ISCO MAIN PROGRAMS

ISCO Foundation focuses its support on 5 main areas which it sees as crucial to providing the best help to the sponsored children:

1. CHILDREN EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT

• This program is ISCO’s main program for giving full educational support to marginalised children. Beginning from a very young age (pre-school where possible) through to secondary level, ISCO makes sure that these children can and do go to school each day, and supports them with school fees, uniforms and textbooks. ISCO maintains good relationships with teachers and school authorities, as well as with parents and monitors the intellectual ability and development of each child in order to be able to see each child have the chance to grow up to become a responsible and productive citizen.

2. CHILDREN PRE-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

• ISCO realizes that in some slum areas, there are no pre-school centres available nearby. Yet these children need pre-school activities to be able to be admitted to public schools the following year. ISCO sets up pre-school activity centres to provide these children with basic foundation in education, in some areas, where such facilities are not available.

3. CHILDREN ACTIVITY CENTERS

• ISCO realizes that in order to achieve its goals, providing formal schooling alone for these marginalised children is not adequate. Reinforcement in the areas of personal development, living values, creativity and leadership is required. For this reason, ISCO sets up Children’s Activity Centres in each neighbourhood where it operates. Children are able to visit these Activity Centres after school to do interesting and beneficial activities, instead of going to the streets or being forced to work by their parents. ISCO provides tutors, educational materials, arts and crafts activities, as well as remedial classes for children who have difficulties in certain school subjects.

4. CHILDREN HEALTH AND NUTRITION PROGRAM

• After 2 years of operation, ISCO decided to add this important program to its main education program, because more and more children were found to be under-nourished and vulnerable to illness, which consequently affected their school performance. ISCO provides food supplements and vitamins for the children, examines their physical condition on a regular basis, and introduces the parents to healthy living and a clean environment.
  

5. CHILDREN PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM

• The Children’s Protection Program is an important extension to this service and ISCO introduced this program in 2003, as indications of child abuse or domestic violence have become more apparent. ISCO always tries to let children get all right they have by giving advocacy to the parents, communities and the children.

HOW DOES ISCO WORK ?

1. To open a new sponsored area, ISCO's project officer will do a survey and gather information about some slum areas to find out about its size, population, social structure, economic condition, its customs and the tendency of children that potential to go to the street or becoming children laborer.
2. Find information and access to educational institutions, public as well as private schools, operating close to the prospective program areas, to enable children to go to schools within reach, and up to high school level.
3. Evaluate and choose a slum area to be adopted into ISCO's formal program area. The area chosen should be large enough in terms of number of families to be able to bring impact to the community, as the number of children receiving educational support from ISCO will be also large enough. (should have at least 1,000 families with income less then Rp 700,000 per month)
4. Conduct the mapping of the area (in terms of economical condition, support from parents, and children’s enthusiasm about school), build relationships with local formal and informal leaders, parents of the prospective children and the educational institutions, and then introduce ISCO's programs to the community.
5. Register the children to receive ISCO's scholarship with the approval of their parents, and strengthen relationships with the families to obtain their commitment to the program.
6. Choose the educational institutions where these children will be sent for schooling, and register the children to their respective schools. At this time, full cooperation from the headmasters as well as teachers should be evident. Should there not be an appropriate pre-school within the slum area to prepare the children to primary school, ISCO will set-up one.
7. Monitor each child's educational and social development, and provide full support to the children's psychological development. This includes preventing the children to go to the street.
8. Implement all ISCO’s programs to provide the children with all the educational supports and to limit them from going to the streets.
9. Perform home visits to the children to monitor their family upbringings.
10. Maintain relationship with the local communities in the program areas to make sure the success and continuity of ISCO Foundation's programs
    

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

ISCO Foundation began helping children in the areas of Kampung Jembatan (Cipinang Besar Selatan/East Jakarta) and Manggarai (South Jakarta), where children were forced to work on the streets, and often dropped out of school because their parents could not afford the fees and other expenses.

ISCO works together with local school authorities and formal and informal community leaders to identify the neediest families, to arrange for the children to attend public school, to support them and their families in many practical ways and to make sure that these children will not become street children or child laborers.

Beginning in 1999 by sponsoring 50 children in two areas of Jakarta, today ISCO operates in 26 slum areas – 17 in Greater Jakarta, 7 in Surabaya area and 2 in Medan. Around 2,000 children are currently sponsored, most of whom are between the ages of 5 and 16 years. ISCO monitors each child educational development progress individually and maintains a close relationship with each family.

ISCO’s particular focus is the children of those families, who face serious obstacles in their struggle to achieve the productive futures that are accepted as normal by most middle class families. ISCO believes that all children deserve the chance to achieve their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens and leaders of Indonesia.
We invite you find out more about our programs, our children’s achievements and how you can help, at our website : //www.iscofoundation.org



Providing free education for vulnerable street children is a proven and effective method of protecting these children rights. The poor, and working children, should not suffer any discrimination in learning opportunities (World Declaration on Education for All, 1990).