Working Visit July '08 - Bep's report
"It’s finished. My Indonesia trip to Jasinga to see the project with my own eyes; the realisation of school 4, the goal of many fundraising activities”
It all has made a deep impression on me. I went together with my husband Leo and were in Jasinga for over week with our director Els Geerts and her partner Arnold Davies.
We came back with an overload of amazing experiences.
We had expected a totally different landscape. We thought that the social economical circumstances and infrastructure re employment, education and health care would be on a much higher level. Well, this was not the case! Yes, in some parts of the cities and even villages you will find a happy few who expose huge wealth. But 10 minutes later you see the primitive living standards that people live in again. The poorest people live in bambo huts, without running water and sewage. Luckily they all have a water well and they all can wash their cloths in the ‘kali’ (river). People hang the washing everywhere in the morning for it to dry, on the roofs, the fences, the stones etc.
Many people work for a salary way under the minimum to be able to survive. Less than a dollar a day. A job is very hard to get. Sometimes you first need to pay money to be able to get a job as a government official or if you would like to go in the military. Outside the cities, the infrastructure is badly maintained. Many roads are unpaved and full with holes.
Jasinga has the same bad infrastructure, Els and I had to zigzag on the back of a motorbike through all little unpaved roads to visit all the families. In the ‘kampung’, people live very close to eachother.
We have visited families in the Kampung of the children that have finished primary school 4 and would like to get support to be able to go to high school. With help of local translator Anton, we received information about the child, the family and their living circumstances. Sometimes i felt really ashamed of how good our lives were in Holland.
The opening of the school on Wednesday the 9th of July was a very special experience for us. It was such a joy to see the children play in the new playground with their new uniforms, waiting for the officia happenings to start. We also walked around the school...what a change with a couple of years ago!
After having seen and experienced all of this, I am very sure why we are doing all of this in Holland for the children in Jasinga. For the community over there, and for the children who also have the right to go to school and proper education. This will enable them to make a better future for themselves, their family and community. We hope to receive support from you all as there is still much to do. Our next project will focus on another group of children that need our support urgently, the handicapped children. Meanwhile we will continuously aim to support the students of Sekolah Dasar 4 by enabling them to go to high school and ofcourse continue working on the quality of education at Sekolah Dasar 4."