SOS Children's Village a lifeline in Bandung

SOS Children's Village a lifeline in Bandung

By Oliver Crowder

BANDUNG (JP): Once a month for a little over a year, Anders'
parents in Sweden have sent 150 kroner (about US$18) to a young
girl living near Bandung, West Java. Her name is Dalia and her
home is in a little village just outside Lembang, the weekend
mountain retreat for Bandung residents.

Anders' parents receive letters and photos from Dalia, and are
told of her progress in school by her foster family. She is 11
years old and lives with her foster mother in a village called
Desa Taruna Lembang. It is part of the SOS Children's Villages
network of such communities throughout the world, which aim to
provide homes for children abandoned by their parents or
orphaned.

While in Bandung for the weekend, Anders visited Dalia and her
family in their home. He had a present for Dalia from his
parents, and was interested in seeing the community for himself.

The village, about 15 kilometers north of Bandung, is reached
by taking a winding road past pricey hotels and stalls selling
roast corn and rabbit sate.

SOS Children's Villages is an international organization based
in Austria, with villages in 131 countries throughout the world
which care for 31,700 children. There are five such communities
in Indonesia located in East Jakarta, Semarang, Bali, Flores and
here in Lembang.

They are all run with money from donors and some corporate
sponsors. FIFA, the international soccer organization, recently
began a high-profile sponsorship program with SOS Children's
Villages. However, most of the money comes from people like
Anders' parents, and there are over 6 million private sponsors
around the world.

The Lembang village consists of 13 foster mothers, each with a
house of their own, caring for a total of 151 children. The
houses are arranged on the side of the hill with small paths and
steps connecting to the central paved road, a cul-de-sac
surrounded by bougainvillea. On the other side of this road is a
central hall complex that includes classrooms and meeting areas,
administration offices, a kindergarten and a library.

When we arrived, Dalia was helping her foster mother,
Christina Riani, clean their house, where she lives with nine
other children. She was very shy but smiled and greeted Anders
bravely when introduced.

Ibu Riani, in her late 30s, is not their mother in the
biological sense, of course, but is in every other way. She has
never married and has no children of her own.

"Dalia, being the oldest daughter in the family, helps a lot
with looking after the other family members and house affairs,"
Riani said.

Dalia also attends drawing and ballet classes, and seemed
thrilled with the new dance outfit Anders gave her.

The other children include Mira, the youngest at 18 months,
and Anton, who is 16 and the oldest in Dalia's family. He was on
crutches recovering from a motorbike-induced ankle injury when we
visited.

Gregor H. Nitihardjo, the national director of SOS Children's
Villages, explained that the villages aim to give orphans a
second chance in life by providing them with a family, a home and
schooling. "We aim to give back to the children what they have
lost."

Dedicated mothers are the most important component for the
village to operate, Gregor said. "They are just like biological
mothers, they are there for the children 365 days a year, 24
hours a day."

All the mothers are single, and cannot marry while they work
for the village. Gregor admitted that this may seem very
restrictive, but said it would not work any other way. He
explained that if a mother was married and had her own children,
conflicts with other children would be inevitable. The dedication
required of village mothers would also create problems for a
married couple, he said.

"Sex is also not an issue for the women. Maybe you find this
hard to believe in your culture, but here it is OK," he
explained.

Each mother has an assistant, who can become a mother herself
after six months if they are accepted and still think they can
handle the responsibility.

Ibu Riani's house is a tidy three-bedroom place with glass
doors at the back with a view out over the hills. All the shelves
in the living area are completely covered by dolls and soft toys
of all shapes and sizes. She is Catholic, and the houses on
either side are Muslim. The children's religion follows that of
their mother.

Another philosophy of the organization, Gregor said, was that
"every child has the right to an education". All children in the
village attend school when they are old enough.

A nearby elementary school was built by the organization but
is now government-run. Dalia, in grade four, attends the school,
which is named in memory of Hermann Gmeiner, the Austrian founder
of SOS Children's Villages.

The mothers help the elementary school children with their
homework, but those in high school study together in the evenings
in the community house with village educators.

"The male educators are the fathers," Gregor said. They do not
live in the houses but work in the community center. They help
solve unavoidable family problems, arrange outdoor activities and
also take care of the administrative work.

When the children finish senior high school, they are expected
to be able to support themselves. Many find work, and some
continue their studies in university. One former village resident
is now studying at a Yogyakarta university. Another plays
professional soccer for a Bandung team.

The village and surroundings have an enviable view and are
also pleasant. The whole place is circled by neat hedges, and
there is a playground for the younger kids, and a soccer field
that seemed to get a lot of use. Kids ran around everywhere, just
like in any village.

Love

In fact, the children at Desa Taruna appear to have in some
ways a better quality of life than many kids in Jakarta. So how
are the lucky children selected to become part of the community
in Lembang?

"We don't accept children with economic problems," Gregor
said. He explained that children from poor families, although
they may have very difficult lives, "still have love". Not all
the children at Desa Taruna are orphans.

For example, Dalia was brought to the village when she was an
infant by her uncle, after her mother was paralyzed in an
accident and could no longer care for her.

Children over the age of 10 are generally not accepted, and
older children often find it harder to adjust to life at the
village. Children have to do their fair share of work. Meals are
eaten always as a family, and problems are addressed as a family
group.

Gregor said that in the past street kids had been taken in and
that in a few cases had stayed a few days and then run away
again, preferring the freedom to do whatever they wish to the
stable, but routine, life at the village.

What about Gregor, how did he end up here?

"Since I was six years old I wanted to be an astronomer," he
explained. He studied astronomy at the Bandung Institute of
Technology, and later worked as an assistant lecturer. Part of
his work was at the Lembang Observatory, which is just over the
back fence of Desa Taruna. He got to know the kids and other
residents and became interested in the organization. When the
village director retired in 1989 Gregor took over the role, and
he later became the organization's Indonesian director.

Gregor's mother is Swiss, and he has spent some years in
Switzerland, and has also attended courses on social services in
Austria during his 10 years with the organization.

By the time we left it was dusk, and we were offered a ride
back down into Bandung. Stuck in the bottleneck of townsfolk
returning from their day in the hills, Gregor filled us in on a
bit of local culture. He described, for instance, that there once
were many rabbits sold as pets along the side of this road. But
with the onset of the economic squeeze, the cages disappeared and
many stalls began stocking rabbit sate instead.