Hidayatullah isn't just a school for orphans
Hidayatullah isn't just a school for orphans
BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): Hundreds of orphans live and learn at the Hidayatullah boarding school in Gunung Tembak, Kalimantan for free.
This separates this boarding school from the other 6,000 in Indonesia.
"There are heaps of neglected orphans and school drop-outs here," explained Abdullah Said, the headmaster and founder of Hidayatullah, "The government already has its hands full with many other problems, this falls into the realm of community responsibility."
Meeting the daily needs and the other problems of thousands of students and teachers at 75 branches of the school throughout the country is not easy.
At the Gunung Tembak school alone, the 2,000 students consume about one ton of rice every two days.
Hasan Ibrahim, the school's manager, appears calm and confident. "Whoever helps Allah will get Allah's help," he quoted a Koranic verse.
He pointed out that the locals usually help the school out, because they appreciate that it accepts and educates orphans and neglected children.
"Unless these children are well taken care of, they may become a problem for the community," Hasan told The Jakarta Post. "Here, they are trained to be self-reliant, independent and to become pioneers in society."
"Many a great man was an orphan," he assured.
Realizing that they couldn't always rely on people's sympathy, the boarding school's managers began to establish various business units to support the institutions.
In Balikpapan alone, the school has two general trade and contractor businesses. "When we started, we suffered one financial loss after another," Adi Dharma Yudi, a former student who manages the companies, said. "But we learned from our mistakes."
The companies have now been doing business with some foreign oil companies in the area, including Vico, Unocal and Total Indonesie.
In Tarakan, an island in the north of East Kalimantan, a branch of the Hidayatullah school has a 7-hectare fishpond, and a plantation of salak (Zalacca fruits).
The Surabaya-branch of Hidayatullah is considered to be the most advanced in business establishment. It has printing shops, a publishing house, an expedition service, a door-to-door marketing service and an advertising, graphic design and architecture consultant firm. A great number of former students are also studying at leading universities in the city.
The Surabaya-branch also publishes the Suara Hidayatullah monthly magazine which specializes in analysis on Islamic development both local and worldwide. Its circulation is now 65,000.
The Jakarta-branch of the school has established a bakery and a halal fried chicken restaurant. It also established a haj operation last year which cooperates with Al-Hussam, a well-known pilgrimage arranger.
According to Abdullah Said, a common feature of the businesses is "to support the dakwah (Islamic calling) movement, and to call on the community to shoulder the great responsibility". (Wisnu Pramudya)
-- Wisnu Pramudya