China donates furniture, food to slum area school

JAKARTA (JP): Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Chen Shiqiu donated classroom furniture and food worth about Rp 7.5 million (US$1,000) on Tuesday to an elementary school in the Kalibaru slum area in Cilincing, North Jakarta.

Donated to privately run SD Al Mubasyirien were 60 student desks, six teacher desks, six book cupboards, two archive cupboards, six blackboards and essential foodstuffs of 650 kilograms of rice and 26 liters of cooking oil.

Chen symbolically presented the donation to principal M. Sahid in a ceremony held in a classroom at the school on Jl. Tanah Merdeka 2. Among those in attendance was Chen Haihua, the ambassador's wife.

She said the school badly needed the aid. "The classroom desks are already so old. They have holes. Just look at the classroom walls... all of them have pencil marks everywhere."

Sahid said that keeping the 491 students enrolled was becoming more difficult because of the economic crisis.

"There are 283 families in Kalibaru subdistrict living below the poverty line. Thank God, to this date, my 11 teachers and I have been able to make sure the 491 students can continue their studies.

"Out of the 491 students, at least 120 are orphans who could not afford to pay the monthly tuition fee of Rp 5,000 each."

Sahid added that the subdistrict was home to 10,007 families, consisting of 47,564 people, of which 45 percent were poor fishing families.

The donation ceremony and the arrival of foreign guests galvanized the neighborhood. Entertainment was provided with a dance performance by schoolgirls in white sequined frocks.

Schoolchildren lined alleys and narrow roads.

They sang children's songs and politely shook hands with passersby.

Several schoolgirls chatted happily at the school's entrance. Damayanti, 8, said she enjoyed the singing but preferred to play with friends outside during "speech time".

"I don't like listening to adults talking because I don't understand anything. I just enjoy crowded situations. Very rarely do we have occasions like this."

One of her friends, seated at an abandoned classroom table by her mother, was not as carefree.

Eight-year-old Nurhaisyah pulled the hair of every child who passed by. Her mother, Siti, said the child had always been grumpy because she had a congenital "leg problem".

"Whatever it is, the disease has left her paralyzed. But this child insists on being brought to school. She is a hardworking child.

"Doctors say the only way to fix the problem is to amputate her legs. Since she wants to study, I carry her everywhere and even sit with her in classes."

Lela, a mother of three, said that her fisherman husband found it difficult to feed their children, let alone send them to school.

In a good month, her husband's monthly income amounted to Rp 75,000. "Due to the bad times, my husband now comes home with a monthly income of only Rp 20,000."

She said the school helped foot the bill for her children's medical expenses.

"Sometimes, when my children need to be examined at the community health center, I bring a letter from the principal. The bill is sent to the school." (ylt)