Progress Report of Children Learning Community on February 2015

Dear Friends,

Happy Lunar Year 2566.
May the new year brings you grace, joy, and peace.

Children Learning Community is very grateful for your support and prayers in February 2015. All activities were carried out smoothly throughout the month.

From Monday, February 9 to Wednesday, February 11, 2015, we had “live-in” visitors from Center for Innovation Policy and Governance research institute (CIPG). At the time of their arrival, Jakarta was barricaded by floods of water. With determination, they went through the flood to get to “Cakung”. Since they arrived at “Cakung” late in the evening, we placed them temporarily at the Learning House until the next morning. In the morning, a facilitator and a community elder helped them to find shelter among the residence in the community. They interacted and did their research until Wednesday evening. At the end of their visit, all the participants were brought back to the Learning House by their host. At the Learning House, participants prepared themselves for their next activity. We were happy that we could facilitate them with their research. We hoped that this learning experience had brought awareness to participants

We were grateful for all CIPG’s participant and their organizer, big brother Nardo, for choosing and trusting us as their research’s subject. We hoped that we could maintain the cooperation for future research project.

In the early February, a person in charge surveyed a community in “Sarang Tupai” village, Megamendung district, West Java. The purpose of this survey was to consider a possible development of our activity in this community.

We visited big sister Ivonne, a long time friend in the same field of service. She took us to the community and talked to several people. Big sister Ivonne started this community project few years back. Due to lack of supports, she had to discontinue the project.

The village of “Sarang Tupai” is situated very secluded, far away from main road. To get to this village, we need to go through a winding and steep little road. Because of this geographical condition, children rarely go out of their own village. There are two primary schools in the area. The early primary classes have many children. As the student progress to a higher grade, the number drops significantly. Usually, only 50% of the students make it to the end of their primary years. With many children in each class, the primary school also does not have sufficient number of teachers. Available teachers have limitation to attend each student. We find that many 5th graders cannot read well.

Surrounding the village, we found many luxury villas. These villas were built by affluent land owners in big plots. This situation is not in favor for the economic development of villagers. Most of villagers’ children only finished their primary school education. They cannot afford to go to middle schools because of the distance and the economic reasons. The closest middle school is 5 km away. They can reach the school by foot through steep and winding road. Other way to reach the school is by riding motorcycle taxi. But, they cannot afford a daily fare.

Parents support is very crucial for the villagers’ children. Only a few ambitious children are willing to go through this ordeal. We are moved by their tenacity to do so.

The Learning House in “Sarang Tupai” has a large yard and a sizable terrace within the area. Children are very excited to come and learn with us. Thus, we fulfill the need for an adequate playground and a considerable learning space for the children.

On Sunday, February 22, 2015, we welcome a baby girl into Susi’s family. The mother, Susi was actively involved since her days as our student in “Cakung”.

She gave birth in the 10th month of her pregnancy. It was a difficult labor. We were worried about her health and financial condition at that time. Her young family only support themselves as farmers. With mediocre income, the family could not afford the incurred labor cost. This condition moved us to help her financially.

We are grateful to big sister Sofia Erlinda Indra for her continuous financial support. This month, she opened her heart to support to Susi’s family.

On March 1, with the geneourosity of big sister Dita from WeShare group, we had our outdoor activity in “Taman Safari” wild animal park, Cisarua, West Java.

Participants were from “Cakung” and “Sarang Tupai”. Due to far distance, we were very selective with participants. The selection criteria were older children and students who are diligent to come to the learning center and students who are diligent to save their money. They all need to be actively attend class in Learning House. At the end, all these selected students should ask permission from their parents to travel to the intended destination.

From the Cakung community, we had 23 participants and 2 guardians. And from the “Sarang Tupai” community, we had 12 participants and 1 guardian.

Children were gathered at 9 am. All the outdoor activity was running smoothly. The children were happy to know their big brothers and sisters from WeShare. They learned different kind of animals. They enjoyed playing and watching many performances over there.

The activity ended in the afternoon. Due to heavy rain and traffic during our way home, the children arrived late in the evening.

