Japanese teacher aids needy Tangerang children

JAKARTA (JP): A Japanese teacher presented cash donations and school supplies which she collected in her small prefecture in Fukuoka province to children of state schools in Tangerang yesterday.

Momoyo Matsumoto, 50, from Kumamoto, has made the collections from local residents for seven years for Indonesian students. She said she could only attribute her motivation to love for the country, and particularly its children.

"I like Indonesian children very much," she told The Jakarta Post here after presenting 480,000 (Rp 43.2 million) and several boxes of school supplies for children of SDN Neglasari 1 and 3, and SD Telagasari elementary schools in Sewan district.

The cash is intended to help their parents pay tuition fees.

She described the smiles of Indonesian children as "unforgettable".

"Even when they're having a hard time, they're still smiling," said the mother of a 23-year-old son.

Matsumoto said she planned to launch another fund-raising campaign on her return to Japan later this month for the renovation of the schools she visited yesterday.

Matsumoto, who often writes for the local newspaper in her hometown, said she hoped to enlist government support this time.

All three schools were in poor condition, with pillars and ceilings on the verge of collapsing.

Matsumoto also presented drawings and letters by her students at the Gofuku elementary school in Japan in which they expressed their desire to meet with Indonesian children.

The Tangerang children responded to the letters and drawings with their own, which Matsumoto will bring back to Japan. "I will frame them and hang them in the classrooms."

Matsumoto said she planned to settle in Bali with her husband when she retires in five years' time.

"Indonesia is my second-born country.

"I want to keep helping Indonesian children. And I also want to teach Japanese," she said. (01)