Progress Report of Children Learning Community in June 2012

Dear friends,

The Children Learning Community activities run well in June.

In early June, we were visited by Ms. Angguni and Ms. Monica from maGis Community. The community has been regularly organised a live-in program at Cakung Community for several years. Ms. Angguni and Ms. Monica came to us for doing some survey and for making plans for their friends to live-in Cakung this June.

On Saturday, June 23rd, 2012, we received a visit from an ex-facilitator who used to assist children of categories 3 and 4. Due to her seven month pregnancy, Ms Rikah had had to end her service in facilitating the children at Cakung. Ms.Rikah and Mr.Aung came to visit us to introduce their newborn baby, Arka, who is now 6 month of age.

We were glad of their visit. We wish they are always happy and for Arka, their son to grow as a healthy, smart and obedient boy.

On Thursday, June 28th, 2012, there were six volunteers from maGis Community visiting us. They came in the morning for participating in live-in program. We gathered at the learning tent to talk about their tasks. Then they had lunch at the house of activities.

During their live-in program on 28 - 30 June 2012, the six volunteers stayed at the house of activities. Each of them had tasks to work in the farm area, at one of the Cakung resident’s home and to facilitate children on alternative education at the learning tent.

Mr. Ardian and Ms. Martha helped Soni and Nia’s parents at the farm, Ms. Silvie and Ms. Andra helped Intan and Fajar’s parents at the farm, while Ms. Bella and Ms. Meltari helped Firman and his grandmother at their hut, also facilitating children at the learning tent. Ms. Bella facilitated children in the category 0 for learning reading and writing, while Ms.Meltari facilitated children in the category 3 to learn English.

At the farewell, they all sang a song taught by Cakung children. The farewell song was “I am a shepherd boy”. It was sung in a funny and synchronised dance.

The children were happy to have Kakak-kakak from maGis Community. The children and the Cakung residents felt grateful for their help in facilitating the children in learning and in helping the residents in the farm.

Thanks so much to Ms. Meltari, Ms. Bella, Ms. Silvie, Ms. Martha, Ms. Andra, and Ms. Ardian. Special thank to Ms. Angguni and Ms. Monica for introducing us to them. We hope you all are always success in your career and always be dedicated in serving others.


Alternative Learning Activities

The Children Learning Community activities run well in June.

The study desk had been repaired however, due to its poor quality and age, we would still need to find a proper carpenter to make some more desks.

We do monthly evaluation on learning preparation and review of learning material. Facilitators and staff gather to evaluate each task and make a plan based on the curriculum that we have set in the beginning of the year. We meet on every Wednesday at the learning house. Usually we continue it with checking and updating our library records and doing some craft activities.

We trained teenagers and residents of Cakung to make dragonflies and bugs accessories from beads to accelerate their income. We’re planning to make prayer beads and Idul Fitri greeting cards.

The preparation meeting for Cakung Children Leadership Training was held on the last Wednesday of June. The training will be held on Saturday, July 14th, 2012. The goal of this training is to understand how to become a leader. A good leader is a leader who is willing to serve others therefore the children will have to learn to serve others in order to lead. A sex education program was initially scheduled to be held a day before the leadership training. However, we will postpone it until next year as the prospective participants are still too young to learn about healthy reproduction.

The committee has been formed. There are some female Cakung residents in the committee. The training will be held at the house of activities from morning until afternoon.

The school holiday started from the last week of June. Almost all children who take formal education passed their exams. Some of them have good ranks from 1, 2, 3 to 5 in their class. We are proud of their work.

Two children of Children Learning Community, the twin sisters, Lina-Lini who seldom follow learning activities at Cakung didn’t pass the second grade. It was because of their schools hours changed from starting in the morning to the afternoon. They found this change was quite hard to adapt, they often fell asleep in the class until the last study.