We are so grateful to big brothers and sisters from WeShare. Thank you for a chance to learn many useful aspects of an animal’s life.

We value the relationship with WeShare and we hope that we will be working with them in the near future.

The Alternative Learning Activities

a. Cakung Children Community

Throughout February 2015, the alternative learning activities ran well.

This month’s crafting activity were making valentine cards from paper and creating bags from recycled coffee packs. The products were made by mothers and teenagers.

We are grateful to the monastic community of Saint Marry, in Juanda Road for their attention and faithful support in collecting recycled coffee packs. We are also indebted to Cakung community, facilitators and big sister Ari for their effort supporting this activity.

We open to any friends who are willing to collect and donate recycled materials. The materials are still valuable for us. Mothers and teenagers can learn to create many wonderful things out of these materials. Together, we also support global movement of reducing, reusing and recycling plastic waste.


b. Muara Baru Children Community

This month activities were on the first Sunday, February 1, 2015 and the third Sunday, February 15, 2015.

We divided the children into two activity groups. They were accompanied by big sister Indri, Ester and Nia. We moved the activity to Ms. Herda’s house because our assembly hall needed repairs. Meanwhile, the community used the learning house temporarily for their “Marawis” Islamic musical practice.

c. Sarang Tupai Children Community

We started the activity in mid February 2015. The activity was started exactly on February 17, 2015 with learning and playing.

We were excited to see the enthusiasm of the children. We started to get acquaintance with dialogue about what their expectation of our activity and their hope for their future. Most girls want to be doctors or chefs. Many of the boys have not yet known of their future.

Based on this dialog, we all agreed to have our activity on Monday and Thursday afternoon.
Earlier, we only had 9 children with their mothers. In the next few days, the number of children grew from 16 to 22 children. At the end of February, we reached 26 children between the ages of 4 to 13. Out of these 26 children only 1 child was attending Middle School. This child was coming from better economic parents.

We were very happy when we got permission from the neighborhood leader or RT (Rukun Tetangga) to run our activity.

We are still hoping for your generosity. The “Sarang Tupai” community’s children need a chance to do better in the future. Please, always keep us in your prayer.

We are grateful for many facilitators, volunteers, children, and the communities of “Cakung”, “Muara Baru” and “Sarang Tupai”.

We are indebted to big sister Indri, big sister Uju, Ester, Nia, big brother Tino and all the program coordinators. We are also thankful to big sister Ivonne in “Sarang Tupai” community and Ms. Herda in “Muara Baru”.

Library

Library activity runs on every Thursday afternoon. The person in charge organized and put the books back on the racks. At each of the Learning Houses of, “Cakung”, “Muara Baru” and “Sarang Tupai”, the person in charged also prepared the children’s reading materials. And for mandatory book of January and February 2015, the reading materials were taken from the library’s 2009 books collection.

Throughout February, we continued registering and compiling the 2014 books to the library. We also started to register some reference books which arrived as a donation or a purchase in 2015.
We are grateful to library team for their tenacity on finishing their duty.

Children Nutritional Improvement Activities

Beside “Cakung” community, this activity also runs in “Sarang Tupai” community.

On the first Friday of February, the team prepared boil eggs. And on the second Saturday of February, they enjoyed spinach soup and fried onion corns. Children loved this meal. We served them in each of these children’s plate. They eat them all, even without rice.

On the third Friday of February, the children enjoyed slices of melon. And on the fourth Friday, the children enjoyed pudding with biscuits.

In “Sarang Tupai” community, this activity was prepared by all the children. They were gathered to choose the menu. The 2nd group of children (age 10 to 13) wrote the recipe of the familiar menu.

They divide the work load among themselves. Each child can choose to participate with any aspect of cooking preparation. Some children choose to bring potatoes, carrots, string beans and spices. Each child chooses to bring little things for this activity. On Thursday, February 26, 2015, they did the cooking. They gathered all the materials that they brought. The facilitator prepared the chicken broth from boiling chicken, fried the soy beans and cut the jack fruits for later dessert.

