Berbagi Cahaya untuk Dunia: 22 Mar 2008

SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES IN INDONESIA

SOS Children’s Village LEMBANG

SOS Children's Village Indonesia or SOS Desa Taruna was founded by Dr. Agus Prawoto. After he finished his doctorate program from University of Vienna in 1969, Dr. Prawoto started his work in SOS as an educator at the SOS-Kinderdorf Seekirchen, Salzburg, Austria.

In 1970, Dr. Prawoto went back to Indonesia, and brought SOS idea to his home country. He then started to build the first Village in Lembang, 16 km north of Bandung, the 4th largest city in Indonesia with 3 million inhabitants. Lembang is located 1300 m above sea level, with a beautiful surrounding, near a volcano. On September 1, 1972, the first SOS Mothers and children entered the Family Houses of SOS-Lembang, and the Village started to operate. It started with 6 Family Houses and now there are 13 Family Houses in the Village.

SOS-Lembang consists of children from 3 different religions: Moslems, Catholics and Protestants. This is a very good example for Indonesian people, mainly because nowadays more and more cases happen in Indonesia, where the variety of religions in Indonesia is politicized. During the last years, clashes between religions are happening in Indonesia. Meanwhile, almost 30 years of SOS-Indonesia, the Moslems and the Christians can live and work together peacefully, without any problem. In SOS Indonesia, we have Moslem and Christian educators, staff and mothers who in good cooperation take care of Moslem and Christian children.

The Village is facilitated with a kindergarten, retired mothers’ house, a training centre, metalwork and carpentry workshop, computer laboratory, library, music room, sports field, playground, milking cow breeding, and vegetable yards. The area of 5.5 hectares is possible for various activities. About 500 meters away from the Village the Hermann Gmeiner School is attended by 640 pupils from Lembang surroundings. In the city of Bandung, two houses were purchased for Youths Communities, one for the girls and one for the boys.

SOS-Lembang children are very active in various activities. Sports, music and dances become the most popular hobbies. In sports, we have many athletes: professional and young athletes. One the athletes is Gatot, our former boy, who is a professional football player. In mid of 90s, his club won the national football league, and Gatot was the goalkeeper of the champion club. Although his present club is not national league champion, he is still considered as the best goalkeeper in Bandung. As a public figure, Gatot often becomes football commentator during international live-broadcast football matches in Bandung.

His younger brothers and sister are also very active practicing sports. Some elementary school children often win prizes for athletics in Bandung, and one bigger girl lives in an athletic training centre in Central Java. Another girl is a champion in swimming.

Other youths are active in playing music. Several times, they were invited by good restaurants and art centres in Bandung to perform their talents. Even the Bandung local TV station broadcast them once.

Another successful story comes from the SOS-Lembang ballet group. During the last 5 years, our children and youths are very intensive in practicing ballet dances. They regularly perform their result of hard work in big hotels, shopping mall, art centres, as well as theatre buildings both in Jakarta and in Bandung.

Other favourite activity is mountaineering. Almost every school holiday the youths are trained in the mountains and jungles for survival, orienteering, team building, hiking, and other outbound skills. It is not only for SOS-Lembang youths, but the program involves also the youths from SOS-Jakarta and SOS-Semarang.

Certainly, schooling is still the main activity of our children. Every year some students finish their studies from universities, colleges and academies. We have engineers, business administrators, accountants, nurses, teachers, educators, social workers, counsellors, psychologist, seamen, cooks, etc. who work in Indonesia and abroad.

The average service length of the SOS Mothers in Lembang is 10 years, and the longest serving mother is 25 years, and 29 years for an aunt.

The SOS-Lembang Kindergarten has been operating since SOS started its operation almost 30 years ago. Every year more than 70 children attend the Kindergarten.

A Mothers Home for retired Mothers is also facilitated at SOS Lembang. There are already 7 retired mothers in SOS Lembang, and they are all still healthy. At the Mothers Home, there are also a Medical Clinic and a Dental Clinic, which also provide service for the neighbours. A doctor and a dental nurse come twice a week to check the patient’s health.

