Duo look after Jakarta's poor

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

They serve as a surrogate father and mother for the destitute children studying in their Sanggar Akar schools.

Karyanto, or Karyo, one of the founders of Sanggar Akar, acts as the father, and Juprianto, or Jupri, the school's executive director, as the mother -- despite his being a man.

"We both live here (in the school compound). We need to be there whenever they (the children) need us, 24 hours a day," Juprianto said.

Pride and hope were evident in Juprianto's eyes and voice as the 35-year-old took The Jakarta Post on a guided tour of the school for deprived children.

"This building was built by the children. They pieced it together with bits and pieces of wood and poured the cement foundation themselves," Juprianto said proudly of the two-story building, which houses a classroom, computer room and staff room.

The hall-like classroom was bare of tables and chairs. Instead, the wood floor was covered with multicolored thatched mats, with several cushions thrown about.

Sanggar Akar is a non-profit community-based school established in 1994 and dedicated to providing the deprived children of Greater Jakarta an education.

Children who find their way to Sanggar Akar are mostly destitute, including street children and scavengers, as well as the children of the very poor.

At least 800 children of all ages have studied at Sanggar Akar's schools, including at the main school in Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta, and the branch schools in Penas Lama, the Jatinegara train station, Duren Sawit and Cawang, all in East Jakarta, and Cakung, North Jakarta, and Bantar Gebang, Bekasi.

Sanggar Akar first began as the children advocacy wing of Father Sandyawan Sumardi's Jakarta Social Institute.

Sanggar Akar soon became self-sufficient thanks to donations, as well as from sales of the children's products, such as recycled-paper handicrafts and silk-screen printed T-shirts, and books and newsletters.

Sanggar's approach to educating deprived children is simple: teach them to be independent and self-confident, and build their character; and to do this both Karyo and Jupri are prepared to dedicate their entire lives to the children.

"The key to educating these children is intensity. The intensity of contact with them will lead them talk to us, and from there we build a trust. So I try to be there for them as much as possible," the 38-year-old Karyo said.

As well as practical lessons such as cooking, creating handicrafts from recycled paper, theater and raising livestock, the school also provides formal lessons in history, English, literature, music, painting and sculpting.

The school has recruited many volunteer teachers, including some from formal schools such as the Jakarta Institute of Arts and the LIA private English language school.

"The curriculum is wholly up to the children. They decide what they are interested in. We don't spoon-feed them like in regular schools," Juprianto said, explaining that in this way the children's interest in the lessons was maintained because they felt the importance of the lessons.

Smaller children are taught how to read and write, and learn basic mathematics, as well as "how to speak".

"Deprived children are often reluctant to speak out. They are inwardly shy and wary of strangers," Juprianto said, explaining that lessons in speaking were really aimed at getting children to speak their minds and to give them the courage to speak in public.

Jupri and Karyo often get the children to act in plays.

Recently, Sanggar Akar staged a play called Kaleng Rombeng (Tattered Tin) at Graha Bakti Budaya in Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta.

Karyo said his interest in children came from his desire to change the world for the better.

"But for people of my age it is too late to do something so meaningful. So I rest my hopes with these children," the graceful, easygoing man, said.

Before establishing Sanggar Akar, Karyo often mingled with street children and became acquainted with them.

"I found out that these children are segregated by their professions, whether scavengers or beggars or whatever, and I wanted them all to have a safe place to play and get to know one another," Karyo said, explaining the reason behind the establishment of Sanggar Akar.

Karyo met Jupri in 1997, when the latter joined Sanggar.

Jupri, a seminary dropout, said he joined Sanggar Akar because he wanted to be close to the poor.

He decided to quit the seminary and turn his attention to the poor after reading a quote from Mother Theresa in a magazine. The quote basically said that many people can talk about the poor, but only a few can talk to them.

"Not long after I dropped out of school and I joined Sanggar Akar to be able to 'talk' to the poor.

"If I had become a priest, I might just be another of those people who are against the poor, against street children. I'd be moralizing to them instead of helping them," Jupri said.