We suggested their parents to move them to another school SDN 09 which has only morning classes. The school management did not allow them to move due to administrative matters and as SDN 09 is in the same building and area as per their current school, SDN 08.

a. Cakung Children Community

In this 2nd quarter, the children of the 0 category started to learn spelling by pronouncing alphabets and numeric 0 – 10. We used simple word cards with interesting pictures for them to learn how to spell. Each child presented the card and read each alphabet in front of their peers and then they spelt the word together. In learning maths, they learn addition and subtraction from things surround them.

Children of the 1st category are now able to read simple stories with big letters. After reading, we asked them to re-tell the story. They learn counting by playing snakes and ladders board-games, where they learn how to add and subtract. In this game, each of them was required to write the number they did in a book. We assigned a facilitator of 1st category to assist the children in this game.

Children in the 2nd category learn counting using jarimatika method. They also practice to read longer stories and to re-tell the stories. Since early June, they also learn basic multiplication. We’re planning to train them the multiplication using jarimatika method to number 15.

For the month of July, the children will practice some exercise including addition, subtraction and multiplication by using an imaginary grocery shopping and cooking activities.

For children of the 3rd category, we asked them to learn summarising articles and re-telling it in front of their friends as well as they need to learn about descriptive writings. A few months ago, they wrote descriptions about their friends and this month, we asked them to describe their home.

They learn English and enrich the vocabularies by singing English songs and by playing scrabble. At the end of June, they learned English accompanied by Ms. Meltari. They learn names of fruit then play snakes and ladders board game. In this game, each of them was required to write the number they did in a book, just after their turn.

The children character building activities (Living Values Activities) is usually held on every Saturdays. The theme of this month is Collaboration. We usually do this activity by sharing, singing, role playing (such as playing certain roles, taking different role play and telling stories) and finishing it by meditation.

To learn about Collaboration, we divided the children into several groups. There was a game where their hands had to be stiffened and were stood in line. They would need to whisper a word to the next person until the last person only needed to mention the last alphabet of the word. Another activity was role playing. They played as blind, deaf, mute and limped people. These ‘disabled’ people were in pair and holding hands trying to work together out to put on sandal on the other person while still holding hands.

They learn a song which has a moral to help one to another, without discriminating their economic condition, nationality, religion, or anything else. When someone is hungry, there is me who give one’s food; when someone is crying, there is me who cares one’s hair; when someone is sick, there is me who give one’s medicine; when someone is scared, there is me who calm one’s down.

When there is collaboration, there is happiness and peace because each person gives appreciation and humbly aware of their task and responsibility.

The life-skill activity for all categories was learning to make salty eggs. Each child has 4 eggs in return of a small price. For different category groups, we provide trainings in making origami, cutting and pasting materials, aerobics, drawing and recording national songs.

At the end of June 2012, friends of maGis Community came to accompany the children learning and they taught Rampak Gendang dance from Aceh, Sumatra Island. For 2 days, children learned about it from Ms. Angguni and Ms. Meltari. Although it’s difficult for them, the children still enjoyed practicing it.

After completing the learning activities, we tidied up all the materials in learning tent. The younger children collected garbage around the tent, while the older ones folded the tent canvas. They also tidied up and put all the learning materials into a plastic container and carried it together with the facilitator to a nearby resident’s home to keep it.

b. Muara Baru Community

The learning activity runs every Sunday. We usually study together as well as reading books from our little library collection.

The learning activity at RT 14 is developing well. Although the numbers of participants are mostly the same, there is always new participants join. Their age are ranging from 6 years old to 11 years old. The learning activity held at RT 01 was organised through reading our library books collection and playing scrabble.

These learning activities were held in the classroom which is normally used for play group aged children.

We divide the children into two groups to learn reading, writing, counting and speaking as per the arrangement done for the children of Cakung. They learned vocabularies by playing scrabble in Indonesian and English, also learned how to count by playing snakes and ladders board game.

We thank all the collaborative works between the facilitators, the children and residents of Cakung and Muara Baru, especially to Ms. Qori’ah, Ms. Bella, Ms. Meltari, Ms. Angguni, friends of maGis community, Yana, Riska, Lisna, and Indri as well as all the committee members and housewives in Cakung area.