The main activities of our Vocational Training Centre are in carpentry, metalwork and computer. In carpentry and metalwork, our workshop is also known that the training produces wooden and metal production, as furniture, crafts, gates and fences, etc. The computer training is done four evenings per week in the Village, and our target is that the trainees are able to operate at least Microsoft Office programs. The trainees of the Vocational Training Centre in Lembang are SOS children as well as neighbouring youths and adults.

The fertile land is very good to do agriculture activities, including growing grass for our milking cows. Vegetables and flowers are most wanted by our children.

The Hermann Gmeiner Elementary School was built in 1973, and in 1999 the west wing of the school building was rebuilt. At the moment, 640 children from Lembang attend the school, and after 28 years, the school is still considered as the best elementary school in Lembang.

The former Youth House in the Village is now used as a Training Centre. This training centre is used for in-house training held by SOS, as well as for people from outside who want to rent the Centre. This becomes also a good promotion for SOS to the training participants, because during weekend it sometimes accommodates 100 people for two nights.

As the oldest SOS Village in Indonesia, many local sponsors, donators and visitors pay attention to the Village. SOS-Lembang becomes the highest fundraiser among SOS Children’s Villages in Indonesia.

SOS Children’s Village JAKARTA

In 1984, the former President Soeharto officially opened the second SOS Children’s Village in Jakarta. The idea to build an SOS Village in Jakarta came from Mme. Tien Soeharto, who was SOS Indonesia patron. Besides her, Mme. Habibie (also the former First Lady) was very active in promoting SOS in Jakarta. Fifteen Family Houses and a kindergarten were built on a 3-hectare land. Later, a company donated a library and computer laboratory building. It now becomes the children activities centre, besides the open meeting hall.

This Village is also for the home of Moslem, Catholic and Protestant children. In Indonesia, almost all children’s homes have a certain religion background, and the staff and educators have a same religion. This is not happening in the SOS-Villages in Indonesia. We have Moslem, Catholic, Protestant and Hindu Educators and Mothers. The Village Directors are also from different religions.

As the second oldest Village in Indonesia, and located at the outskirts of Jakarta Metropolitan (12 million inhabitants), SOS-Jakarta have its special character. Many Government Bodies come to visit the Village and TV stations often come to make coverage about SOS. Three out of four Indonesian First Ladies have visited SOS-Jakarta, not to be mentioned the ministers, diplomats, other countries’ First Ladies and famous artists.

The children are active in sports and music. Football, basketball and swimming are the favourite sports, and singing is well liked by the children. Four talented SOS children were chosen among 300 candidates to join a group of 40 choir members in Jakarta. Since they join the choir, they make very good progress in singing, and several times they perform with professional singers and orchestra.

Dancing is also well liked. Several girls join actively in a dancing class, and a student studies at Dancing Department of a university to become a professional dancer.

Computer lessons and library days are also favourite to the children. Creative learning and story telling are also impatiently waited by the small children before the day comes. Our full time psychologist is concentrating in program for the youths and preschool children. During the school holiday, the youths are guided to find their identity through moral approach.

Since many experts, as psychologists, team builders, personality developers, live in Jakarta, a lot of training, workshop and short seminars are conducted in SOS Jakarta for the children, mothers and the staff.

In SOS-Jakarta, half of the mothers are already with SOS since than 16 years ago, and our ‘newest’ mother is already 5 years with us. This is a positive result after an intensive guidance through weekly meetings, personal approach as well as formal refreshment training.

SOS-Kindergarten in Jakarta attended by many neighbours, and it maintains its quality well. Although most of the pupils are not coming from lower social and economy conditions, we always accept and look for children in need to be accepted in our Kindergarten.

The Youth Community for Boys is located in the middle of Jakarta City, but in the very good area. The boys can learn how to socialize with different people from different social backgrounds in the housing complex. Their schools are not far away from their home.

SOS Children’s Village SEMARANG

The third SOS Children’s Village is located at the southern part of Semarang, the capitol of Central Java. The population of city is 2 million people. When it was officially opened in 1985, the Village is located in a beautiful rice field and fruit trees surrounding. Unfortunately, nowadays the rice fields have been replaced with housing complex.

