#PulauPantar

[ameliasoeharman]

The Wild East Dreams

<if you want to know the cause behind, please read til the end> In the summer 2017, we went to one of the least developed villages in central-east Indonesia, Pulau Pantar (Pulau means island). And the journey of building schools for kids began there.

Students from Indonesia’s education system starts from 6 years of primary school, 3 years of junior secondary school and other 3 years in senior secondary school. There are also religious schools that students can choose to attend instead of traditional school.

The problem is Where are these schools?

School is managed by the village itself. And the villages manage their own village. Therefore, if the village is poor, it simply can’t afford to build a school and hire teachers because they ar very expensive! In the village that we have visited, there are only primary school and junior secondary school. Students have to travel to the other village to attend senior secondary school. It even needs to share electricity with other villages. We only have electricity every other day.

When students are traveling long distance, it comes with serious problems. Economic difficulty is not the only burden they need to face, but also the possibility to be assaulted, especially for girls. They will expose themselves to great danger when they are going home alone after school activities. We had interviewed some girls during our visit, some of time reveal to us that they almost get raped by “frog” (a metaphor of the local people; meaning people living the woods). Some of the older people even told us that there were a season in which bodies of headless girl were founded. With no street light, it is total darkness after the sun has set. Even we were walking in a group of 5 people, we never feel safe as the two sides of the rod are just trees. You won’t be able to see people coming at you.

(You may be wondering why they are going back by herself. Most of the time, the only two ways get back and forth of their homes are by foot or by transport. As you can imagine, they would take the cheapest option in order to save money.) e are no senior secondary school in the village, students have to travel to another village.

I always explain to my friend why we should not feel pity to the people whom you think are living in poor condition. And do not think your donation can change their lives entirely. You don’t (not to mention the money they receive at the end is only a small portion of your donation). If you truly want to help the underprivileged, do not believe you have the ability to change their lives. Instead, help them believe they can change their own lives by providing the opportunity they lack. Hope is the best motivator, “Yes, we can”. They have been to schools, are smart and hardworking people but living in a condition where they have very limited access to the resources outside of their remote world. They often are not the poorest. The money they earn and the food the grow are sufficient to live. But that’s the ceiling and they are stuck. By supporting them with education, by providing them with an opportunity to learn, to work hard. They all can fly. This is how we can help to change the prospect of the future generation.

If you are interested in making a change in the world and helping the underprivileged by providing the young people with education, or even if you just care about the world, you can send me an email (amelia@runcing.org), fb message me, text me etc..contact me! If you know your friends would be interested, send this to them and let them contact me. University students are also very welcomed.

There are many ways we can possibly collaborate together. Works are not limited to researching and writing funding/grant proposal, organizing fundraising campaign and events, developing marketing strategy, designing, editing etc. You can help even more.

FOR THOSE SMILE, THEIR HOPE IN ACHIEVING A BETTER EDUCATION, AND BETTER FUTURE OF EAST INDONESIA.