Thank you so much for sharing new knowledge and skills with the children.


Library

We open our library on every Wednesdays. Mostly we start it with book registration and list them and then we put covers on the books.

This month, the library activities were only registering and covering books. We received many donated books lately and many of them were not covered yet. As the result, we will be busy to put covers on each books until next month.

In June, we bought some reference books to learn more activities. We also received several donated books and CDs.


Nutrition Improvement Program for Children

In June 2012, the nutrition improvement activities run well.

Besides drinking milk, the healthy menu for this month was hard-boiled egg, watermelon, boiled corn, oranges, and rujak kangkung. This month is a long month as it has 5th week. Therefore, we prepared more menus.

We modified the menu on Saturday, the 4th week. Instead of providing oranges, the children had a special menu as part of Ms. Rikah and Mr. Aung’s baby introduction celebration. Ms. Rikah and family came in the afternoon after the children finished the study. Some women helped her preparing the turmeric rice with some dishes.

The children were happily welcoming Ms.Rikah, Mr.Aung, and their son, Arka. They also enjoyed the special menu on that day.

We thank Ms. Rikah and family for providing the special tumeric rice. Thanks to all coordinators and committee as well as Soni’s mom who had helped the preparation of healthy menu for June.


Scholarship

The scholarship children now have 1 child addition, Firman who will enroll the elementary school. The admission procedure was online, with the syarat, have birth certificate & family identity card.

Firman’s birth certificate which he have since a year ago is not enough for school admission. The school children have to have family identity card with the register number of each family member.

Firman’s father accompanied by a facilitator finally could done the new family identity card after the old one has expired. More than a week, they have to process it from the local administrative until the region.

Finally, Firman registers as a student of 09 public elementary school of East Cakung.

In the last June, Indri followed the medical test & interview. Finally she accepted in her chosen school, few days after it.
The admission cost will done in the early July.

The scholarship children have good ranks in their school. Cynthia has the 2nd rank high in her class, Umi has the 3rd rank, while Nia have have the good marks, higher than the average marks of the class.
On this month, the expenditure for the elementary children school need. Other expenditure were for internet rental & print of school admission, also travel for school enroll & purchase school need.

We thank very much for Laftavi family via Mrs.Esti & Mr.Robert Tontey, who would like to support the scholarship for some children of Children Learning Community. We hope through the donation & moral support, the children will be the smart, creative, & have good achievement to develop their neighbourhood.


July 2012 Activity Plan

1. Make the new learning desks.
2. Purchase the milk powder for the nutrition improvement program for the children.
3. Purchase the library material.
4. Purchase the school need for scholarship students.
5. Leadership Training on Saturday, July 14th, 2012 at 09.00 – end at the house of activities, Cakung.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to all friends who continuously supporting us in their prayers, through donations, materials and time. Without their support, our activities would not be realised in this month.

Thank you so much for the material support from sanggar akar, Sr.Agustina, BKK, and Ms.Rikah & family. Thank you to Ms.Anita Linggar for translating the regular report.

We still open our hearts for everyone who would like to support student books, secondhand materials or clothes or anything.

Thanks for the funds which we use for operating our activities in Children Learning Community. Thanks to Bu Vina, Pak Arend, Michelle Maramis, Ms. Jenny, Mrs.Rina Anwar, Ms. Elissa, Mrs.Nita Arifin, Laftavi family, and Ms.Arry Fitriana.

We thank for the donation from PPI Gent and Children First for fund raising at the bazaar & event of Sense of Heritage on May 12th, 2012 in Belgium. The donation will we keep to realize our future to buy a house for activities.

Again, our sincere thank to all of you. May God bless all of you abundantly and may our collaboration will continue well.

May God bless all of us.


Warmest regards,
On behalf of Children Learning Community

Debby


P.S.
You could give donation via bank:
Acc.holder Debby Maitimu or Dwi Resmi Sari
BCA Branch office Matraman, East Jakarta, Indonesia
Acc.no.342-2792161
Swift code : cenaidja
or contact me for material support on +628129685594