There are 14 Family Houses and a kindergarten with 3 classes. The Families are mainly from the Javanese ethnic group. At home, they speak Javanese as their mother tongue, and Indonesian as the formal Language. The Indonesian Language is our national language spoken by 220 million people all over Indonesia.

Our children in SOS Semarang are Moslems and Catholics, and so are the mothers, educators, and the co-workers.

SOS-Semarang has good relationship with faculty of psychology of a Catholic university in Semarang. The faculty and SOS cooperate to run various programs for the children and mothers. SOS-Semarang psychologist, the mothers and educators implement these programs together, and the psychologists of the university do the supervising. Except for special children who need special therapy, they are treated directly by the University psychologists.

Many SOS-Semarang children are good in the school. Some of them are now studying in good universities, and some of them have finished their study with good result.

Twelve SOS-Mothers of SOS-Semarang have been with us since at least 9 years ago, and 5 of them have been with SOS from the first days of SOS-Semarang in 1984.

Since Central Java is geographically more or less in the middle of the locations of SOS-Villages, Central Java is often chosen to be the location for SOS-Indonesia youth camp. Since ten years ago, almost every year during school holidays the youths of 4 SOS-Villages gathered to do various programs (SOS-Flores has not been involved yet because of the distance, and the number of youths are still to low). Lately we have changed the program not as holiday camp only, but more as talent finding. Then we make the camp as a small Olympiad in sports and arts. From this ”Sports and Art Week” we find several talented young athletes and artists. We then cooperate with sports club to train them professionally. We hope that through this program, we can bear national athletes.

Since years, the local Education Department points SOS-Kindergarten of Semarang as the model kindergarten for Semarang surroundings. This is why the kindergarten is always favoured to the neighbouring parents. The Youths Community for Boys of SOS-Semarang is located in the city of Semarang, and accommodates 10 young men.

SOS Children’s Village BALI

SOS Desa Taruna Bali is located 32 km westward the Capitol of Bali Province, Denpasar, at the District of Tabanan. The Balinese are mostly Hindu, so the SOS-Bali children are all Hindu. It is a Hindu Village, and like all typical Balinese people, by tradition, the relationships among their daily life activities, religion, culture, ceremonies and tradition are very tight. It means that almost all day-to-day activities are connected to the Balinese tradition, beliefs and ceremonies. This why the Balinese atmosphere is very typical compared to other part of the world.

Since the very first corner stone laid of SOS Bali construction back in 1988, various ceremonies were conducted to maintain the balance between physical and spiritual life. When the Village started its operation in December 1989, there were still no electricity, not enough water and no telephone line. The Village is located on a very beautiful typical Balinese Village, far away from tourism area. Although many parts of Bali have been changed into tourists’ area, the SOS-Village surrounding is still the same like 13 years ago.

When the Village was under construction, as a thankfulness of the constructor, he built a Hindu temple as donation inside the Village which costs USD 50,000.-. This temple is now the central of SOS-Bali religious activities.

The Balinese have also very special talents in arts: dancing, drawing, sculpting, crafts, and so are our children. The main activities in SOS-Bali are arts. The children are very good in dancing, especially classical Balinese dancing. They are also good in plays. In making crafts, by tradition they are used to make offering for the Gods in their ceremonies. These offerings are made of leaves, flowers, and fruits, and they are decorated beautifully.

The SOS children also have good achievements in sports. Athletics and volleyball are the sports with good results. In volleyball, our girls’ team is the champion for Tabanan District. In athletic, many prizes have been won by our children. Amazingly, almost all children are good runners. Every year, SOS Bali organizes a sports event for the elementary schools in the sub-district. The competitions are in athletics and football. To be mentioned here, our children are champions for short, middle and long distance run for Tabanan District. A girl was also a champion for discus throw, and she still holds her record for the district.

