Street children's money

Street children's money

After reading the article Mean parents, local mafia ... in
the April 26 edition of The Jakarta Post, I feel that the last
paragraph gives a completely false impression of the financial
status of the street children in the "Alang-alang" group which I
look after.

It is true that they now have somewhere to stay, in a small
rented house, instead of sleeping at the bus terminal at night.
However, the Rp 7.5 million for renting the house was donated by
students of the Surabaya International School (SIS) from fund-
raising activities in their community service program, not from
money earned from performances. The children can only make enough
money from playing in the streets to buy food and basic clothing,
and they have to give the rest to help support their families.

When they have any extra income from performances, I encourage
them to save some money to pay for medicine if they get sick. We
certainly would not have been able to afford to rent house
without the help of SIS and the local NGO "Little Care" who
helped to arrange this.

DIDIT HAPE

Surabaya