50 students receive scholarships

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Children's Welfare Foundation handed over scholarships to 50 elementary school students from poor families in Cilincing slum area, North Jakarta, on Saturday.

The foundation's vice executive director, Arum R. Kusuma Negara, said the scholarships were part of the Depot Anak program launched by the foundation in July with the aim of helping elementary school students continue their studies.

"The fund for the scholarships came from the public. We just distribute help to the needy," Arum said.

She said the 50 students of Baburidho school on Jl. Cilincing Baru received Rp 100,000 (US$13.30) each a year.

She said only 40 percent of the school's 115 students paid their monthly tuition fees of between Rp 1,500 and Rp 6,000.

"We will try to help the other students get scholarships from other institutions," she said.

The school's principal, Sultan Wahyudi, thanked the foundation, saying that more donations from the public were expected.

He said most of the students' parents were poor and worked as fishermen or stevedores at Tanjung Priok Port.

"All of our students study here without uniforms. The most important thing here is that they have to study," he said.

Some of the students dropped out of state schools because they could not pay for tuition, he said.

"I often encourage parents to enroll their children here without paying for tuition. The scholarships are very helpful," he said, adding that 18 of the school's teachers were paid only between Rp 15,000 and Rp 60,000 a month.

Besides the scholarship handover, which was held in conjunction with the commemoration of Social Solidarity Day on Dec. 20, the foundation also donated Rp 5 million for the renovation of the school's buildings, Arum said.

She said about 200 children in the area got free medical checkups from 18 doctors of the Indonesian Pediatricians Association on Saturday.

While the children had checkups, their parents received staple food packages from private television station RCTI, she said.

Arum said the foundation received a mobile library from HongKong Bank Jakarta. She said the foundation currently operated four mobile libraries with a total collection of 6,000 book titles servicing 15 slum areas in the city.

Besides receiving donations in the form of money, she said, the foundation also hoped people would donate clothes and stationary for children. (jun)