Blind Susanti navigates city's tests with tenacity

JAKARTA (JP): Where there's a will, there's a way. That is the adage Susanti lives by as she braves the hard times which have hit the nation's capital.

Instead of depending on others, Susanti, who is blind, has managed to remain self-reliant by selling popsicles. She was helped into her line of work by guidance she received at Rawinala school for the handicapped in East Jakarta.

Susanti's eyesight was bad from an early age. She was nearsighted in her infancy, but is now totally blind.

However, she does not let her handicap prevent her from getting on in life and is becoming an accomplished small-scale businesswoman.

Susanti, who is now 22, would have remained dependent on others for the rest of her life had her parents not searched continuously for a school which could cater to her specific needs after she finished kindergarten at the age of eight.

The education she received at Rawinala school has given her the practical knowledge that she needs to fend for herself.

"I don't know what kind of life I would have had if my teachers and friends had not taught me so patiently," she told The Jakarta Post during a Christmas celebration at her school.

She said that a teacher taught her how to make popsicles in 1996 and then urged her to start her own business.

Susanti is now an expert in producing popsicles in a variety of flavors, including orange, mango and mung bean, however she has concentrated on making sweet tea flavor since the economic crisis began. That, she explained, was the most affordable for her customers.

"I can sell sweet tea popsicles for less because the ingredients are cheaper. If I make something expensive people won't buy it," Susanti said enthusiastically.

She produces around 100 sweet tea popsicles every day and sells them for Rp 150 each to five ice vendors who live near the school building.

"I am proud that I am able to search for customers by myself. See, I can do things even though I am blind," said the thin girl.

Susanti sometimes supplies sweet tea popsicles to members of the Armed Forces stationed at Halim Perdanakusumah in East Jakarta.

"I don't care that people sometimes mock me or make derogatory comments when I am out on business," she said.

Susanti said she earns about Rp 60,000 (US$8) a month, a small income with which she is unlikely to be able to meet her own needs.

"Everything depends on us. If we feel that Rp 60,000 is enough it will be enough," she said, adding that she was lucky because the school provides her with free meals.

Susanti is the second of three children. Her parents are both vegetable sellers in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta.

She said that two of her blind friends also ran businesses out of a 20-square-meter workshop provided by the school.

Veronica, 20, and Suroso, 21, run salted egg and chicken egg businesses respectively.

"I am happy that my friends can also be successful," she said.

Susanti had no big dreams, saying only that she wants to be able to buy another freezer to help her to expand.

"I want to sell ice cubes because people here find it difficult to get a hold of any. But one freezer is not big enough for that." (ind)