Deaf and mute young Indonesian fashion designer Rafi Ridwan, who held first his show when only nine, now wants to help other disabled children

Rafi Ridwan has had fashion shows across the world and created a collection for America’s Next Top Model, overcoming discrimination along the way

But his plans to help other disabled children realise their dreams have been dealt a severe blow in an event that also destroyed all his career memorabilia

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Eighteen-year-old Indonesian fashion designer Rafi Ridwan sketched his first designs for Ariel from The Little Mermaid as a child.

Published: 2:45pm, 3 Aug 2020Updated: 7:10pm, 4 Aug 2020

Rafi Ridwan became one of the youngest fashion designers ever in Indonesia at the age of nine when he held his first fashion show in collaboration with one of Indonesia’s most famous designers, Barli Asmara, in 2011.

He was all set to launch his latest project earlier this year – a fashion and culinary workshop for disabled children – but the now 18-year-old’s plans were scuppered when floods struck several parts of Indonesia in January, just a few days after he had returned from a fashion show he had held in the US state of Texas.

His home in Bekasi, a city on the eastern border of Jakarta, was submerged in waist-high water. Rafi and his family spent almost a week cleaning up their home, but the building where the workshop was to be held, close to his house, had almost sunk below ground.

“When we got in [our house] after the flood receded, everything was in disarray,” says Shinta Handayani, Rafi’s mother. “Metres of traditional fabrics we bought from all across Indonesia were destroyed. A computer was lying on the kitchen floor. The worst part was Rafi’s award certificates and media clippings were drowned in mud. It broke my heart to see my son trying to hold back his tears.”

Rafi’s certificates, sketchbooks and other memorabilia, destroyed by the floods in Indonesia.

For Rafi, those items had marked his tough journey through thick and thin.