JP/18/SCHL1

checked -JSR School turns scavengers into scholars, citizens

Karen Stingemore The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

With the Indonesian flag flying high above the entrance way and the echo of laughter and eager voices drifting along the corridor, PKBM (Pusat Kegiatan Belajar Masyarakat, or Center For Community-Based Learning Activities) seems like any other Indonesian elementary school.

The school, however, is special and has given hundreds of poor and desperate children and parents in the district of Pondok Kelapa, East Jakarta, the prospect of a brighter future.

Three years ago, the school was opened by a small but dedicated group of people in Pondok Kelapa to teach refugee children, but it turned out that children of local scavengers were attending as well.

When the refugee children left, the government forced the closure of the school, which meant the local youngsters would have been denied any chance of an education.

The teachers decided they were not going to abandon them and through gritty determination secured new premises in the same district, the abandoned district offices of the Department of Education.

The teachers managed to make an agreement with the government that allowed them to stay at the premises for five years.

To let people know about the school in its early days it advertised on the radio; through such advertising volunteers from various student groups from Indonesian universities, as well as volunteers from the public, jumped on board to help set up the school.

Looking at the school now you can hardly believe that six months ago the building was abandoned, decrepit and decaying.

Teachers and volunteers sweated it out to make the classrooms usable and the buildings are now adorned with colorful pictures and charts; there is a comfortable library with children's books and cartoons and the furniture in the kindergarten classroom is painted in bright colors.

The school roll has grown from 30 to 120 children, from kindergarten to sixth grade. There are six volunteer teachers and their only form of payment is transportation money.

School hours are from 8 a.m. through 1 p.m., with kindergarten finishing at 10:30 a.m.

The children are given lunch three times a week and donations the school receives are awarded to the children as prizes for good work.

Winning over the parents

One of the original founders and teachers, Ibu Novi, said she never dreamed the school would become what it is today.

"When we first set up the school the only resources we had were volunteers and time. When people first heard about the school it was difficult to convince parents to allow their children to attend because their offspring were sources of income, but now the parents understand the importance of education," she said.

"Initially, we attracted students to the school by selling rice at half its usual price; when the parents came to buy the rice the teachers would explain to them that educating their children was the most important thing they could do for them."

To provide the parents with an added incentive to continue allowing their children to go to school, the students are picked up and dropped off in a school-owned vehicle, while rice is distributed free each month to the families of the children.

As she walks around the school helping with lessons and handing out donations to the grateful children, you can see clearly Novi's passion for what she does.

"Every day these children work to help support their families by going through the garbage for recyclable items they can sell; we just want to be able to give them something in return," Novi said.

The school focuses on giving the children valuable life skills as well as providing them with the usual elementary curriculum.

"During the first year, we spent the majority of our time teaching them to sit still, how to bathe and not to fight," she said.

Parents benefit, too

"The children aren't the only ones benefiting from the school as the mothers are given lessons on how to cook. We see the importance of not only educating the children on cleanliness, etiquette and nutrition, but also the parents.

"Once the students in sixth grade have completed their schooling they can take a public exam and receive an elementary school certificate; we see this as a great achievement for them."

The school is self-funded (although it relies on donations) and one of its ventures is to teach the children how to make liquid soap and to sell it.

There is also a small stand at the school that sells food. The school provides the goods to sell and teaches the students to give the correct change to customers. The students receive a small salary for working at the stand but the life skills being taught at such an enterprise are priceless.

The students also collect plastic bottles and give them to the school for its primary funding source, its recycling plant. The school rents a small piece of land where its recycling plant processes 700 kilograms to one tonne of plastic per day. The plastic bottles are broken down into pellets, which are then exported.

The small factory has five employees -- three who grind the plastic and two who search for it.

Before the plastic is processed in the machine it is washed with soap and water and the labels and tops are taken off, with the bottle tops also being sold.

After a full day's work at the school Novi heads off to spend the rest of her day at the recycling plant.

Such burning dedication to provide these children with an education is seen in all who work at the school; one might ask what is their reward?

The answer is clear to anyone who visits the school: the smiles on the childrens' faces as they absorb new things, find companionship with other students and are rewarded for good work.

This is one of the happiest schools you are likely to find and also one of the poorest; one might argue, however, it is endowed with riches beyond belief.