Jakarta, 13 May 2009 — Urban poor children are hoping that the upcoming Indonesian president to be a good, honest, firm, and not corrupt leader, who cares more about children education.
These children's aspiration for the ideal president was written by dozens of street children in Tanah Merah, Semper slum area, on a piece of fabric. They are going to send the uniquely written fabric to the Presidential Palace, as expression of their concern for the nation, while doing a long-march .
These children are just a small part of 1,725 urban poor children supported by ISCO Foundation, from Jakarta, Depok, Surabaya, and Medan areas. They are receiving 12 years of free formal schooling from the Foundation, an NGO that has been actively helping Indonesian children for their right for education over the last 10 years.
The writing of these children aspirasion was held as part of the Recycled Material Handicraft Exhibition in Children Activity Center in Tanah Merah area. The government representative also came to see the children handicrafts handmade. They are Djafar Muchlisin, S.Sos, M.Si as the Head of Help Section of Social Catastrophy Victim, as representative from Social Section DKI Jakarta and Dr. Wahyu Hartomo, M.Sc as the Asisstant Deputy Children Social Issue, and also representative from The Ministry of Woman Empowerment, and the local authorities.
In this occassion, PT HERO Supermarket
Tbk handed the donation they received from their customers all over Indonesia, totaling to Rp 467 millions Rupiah, through their ”Small Money, Big Hope” program.According to ISCO Executive Director, Ramida HF Siringoringo, the fund is going to be used to support children education in 4 shanty areas in North Jakarta, and West Jakarta, and 1 coast slum area in Medan.
Founded in May 1999, ISCO started their programs in two slum areas, sponsoring 58 children. Now, ISCO is sponsoring 1,725 children in 26 areas in Jakarta, Depok, Surabaya, and Medan.
ISCO is going to celebrate its 10th anniversary by conducting a special gathering in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Medan involving about 1,400 children in July 2009.
These gatherings are going to be attended by many of children, who will be doing various activities such as puppet show, children choir, and lots of educative games. In Jakarta alone, at least 800 children are going to celebrate the happy moment in Taman Bunga Wiladatika, Cibubur, East Jakarta in July 11th 2009.
”Four ISCO Main Programs are giving free education from pre-school to high school, establishing and running Children Activity Center (CAC), providing additional nutrition, and fighting for children education right,” Ramida said.
Every supported children has an obligation to attend CAC to reduce the possibility for them in becoming street children or children labourer. They are learning the values of life such as attitude, discipline, diligency, honor, as well as strengthening their school subject. They are also receiving additional food and nutrition, vitamins, and fruits to support their health condition.
ISCO chooses urban slum areas because the tendencies for children to become street children or child labourer in these areas are high. It is very easy for them to get exploited by their own parents, or influenced by their neighborhood to do negative activities.
“By following the CAC program, children will learn about some manners as queueing in line, being a responsible person, building self confidence, and achieving high school grades,” Ramida said.
She hopes that Indonesian government realizes how important the tasks to eliminate poverty is, where out of those 41,7 million poor people (which is about 21,9 percent of Indonesian population), 150.000 are street children.
