Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

You may have read the post about my first venture out into "real" Jakarta shortly after the major floods last year - EXTRAORDINARY. At that time, I had the opportunity to meet some people devastated by the floods and offer a little bit of flood relief.

A few month later, I was able to help build new housing for some of these same families. (You can find that story here - GK Mustikasari Build.)

Last fall, I was able to return to the newly built community to check out the finished product. It was amazing to see such a difference between the living conditions of the community we delivered flood relief to in January and the new life they have been able to make for themselves with the help of GK.

Last January, this community was under water.  Even after several dry days, the children were still wading through the water to get home from school.










In March, GK was able to secure some  land out of flood range. The community members worked together to build new homes for 30 families.











Thirty families have now moved in to their brand new homes.

"JIS Learning Studio"

The "JIS Learning Studio" is a covered ramada within the community.Community members use this area as a gathering space for community meetings or extra classroom time for the kids. GK has also been able to secure work for community members. A greeting card company has employed these community members to assemble and stuff packages of greeting cards. Anyone from the community can do this work during their spare time. Other members of the community have found additional work doing things like sewing uniforms for local schools. 

Each home has running water and electricity! (But no A/C)

The Community bathrooms have a rotating schedule putting different community members in charge of keeping them clean.

The community also has an area for washing and hanging clothes to dry.

I love the bright colors GK uses when painting the new communities. I also like the added planters making the community so bright and cheerful.

The smile on this woman's face says it all! Since moving into the new community, she has been able to set-up her own little warung and sell goods to fellow community members. She has been given a new opportunity to make some money while staying home.

These kids were getting a little math tutoring while we were visiting. We interrupted their tutoring session to do a language lesson exchange - we helped them with their English and they helped us with our Bahasa Indonesia. 

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to visit the completed community that we helped build. The happiness throughout the community was contagious! What an honor it has been to meet the members of this community.