School turns scavengers into scholars, citizens

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.