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.

WatSan Action

Every year, the sixth graders at Emilie's school go on a field trip to learn about WatSan Action, a service organization in Jakarta. Emilie and her classmates headed out on this adventure last fall. After the trip, Emilie told us all about it in a typical 12-year old way. "It was good." So, when I was given the opportunity to join another JIS Peduli service trip to WatSan, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to find out more about WatSan, but I was also very interested to see what the "good" sixth grade field trip was all about. WatSan Action is a nonprofit organization developed by a JIS Alum. Their mission is to work with Indonesian kampungs to improve their water and sanitation conditions. We were able to visit one of the kampungs WatSan is currently working with to see these things in action. 

An integral part of the WatSan program is education. WatSan workers go to the kampung and teach the children about the importance of things like using clean water and washing their hands. The kids learn new hand washing songs and are taught how and when to wash their hands. WatSan also leaves a library in the community for the kids to use.  

Let's Wash Our Hands (As translated by me with my very limited Bahasa Indonesia)
Let's wash our hands before...
Let's wash our hands before...
Before we eat..
After using the restroom..
Let's wash our hands before..

Let's wash our hands before...
Let's wash our hands before...
Use clean water...
Clean with soap...
Then dry with a clean towel..

This guy was roaming around in the middle of the lesson

The kids are taught to wash their hands using this hand washing station.

After observing the classroom and singing a hand washing song with the kids, we were given the opportunity to walk through the kampung to see some of the other things WatSan has done. They have built two community bathrooms as well as a place for the members of the kampung to wash dishes and clothes.                  

Like most of the kampungs we have been to, this is a trash picker's community. The trash comes in on a daily basis and is originally sold for $2-$5USD per day. It is sorted and sold to various other groups that come. Anything that cannot be sold is burned. 

 

The people of Indonesia continue to amaze me with their hospitality. They are always so gracious. Even as we are traipsing through their community, we always receive warm welcomes and big smiles.  

GK Mustikasari Build

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to add a little of my own blood, sweat and tears to the building of a new community in Jakarta. GK is currently working on moving 30+ families from a community heavily effected by flooding.  This is one of the communities I had the chance to visit following the devastating floods in January.  (Read more about that visit here) 

Members of this community come to the new site to help with the build on a rotating basis.  There are  community members on site everyday of the week and it shows...the progress is astounding.  Below is a picture of the community pavilion that has been donated by Emilie's school, JIS. 

Many of the materials and supplies have been generously donated, but GK has been feverishly fundraising to help make up the difference.  GK also covers the cost to rent the land, but the families must work together to pay for other costs, such as electricity and upkeep.  

There will be housing units for approximately 40 families.  Below is a picture of the "living room" in one of the units.  Each unit has three rooms of this size (a living room, a bedroom, and a kitchen).  There is no air conditioning (Keep in mind, the weather year round is approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit with, no less than, 60% humidity).  The are 4-5 units per building and the corner units are the coveted ones since they have more windows and ventilation. 

Below are photos of the various stages the build was in on the day we were there...

And check out the view!!!

The parent volunteers with JIS Peduli took turns moving bricks, mixing cement, carrying buckets of cement, and plastering walls. As I was mixing cement, the sweat was literally rolling off my nose and into the cement mixture - a little part of me will always be a part of these homes!

It was a great day for us as volunteers. It felt great pitching in and getting our hands dirty, not to mention knowing that we were helping to get more than 30 families out of flood waters.  Below is a link to a great video documenting the build!

GK Mustikasari Build Video

XS Village

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE INDONESIA.  The longer we live here, the more I find to complain about, but the more I fall in love with it; And every day I get to meet another amazing person.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, a group from Emilie's school (and a group from neighboring Singapore International School), meet at a trash pickers' community called XS Village and hold a preschool for the kids of the community.  XS Village is another community/organization highly supported by Emilie's school.   The XS project is an organization that has taught trash picker communities to recycle their goods into items that can be sold.  The proceeds are put back into the community in terms of scholarships for the children.  Emilie's school helps to support this organization in many ways.  One of which is by purchasing recycled items from them.  I know I've mentioned that every student in her Middle School and High School is issued a MacBook Air to take home and use through-out the school year.  With these laptops, all students are issued laptop cases made from recycled products and purchased from the XS Project.  There are even places you can purchase their products in the states!  

These are the carts pushed through the streets of Jakarta and used to collect trash.

A cart full - ready to be added to the pile where it will be sorted.  Some things will be sold, others recycled and the remaining will be burned (you can see a little of the smoke in this picture).

Sorting Trash

On a good day, they hope to make 50,000-70,000 rupiah ($5-$7USD)

Two expat women, one from Korea and another from America, saw the need for a preschool in this community and created it.  (Have I mentioned how amazing all the people I have met are?)  Just like in the States, public school does not start until kids are 5-6 years old, but I have been told that often times, kids will be turned away from the public school until they are able to read and write...how crazy is that?!?  Now imagine trying to teach your child to read and write (so that they can go to school) when you may, or may not, know how to read or write yourself.  The preschool program at the XS Village was started by two moms who saw the need and jumped in. There is no funding for this program (other than the TREMENDOUS amount of support JIS has given them).  Nobody is being paid to be there and all of the supplies have been donated.  

Twice a week, the garbage is pushed aside and a tarp is put down for the preschool. (The tarp was donated by one of the preschool founders)

The kids LOVE it!

The ages range from babies to about 8 years old plus Moms and Dads!  Everyone participates; Even the Moms and Dads have fun singing and learning in both English and Bahasa Indonesia!

All of the kids have been given a notebook and pencil (provided by donations from JIS). Everyone comes prepared and ready to learn! 

The easel was donated by a volunteer and the kids love to demonstrate how much they have learned! The next goal is to find some little dry erase boards for all of the kids to use at the same time!

Making Valentine's

I have had so much fun meeting the kids (and adults) of this community.  I look forward to spending a lot more time learning from them!