubt that the work these young people are doing right now is changing peoples lives for the better.