Helping out others brings its own rewards

Helping out others brings its own rewards

Monique Natalia, Contributor, Jakarta

During February and March it was an everyday sight to see
young people hauling boxes and soliciting donations at traffic
lights to help Jakarta's flood victims.

Unfortunately, this kind of "social work" done by young
Indonesians on a regular basis is a rarity. It seems it takes a
disaster for most young people to rally round a cause.

Some kids said that it is not that they don't care what is
going on around them.

"Even if we want to do something good, the facilities just
don't exist for us to do that," said Rani, 16, who attends a
private school in Central Jakarta.

What she means by facilities are organizations and organized
activities that invite youths to help out in social work. This is
very different from countries like the United States, for
example, where there are lots of organizations that are available
for youths to volunteer for.

There are the few exceptions though, those young people who
have the initiative to go and start something of their own to
contribute something to the society.

Titin, a student of the University of Indonesia, joined with
some of her friends in setting up a creativity workshop for the
children of Kapuk village in North Jakarta. The workshop, Sanggar
Anak Kapuk (Kapuk Children's Creative Workshop), was established
in 1999, when the average age of the founding members was 19.

"At first we were a part of another social organization,"
Titin, the vice president of the group, explained. "But now we
have become our own independent group called Lentera Anak
Bangsa."

Sanggar Anak Kapuk is just one of their projects.

"We've all chipped in to rent a small house there to provide
the children with a place where they can be creative and express
themselves in their drawings and other artistic activities. We
are planning to expand our activities and membership so that we
can help more children."

The children of Kapuk village are from working-class families.
They are not homeless nor orphans, but they are poor.

Why help them instead of, say, street kids?

"There are already a lot of organizations that are doing
things for street children, like building shelters. There are
also others who take care of orphans. We want to do something
new," Titin, 22, said.

She said that these children still have families to support
them, they cannot enjoy their childhood. Their playgrounds are
garbage dumps where they hunt for discarded toys they can play
with.

Some of them do not go to school because they simply cannot
afford it. Titin and her friends are trying to put some joy and
creativity into those children's lives. By teaching them drawing,
dancing and singing, they are hoping to broaden the children's
horizons and improve their chances for the future.

"For most of them it's a vicious circle," the student of the
School of Social and Political Sciences explained. "Most of their
parents are factory workers. If they don't do anything to better
their chances for the future they will inevitably end up like
their fathers, which is becoming a factory worker."

Their aim is to put a stop to this cycle.

The children are encouraged to enter into drawing competitions
as one of their regular activities. It is not without a
challenge, however, for every competition that they choose to
enter, they have to think of a way to bring around 50 kids of all
ages in rented buses with just around five chaperones.

But, all that trouble is worth it when they hear the name of
one of their kids being announced as a winner. It is also a pride
in itself to arrive at the village with a trophy and a parade of
happy children that can be heard from miles off.

"These are the kind of things that motivate me," Titin
answered referring to the happy faces of the "champions".

"I love children and I just wanted to do something useful for
them."

Helping others while also helping himself is one of the main
drives of Gary, 22, a peer counselor at a drug rehab center in
Bogor.

Although he is the young peer counselor at the facility, Gary,
has already been entrusted with the responsibility of being a
house manager for the center and also a full-time peer counselor.

His tasks include developing daily activity programs for the
residents and also teaching. But instead of teaching economics,
which he studied in college, the recovering addict has to teach
the subject of addiction which he learned during his training and
through reading psychological books.

He became an addict when he entered junior high school.

"I started with marijuana, after that I moved on to pills and
then in 1996 I started to get addicted to putauw (low-grade
heroin)."

His addiction led him to do things like lie to his parents to
get money to buy drugs and also sell his possessions.

"I used to think that I was the one controlling the drugs that
I was using, but I was wrong. They were the ones controlling my
life!"

When his frustrations with himself got the better of him, he
started to look for a cure. He tried detoxification that involved
taking other medication in order to get rid of his addiction.

However, after three unsuccessful years of detox he decided to
enter himself into a rehabilitation center. He was a resident at
the center for six months, and afterwards was trained to be an
assistant peer counselor.

From the first day he entered the center one and a half years
ago, he has not left the place, except for his few days off. He
is staying there to help other residents who need his guidance.

"I am learning a lot here. Before, it was really hard for me
to keep clean," Gary said. "By working here and helping out other
junkies I am also helping myself to stay clean."

His scope now is not limited to the center's residents for he
often gets invited to talk on local radio shows and also at
seminars organized by schools.

He sees his work as a means to lead other young people away
from the threats of drugs and to help those who have already
become addicts. He claims that recovering junkies are the best
counselors because they themselves have experienced the suffering
and torture of trying to quit, and are thus able to sympathize
with them and give them the support they do not get from others.

He also sees a reflection of himself in those addicts' wasted
lives. That is his other motivation for abandoning his life to
help other people start a new life of their own.