Motorcycle wash brings hope to Kampung Bali

Motorcycle wash brings hope to Kampung Bali

Leony Aurora , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Five motorcycles were parked behind the wooden fence encircling
Pelita Ilmu Foundation (YPI) in Kampung Bali, Central Jakarta,
while two young men vigorously cleaned a Yamaha Jupiter, spraying
water and wiping it off with a sponge for a tip-top shine.

YPI volunteers and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), who
started the motorcycle wash to help the neighborhood's
unemployed, goofed around as they served their first customers on
Wednesday free of charge.

"It's only for today. Starting tomorrow, we will charge Rp
5,000 (54 U.S. cents) for one motorcycle," said Anto (not his
real name), coordinator of the PLWHA Business Association, which
was recently established by the foundation.

With a Rp 1.5 million capital provided by YPI, the association
bought a compressor, soap, several buckets and sponges.

YPI Kampung Bali program manager Pungky Djoko said the project
was born when youths in the foundation -- most of them practicing
or former injecting drug users (IDUs) -- asked for help to become
financially independent.

Many high school graduates of Kampung Bali can get jobs only
at the nearby Tanah Abang textile market as laborers or parking
lot attendants.

"It's difficult to get office jobs because of their low
education and the stigma attached to the area," said Pungky.

Kampung Bali is notorious for drug trafficking, with its
narrow streets home to many families trapped by drugs not only
chemically, as users, but also economically, as dealers.

"Every house here has at least one motorcycle," said Anto,
optimistic about the business prospects. "That's why we started a
motorcycle wash. There are also lots of ojek (motorcycle taxi)
stands."

The business is not restricted only to PLWHA, but to anyone in
the neighborhood without a job. "We will split the fee 50-50 with
the washers," said Pungky.

The motorcycle wash is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and
Rp 2,500 from each washed motorcycle will go toward operational
costs.

Any profit will be saved to provide capital to future
businesses, such as a small-scale bookbinding shop or bakery
business.

"We want to provide other services, like oil changes, at the
motorcycle wash... But we'll see. We have to take it step by
step," said Anto.

YPI came to Kampung Bali in 1999, concerned about the spread
of HIV/AIDS due to the increasing number of IDUs, who often share
unsterile needles.

The foundation currently provides for monthly doses of
antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for 10 HIV-positive patients in the
area, and expects to help more PLWHA -- some 30 percent of 188
neighborhood residents need daily ARV treatment -- upon
government support.

The government has made a commitment to providing 4,000 people
with free ARV treatment this year.