Today, Monday, I had the privilege of joining Abby and about 12 other grade six students, along with my friend and grade 6 teacher, Johanna, on a trip to an orphanage. The grade sixes are studying social justice issues for this unit, and so the entire grade has divided up into 5 groups and headed out of Lippo. At this point I'm not sure what the other four groups did, but we went to a Christian orphanage that has been running on faith for 20 years. The purpose of the grade six visit was not to see the children (which was good because most were in school) but to find out how the structure of the orphanage works.
Pintu Elok orphanage was started in 1989 by 5 founding members. Originally there were 15 children, and that has grown to 65 in 2009. What they (and I) learned was that this is a totally faith-run orphanage, and they have run this way for 20 years. They do not advertise or promote their organization; when they have a need they just pray for it. They have testimony after testimony of someone showing up at their door at just the right time with rice and veggies, or noodles, and sometimes someone donating anonymously just the right amount of rupiah. None of the staff, even the founders, receive any kind of wage. Talk about sacrifice.
Children are not just brought into the orphanage randomly. First research has to be done, as much as can be, into the child's family situation or lack of, the financial situation of the child's parent(s), as well as whether the child really needs to be raised in an orphanage. Many of the children come from broken homes where the mother is unable to raise her child due to financial difficulties. As a result, none of these children are adoptable. That's ok, according to the woman who we spoke with, because many of these children grow up and move away, yet they return just like our own children would, during special holidays and events. The orphanage loves them into maturity and they often come back and reciprocate, by volunteering with the newer or younger children.
One of the things that impressed me about the way that the children are raised is that when food donations come in, it is given to the children directly, not the volunteers. This ensures 1) that the children get the food and it is evenly distributed to them; the volunteers have no access to this distribution: 2) the children learn responsibility, independence and also how to share as a community, rather than learning self-survival. They learn at an early age how to give to those around them and how to work together as a family rather than individual units.
The photo above is of two of the children who live at Pintu Elok. They are Charlie and Estherina. Charlie is 1 1/2 and shy, and Estherina is 2 1/2 and quite willing to say hello. Each of the children that we met throughout the morning, whether they were coming or going, were all very well-socialized and would shake your hand in greeting.
When asked what kinds of things they need at this time, they said hygiene products, like soap and shampoo, dish soap and bleach. Obviously, they'll always need food donations as well.
It was neat to see the response of some of the children from SPH. Many of them are talking of returning to bring supplies or to just play with the children. It's a treat to know that we can go and play with the kids, because many orphanages here do not want that. The average person is denied entrance in order to protect the children, I guess. At Pintu Elok, we have been told that we are welcome anytime. That's great, because it not only gives the kids at the home some extra attention, it gives our kids an opportunity to give beyond themselves. Even here in Indonesia, it's sometimes hard to find ways to teach our kids to look beyond their own comforts and their own desires and to meet the needs of someone else. To me, that's more important even than excellent grades in school.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment