500 poor children get free SeaWorld edutainment

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Around 500 poor children who usually spend their days on the street or among mountains of garbage were given a chance on Wednesday by a children's foundation and SeaWorld to escape the dust and stench of their everyday world on a one-day trip to the marine aquarium in Ancol, North Jakarta.

The children impatiently waited for their chance to enter the SeaWorld aquarium tunnel, filled with thousands of exotic marine creatures from around the world.

Their open faces shone with excitement and their eyes with wonderment as they stroked the glass of the giant aquarium and gazed at fish they had never seen before.

"It's so nice here. I love watching the fishes, they look so weird. I've never seen such fish before," said Warkem, a girl of 13 who lives with her parents at Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi.

"I like it here because the room is so large and clean," said Kholifah, 13, referring to her home,which is also in a dump site.

For Caslam, 14, who also lives at Bantar Gebang, the outing let him to hang out "with all my friends and sing along in the bus on the way". He then eagerly thrust his hand in the aquarium's petting pool to caress a baby shark.

Warkem's and Kholifah's parents are scavengers at Bantar Gebang, and work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.

With about a Rp 20,000 (US$4.71) weekly income, it is impossible for the parents to take their children to visit SeaWorld, which charges an entrance fee of Rp 17,000 on weekdays and Rp 23,000 on weekends.

Aside from Bantar Gebang, the other children in the group came from Jl. Kalimalang and the areas of Rawa Lumbu, Cut Mutia, Jati Asih and Villa Nusa Indah, all in Bekasi.

Thanks to the Mahanaim Foundation -- a community service foundation with a mission to educate poor children -- and SeaWorld, the underprivileged children were able to visit the aquarium as part of an edutainment program.

An edutainment, or education-and-entertainment, trip focuses on a fun and entertaining approach to education, such as educating children about marine animals and personal hygiene via a puppet show about a shark with a toothache.

The aquarium guides taught the children through the story that sharks have four rows of teeth on both their upper and lower jaws, and at the end of the show, they reminded the children to brush their teeth every day.

When the children were asked what sharks eat, they simply cried, "People!" and made everyone burst out laughing.

SeaWorld Marketing Manager Metty Sander said that through this program, the children would be enriched with knowledge about Indonesia's marine ecosystem and how to conserve it.

"I hope this edutainment trip will spark their imagination and increase their knowledge."