While waiting for the other group, preparing the meal, the 1st group of children (age 4 to 8) did their drawing. These children’s group was accompanied by Ms. Sri.

Before lunch, all the children washed their hands. They brought their plates to the serving table. Ms. Sri helped us in serving the meal to each child. We sat down and ate together.

Children were very happy to have a chance to eat together. They enjoyed their meal that they help to prepare together.

After lunch, some of the children washed the dishes. The other cleaned their study quarters. We also took a few minutes to discuss the preparation for our outdoor activity in “Taman Safari”, wild Animal Park.

We are grateful to the 2015 Child Nutritional Improvement Program’s coordinator Indri and her team, Ester, Nia and Tino. We also thank the “Sarang Tupai” community 2nd group’s children, mothers and facilitators for their participation this month.

Scholarship

Scholarship was given for children’s school supplies and photocopies. Some students have to make copies from original text book, because the government cannot provide text books for them. Since the 2013 curriculum was replaced by 2006 curriculum at the middle of the school year, some school have not yet received enough amount of text books. The school encourages the children to make copies.

Fees for scholarships were also given to the university student for the 6th semester at the university. Some Middle and High School students were also received scholarship fee for transportation and practicing in Swimming and Badminton. Some vocational students also received their vocational practicing school fee and expenses for printer ink and a new modem. The old modem need to be replaced because of its slow speed and their tendency to overheat. Other expenses also include school transport and English tutors.

The university student achieved a good grade in their 5th semester. During their 6th semester, the student needs to find herself a mandatory internship job. Throughout February 2015, the university’s scholarship recipients were very busy looking for her internship job.

We are thankful to our loyal contributors who help us with this program. We hope that all your help will benefit the scholarship participants to achieve their better future. We also hope that you will continue to work together with us in supporting this program.

March 2015 Activity Plan

1. Learning Activity
a. The Ceiling of Learning Hall in “Muara Baru” need repair. At this moment, we can see directly the asbestos roof. The asbestos is hazardous when exposed. We plan to put ceiling to cover it.
b. The community of “Sarang Tupai” still needs our attention. We plan to fulfill their needs for writing books, school supplies, pens and pencils.
c. For crafting development, we plan to provide the activity of making Easter greeting cards. The entrepreneurial crafting, “Usaha Mandiri” will focus on making these cards out of paper and recycled coffee packs.

2. Library
a. From the end of February to March 2015, we plan to select and register back the 2009 books.
b. Through out March 2015, we will have mandatory reading from the 2010 books.

3. Children Nutritional Improvement
a. Menu plans and purchases of nutritious food. Organizing and purchasing kitchen utensils.

At the end, we are grateful to friends for their support through the month of February. Your support in prayers, finances, efforts and learning materials is essential to the implementation of our programs.

We are deeply grateful to donors who truly care for others more than themselves. We are thankful for your respect and trust in our effort.

We are thankful to Sr. Annunciata, OSU for the biscuit cookies. We are also thankful to the Laftavis for the pocket camera. We are thankful also to the Tonteys for handing us the camera. We are grateful also to big sister Ari, Sr. Marceline, OSU from the Ursulin Sister Community in Juanda Road for the recycled coffee packs. Our thank you to Mr. David for translating this monthly report and the Children clothing’s donations which we gave them to the community of “Sarang Tupai” community.

We are grateful for your financial support. They are essential to our programs. We are thankful to big sister Elissa Meiliana Wiguna, Hanaria Putri, Maria Yosepha Dua Donna, Mrs. Djiauw Swie Tjing, and Sofia Erlinda Indra for her financial support to cover medical bill of a young mother. This young mother, a member of the Cakung community needs to stay in the hospital after giving birth to a baby girl.

We are grateful for your kind heart. May God bless you with good health and blessings. May our work together will continue well. We are called to serve.

God bless us all.

To access this report and children’s creative product, please visit: http://cakungchildrencommunity.blogspot.com
To access and order mothers and teenagers’ creative product, please visit: http://cakungchildrencreation.blogspot.com

Warm 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