GK Sports Day - 2014

To say the last month has been crazy at the kids' school would be quite an understatement. So, to spend Saturday with some amazingly awesome kids was a a very welcome break.

I've mentioned the work of two great organizations, GK and XS, here, and here, and here, and here, and here (can you tell I love these organizations!). The JIS Middle and High Schools each have GK Clubs dedicated to working with GK and the children from these communities. The students in these clubs (Emilie is a member of the GK Middle School Club) worked together to organize the 2nd Annual GK Sports Day. They invited over 180 kids from the GK and XS communities to participate in a fun filled day of sports and activities.

The morning began with breakfast. The kids were separated by age group. Then they all headed out to the field for a variety of activities. The JIS students planned everything from parachute play, capture the flag, frisbees, hula hoops, and more. Each age group took turns rotating through the stations.After a little break to cool off and get souvenir photos taken in the "Photo Booth," it was time for water games!  The JIS students organized a ton of water activities - slip and slide, water guns, sponges, and tug o'war.  The smiles were contagious (at one point I even complained to Emilie that my cheeks hurt from smiling so much!).

The day ended with a rousing rendition of the "Unity Dance" followed by lunch.

Emilie and I had a terrific day and what a great reminder of the wonderful relationship JIS has been able to establish between the JIS students and the Jakarta Community. I feel honored to have been  included in such an amazing day!

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.

Gerakan Kepedulian

Thank You JIS For The Construction Of Our Pavilion.

I was lucky enough to spend another day with this amazing organization. This time, we went to visit one of their "completed" communities.  One of the things I think is so great about GK is that they stay an integral part of each of their communities even after it is "completed."  They have an office there and a couple of members of the community have become full time employees of the organization.  These employees help to make sure the community is running smoothly.  When we arrived, they were in the middle of  teaching a preschool class. This was great to see because in most cases in Indonesia, the members of these communities would not be sending their kids to preschool (it costs far too much).  The community we visited even invites kids from the neighboring communities to participate in this free preschool program.  We brought snacks for the kids and had fun passing them out after their class was over.  Children, in all of Indonesia, are taught to respect their elders.  They take your hand and either place it to their forehead, their cheek, or give it a little kiss.  I have seen them do this to say thank you, but also as a simple greeting.

The teachers are members of the community.

Eager learners wearing JIS t-shirts!

GK, with some help from JIS and the community members, built these homes.  They painted everything in bright colors and added little touches like flowerbeds outside of the homes.  The families were so excited to have actual floors to sleep on (tile vs. dirt), they didn't want to sleep on their mattresses when they first moved in so they slept directly on the tile.  I was also told that before the new community was built, one family of eight was forced to sleep in shifts because there wasn't enough floor space for the entire family to sleep at the same time.  These little things we all take for granted every day.

Beautiful Colorful Homes!

Beautiful potted plants line the community.  They have also planted lots of lemon grass as a nyamuk (mosquito) repellent.

The 10 Rules of Healthy Living are posted in each house.  These include things like eating healthy fruits and vegetables, getting daily exercise, and not smoking in the house; Numbers one and two are about delivering babies with a medical specialist (doctor or midwife) and breastfeeding for healthy babies - After all my work with the March of Dimes these two struck the biggest cord with me.

Not a single piece of garbage to be seen

The community has a pavilion for gathering, a sports court for exercise, and a garden where they have been taught to grow some of their own fruits and vegetables. They are able to sell the excess food for additional income.

The women use paper products from the trash they have collected to make recycled paper.  They get paper orders from a company in Indonesia.  One women showed us the process she goes through to make the paper.  It was nice to see that not only were they able to use the garbage for recycling, but they have learned a new skill to improve their income.  One of the parents that went with us was even talking about going back to teach them how to make more decorative papers using flowers and leaves.  She thought they would be able to sell the decorative paper for a little more money.  

Showing us her paper making skills!

 

Finished paper.  Ready to be sold.

Once again, I was blown away by what a great organization GK is.  To see the way this community has been transformed was amazing.  The people of the community had a pride in their community.  They were excited to show us all that they were able to accomplish.  They had pictures up of the community build throughout the area.  I was impressed with the systems they had in place to keep the community running smoothly.  They had a schedule posted for the different things like security rotations or who was in charge of cleaning the community bathroom this week.  

The community restrooms - one for the girls and one for the boys. 

The display board had artwork as well as the chore rotation schedule

This gentleman was so excited to show me his photo on the wall, I couldn't resist taking a photo!

The links below are a couple of short videos showing this community being built as well as the handing over of the keys. It's inspiring to see the JIS students, parents and faculty working along side GK volunteers as well as the members of the community to see this project through.

May 5, 2012 - GK Cisadane Community Build

May 19, 2012 - GK Cisadane Community Hand Over

Currently, GK is at various stages with several communities in Jakarta.  

• Cisadane-18 families. This is the complete GK village I was able to visit with homes (built May 2012) and various programs running.

• Dumpit-30 families. Children are members of GK Scholarship & CYD (Child & Youth Development) Programs since 2010. We have an empty land which have been donated and where home & community facilities may be built.

• Rawacana-20 families. Children are members of GK Scholarship and CYD Programs since 2008. Residents are formerly from Dumpit but forced to relocate nearby in Feb 2012. 

• Ciliwung 1 and 2 - 85 families. 2 water systems and a learning center has been built. CYD Programs & Scholarship Programs started this year.  (This was one of the communities I visited on my previous GK trip.)

• Pekayon 1,2 and 3 total of around 300 families. A pre-school program has been started in June 2012. Productivity programs are planned to start this year. (This was the other community I was able to visit on my previous GK trip.)

I am excited to continue learning more about GK and helping in whatever capacity I can.  Honestly, I feel that I am gaining so much more from this experience and learning so much more from  these people than I can ever give back to them.