The best result is obtained by a 14 years old girl named Yumang, who has won 4 special prizes in the last 2 months – the last one being really impressive. She came 7th in the Bali 10km, a professional race with a car as the first prize, and 15,000 participants. Yumang won about $100 and all 6 athletes who beat her to the finish line were National athletes. Yumang with 4 other SOS youths are now trained intensively at an athletic club in Central Java, which has produced many national athletes and SEA Games medal winners. Let us hope for our children’s best achievements!

The activities in SOS-Bali are: various kind of sports, dancing, singing, breeding cows, agriculture, crafts, scouting, hiking, and religious activities.

Many people think on their first visit to SOS-Bali Village that they are visiting a hotel resort, because the garden is arranged beautifully. Again, this is because of their artistic touch in gardening. The flowers, the fruit trees, and the palm trees are planted very nicely, and the garden is maintained well.

The SOS-Kindergarten at SOS-Bali is cooperation between SOS and the Department of Education. Although it is an SOS kindergarten, but the teachers are paid by the Government, and the running cost is entirely self-financing.

In the city of Denpasar, we have three SOS Youths Communities: one for the boys, one for the girls and one is for those who are in the semi-independent life. Since the distance of the Youths Communities are far from the Village, the youths visit their mothers, brothers and sisters only on every second weekend. Most of the boys and girls are going to vocational school: technical, tourism and business schools. Since Bali is economically one of the best provinces in Indonesia, where almost no crises happen there, our former children have good jobs in Bali. (As a comparison, many provinces in Indonesia suffer from the economy crises already for more than 3 years.) Although academically, our children are not very talented, but they can always get good jobs there.

SOS Children’s Village FLORES

The SOS Children’s Village of Flores is located 14 km westward of Maumere, in north coast of the Island of Flores. It is about 1000 km west of Bali, or about 2000 km from our NCO in Bandung. The SOS-Village is located at very poor and dry area, where rain falls only 3 months per year. The population of Flores is 3 million, and 90% of the Florenese are Catholics.

In December 1992, there was a very big earthquake with tidal waves happened in the island, which takes thousands of life. In 1993, SOS-KDI gave the permission to build a new Village there, and in 1994 SOS established its operation.

SOS was built on a dry land, where almost no vegetation grew here. After several years SOS exists in this area, every one can see clearly, how SOS becomes very green, compared to the neighbours. There is no deep well made in the Village, only simple digging wells, made by local people. One of SOS-Flores programs is the guide the neighbouring people how to have a better life. Many people in this area are addicted to gambling and alcohol. There is enough land to work on, but many jobless people are hanging around. The sea is also very rich, but only few fishers are here. One of the reasons: many children have to stop their education after 6 years schooling. This difficult situation motivates SOS Co-workers to become model for their neighbours, and SOS children feels that they really have good opportunities for their future.

Although the land is dry, it is actually fertile enough to plant vegetables, corn, and fruits. The children, the mothers and the coworkers are always busy watering the plants, because otherwise they will soon dry up. This is actually the key of the success in making SOS-Flores green. Not the money, but the work. And this is how we show the neighbours, that work hard brings positive results.

The Flores people are very good in and fond of singing, and so are our children. On any occasion, singing is always included in the program. This is a very good opportunity for the educators and mothers, that when the children look gloomy of any reason, it is easy to cheer them up again. That is why singing and music become the most favourable activities among the children.

Breeding pigs, chicken, cow and goats are the main activities of the boys, mainly from the Youth Community. It is located inside the Village, and we are planning to have a YC in the town of Maumere.

The SOS-Kindergarten is located in the Village, but children from the town of Maumere (14 km away) come to our kindergarten. They are so impressed with the quality of our kindergarten. There are 86 children from neighbouring and distant locations come to attend the kindergarten. Again, the Department of Education points SOS-Kindergarten as a model for kindergarten in Maumere. And we are very happy about it.

In 1999, after the terrible unrest in East Timor, SOS-Flores became the host of about 130 East Timorese refugees, who mainly were children. For almost 3 months SOS-Flores helped the refugees in the Emergency Relief Program by giving them shelter, food and education. These refugee children came from an orphanage. In the 70s, about 30 children from this orphanage were handed over to SOS Lembang, after the Timor war in 1975.

SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES IN INDONESIA

1969 During a study visit to Austria, Dr. Agus Prawoto, an Indonesian and former head of SOS Children’s Villages Indonesia, became acquainted with the ideas of SOS Children’s Villages and its facilities. He himself had spent a part of his school days at a boarding school and had never been able to forget its dim and impersonal atmosphere. For this reason he felt drawn to the obviously happy life in the SOS Children’s Villages from the first moment on. His wish was to give orphans and abandoned children in his country the safety and security of such a Children’s Village and this was taken up positively first of all by Dr. Reinprecht in 1969 and later by Hermann Gmeiner. Once he had completed his pedagogical studies he worked in the SOS Children’s Village in Seekirchen for a number of months.

1970 Dr. Prawoto returned to Indonesia with his family on September 30, 1970 and immediately started with the preparations for the founding of the first SOS Children’s Village in Bandung, West Java. The choice of Bandung was made because at that time, Dr Prawoto's brother-in-law, General A.J. Witono, was the military commander in West Java. In those days, after the defeat of the communist putsch in October 1965, it was very difficult for any foreign organisations to establish themselves in Indonesia. Therefore it would probably not have been possible to start an SOS Children’s Village without the help of General Witono.

1971 Following discussions with the authorities, the society (in legal terms it is a trust) was founded on 9 January as „SOS Desa Taruna/SOS-Kinderdorf“.

SOS Children’s Villages Indonesia was accepted as a member of SOS-Kinderdorf International on 13 April.

1972 The foundation stone was laid for the SOS Children’s Village Lembang on 9 February. During the first phase 7 Family Houses were built.

The first children moved into the SOS Children's Village Lembang in September.

Following this, the primary school, S.D. Pancasila was constructed to cater for 6 classes.

1973 The school was opened and given to the school authorities in September (The SOS Children’s Village Lembang continues to support the school financially as regards maintenance and repairs and also morally through representation at the parents’ association).

During the second phase of building at Lembang, three further Family Houses and the Community House were constructed.

1974 SOS Children’s Village Lembang was officially opened on 2 March by Dr. Hermann Gmeiner and the Social Minister, Mintaredja.

1977 During the third building phase at SOS Children’s Village Lembang, four further Family Houses were constructed. As one of the original houses was used as an aunts’ house, Lembang still only has 13 Family Houses.

1978 - 1979 Because of the increase in the number of children, the kindergarten in the Community House in Lembang was no longer large enough to be used as a meeting place and therefore a hall was constructed for parties, meetings and sports activities.

1979 - 1981 A large woodwork and metalwork workshop was constructed in Lembang. A part of the SOS Youth House was also built.

1982 - 1983 A second floor was added to the SOS Youth House in Lembang.

1983 - 1984 The SOS Children’s Villages Semarang and Jakarta were started simultaneously and built to the same plans. During the first phase of building, 14 Family Houses were built in Semarang and 15 in Jakarta as well as the following facilities in both: 2 co-workers’ houses, 1 SOS Youth House, 1 kitchen complex (belonging to the SOS Youth House), 1 Community House, 1 Community Centre (Aunts’ and Guest House), 1 SOS Kindergarten and 1 garage with workshop.

1984 The first children move into both the SOS Children’s Villages Semarang and Jakarta in March.

1985 Hermann Gmeiner and Ibu Tien Soeharto officially opened the SOS Children’s Village Jakarta on 28 January.

Hermann Gmeiner and the Minister for Social Affairs, Nani Soedarsona officially opened the SOS Children’s Village Semarang on 31 January.

The Aunts’ House in Lembang was converted and enlarged to create living accommodation for the Village Director.

1986 A medical centre with a dentistry and rooms for medical care was added to the primary school in Lembang.

1987 During the second phase of building both the SOS Children’s Villages Semarang and Jakarta were extended by an extra SOS Youth House and a Village Director's House.

