Japanese-Indonesians help poor kids stay in school

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For Dewi Wedaningsih, a daughter of a retired Japanese soldier Kaneo Ueda, keeping her five children in school was a nearly impossible task.

Her husband's salary, who is a porter at Sukarno-Hatta International Airport, was far from enough to feed the family, let alone cover all the school fees.

But that was before, she said, thanks to the financial assistance provided by a group of Japanese-Indonesians, who aim to do away with all constraints when it comes to educating children with Japanese ancestry.

The Yayasan Warga Persahabatan (YWP) foundation provides the money for two of Dewi's sons.

Mikhail Lukman, a high school student, and Mochamad Zaky Tamami, who is still in junior high school, receive Rp 80,000 (US$9) and Rp 60,000, respectively to cover their monthly education expenses.

"The money helps my children to focus on their studies so that they can have a brighter future. Moreover, it eases the family's burden," said Dewi.

The Foundation, also known as Fukushi Tomo no Kai, was founded in 1979 by 107 Japanese soldiers who chose to become Indonesian citizens after the Japanese occupation ended in 1945.

Its earlier purposes were to help the descendants of those soldiers to get medical aid, Japanese language courses, and most of all, education.

The organization later decided to provide education money to their distant kin.

"The foundation wants to see the next generation of Indonesians of Japanese descent achieve the same level of knowledge as that of Japanese (in Japan)," Edi Susanto, the manager of YWP education department told The Jakarta Post.

Poppi Sukaesih, the scholarship coordinator, said that the foundation realized that many children of Japanese descent were from poor families.

"Some of their parents are just war veterans and some of these children are already orphans. These children have to be helped because they have a special relationship to the foundation's management, who are also people of Japanese descent," she said.

Ever since the education assistance were offered in 1988, 423 students have received the assistance. This year, the foundation has awarded scholarships to 52 students, who live in Jakarta, Solo, Surabaya, and Medan.

"For the time being, we can only help those in Sumatra and Java," Edi said, and added that the program was funded by personal donations from Japanese expatriates here as well as other philanthropists, who live in Japan. (006)