Book shows solidarity with Aceh, Nias children

Book shows solidarity with Aceh, Nias children

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With Jakarta kids now firmly belonging to the MTV generation,
many fear they will grow up to be indifferent to others around
them.

These fears, however, would seem to be little more than fears,
as shown by 17 elementary school students who still dearly care
about other people and even animals.

While the media and the public at large gradually lost
interest in the tsunami and the earthquakes that struck Aceh and
Nias, and moved on to no less depressing news from other parts of
the country, the fifth graders of an elementary school in Jakarta
did not forget.

From a mere school project, they wrote essays and published
their compilations in a beautifully illustrated book in order to
collect money for the victims.

"These essays were actually written for an environmental
project as we were talking about endangered species in
Indonesia," said Ann Hutchinson, a teacher with the private
Mentari elementary school.

"We also showed a documentary on Papua in our classroom," said
Ann.

Ibu Ann, as she is affectionately called, said that she helped
edit the punctuation and grammar in her students' stories.
"That's all. The story ideas and the flow of each story are
originally the children's," Ann said.

One of the youthful authors, Kartika, who said that she loves
to draw and write, and swims like a fish, gave a broad smile
while nodding her head when asked if she cared about children
whom she did not know personally.

Other students were seen nodding or smiling in affirmation
when Dilla Amran, who acted as the emcee at the book launch on
Sunday, announced to the audience that the book was "the
children's way of helping their fellow children in Aceh and
Nias."

"The proceeds from the sales of the book will all go to the
children in Aceh and Nias. That's what they want. We are only
helping to publish and sell this book, which is available in
bookstores in Jakarta for Rp 50,000," Dilla from Jakarta Books
told The Jakarta Post.

One thousand copies were printed in the initial run.

As the devastation and misery were, of course, far removed
from the kids, they wrote about things they were familiar with:
fables and stories on friendship, honesty and solidarity.

"I love small animals because they too exist and must be
protected. That's why I wrote about a squirrel who helped a
trapped tiger," Kartika said.

A huge fan of Green Day, Maura wrote about a baby gorilla that
was brought up by a rat and later on -- in Maura's words, after
many long and boring years -- began to believe that he himself
was a rat. But the unfortunate gorilla finally discovered his own
identity after an incident with a group of tigers.

"I heard about the situation (in Aceh and Nias) and it is good
for us to be able to help them," Maura said when asked to comment
on the charity effort.