1989 An extra floor was built onto the garage at the SOS Children’s Village Lembang, creating staff flats and a multipurpose hall for dance and music classes as well as for homework classes.

1989 The first building phase for SOS Children’s Village Bali was started at the beginning of the year and before the year was out 12 Family Houses, 1 Village Director's House and a Community House had been completed. The first children moved in in December.

1990 During the second phase of building, SOS Children's Village Bali was extended by the following facilities: a community centre (aunts' and guest house), an SOS Kindergarten, library, multipurpose hall (open pavilion), and a garage. Three co-workers' houses were built in the third phase.

1991 Helmut Kutin and the Minister for Social Affairs officially opened the SOS Children's Village Bali on 23 October.

Further staff quarters were constructed at the SOS Children's Villages Semarang and Jakarta by extending the garages.

1993 A traditional open meeting hall was constructed at SOS Children's Village Semarang.

1993 - 1994 A home for retired Mothers was built in Lembang. The medical centre which had been in the primary school until then was moved to this building.

1994 A principal decision was made to build an SOS Children's Village in Flores on 11 November.

1995 One of the empty Family Houses in SOS Children's Village Jakarta has been turned into an SOS Youth House for girls.

1996 Phase I of construction at SOS Children's Village Flores was completed and the first families were able to move into their new homes.
A site was bought in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. An SOS Youth House will be built here.

1997 The second phase of construction at SOS Children’s Village Flores was completed and the SOS Kindergarten was able to go into operation.

Construction started on a new, purpose-built National Co-ordination Office in Bandung.

Construction started on the SOS Youth House in Bali in November.
Over the years a number of SOS Children's Villages and attached facilities for underprivileged children and youths were established in other regions of the island state. Thus, facilities were built on Java in the capital of Jakarta as well as in Semarang, on Bali in Tabanan, and – following relief measures after a tsunami in 1992 - in Maumere, on the island of Flores. Heavy conflicts between Indonesian troops and independence fighters in East Timor led SOS Desa Taruna Indonesia to set up an SOS Emergency Relief Programme in 1999. More than 100 refugees from an orphanage in the capital of East Timor, Dili, were brought to safety in SOS Children's Village Flores where they remained for the duration of the war.

On 26 December 2004 an earthquake just off the coast of Sumatra with a magnitude of 9.3 caused a series of lethal tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean coastal areas. The north-western coast of Sumatra was worst hit, there more than 100,000 people died. SOS Desa Taruna Indonesia had no facilities on the island at the time, but did not hesitate to provide under most difficult circumstances immediate emergency relief measures to traumatized children and homeless families. This was followed by the construction of more than 500 private houses and several community centres for local communities near Banda Aceh and Meulaboh. Generous donations and close cooperation with the local authorities led to the establishment of three SOS Children’s Villages and adjacent Kindergarten, to become operational during the course of 2007.

2005 saw the beginning of the first SOS Family Strengthening Programmes so that children at risk can stay in the caring environment of their own biological family. To achieve this, SOS Desa Taruna Indonesia works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.

In 2006 a strong earthquake hit the town of Yogyakarta and SOS Youth Facility Timoho provided emergency relief for the victims and still maintains family strengthening in the area. In 2007 Jakarta experienced a major flood and again SOS Desa Taruna Indonesia provided emergency relief measures.

At present there are eight SOS Children's Villages in Indonesia, five SOS Youth Facilities, eight SOS Kindergartens, one SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, two SOS Vocational Training Centres, and nine SOS Social Centres.
.

Baca Selengkapnya..

Sabtu, 22 Maret 2008

Iklan IBU PENGASUH

SOS Children's Villages in Indonesia

Jangan Sentuh NARKOBA

Webhosting Murah

SOS TO BE BETTER

My Family

Arsip Blog

My post

pengunjung

waktu

Mengenai Saya

Berbagi...

Berbagi Cinta

The best interest of the child

SOS Desa Taruna Indonesia

Para Sahabat

translate

Berbagi Keceriaan...

Berbagi 2008...

Berbagi Kesegaran

Writing Skill Workshop SOS Desa Taruna Indonesia

Cahayaku