Giving Street Children the Opportunity to Dream of a Better Future

by Candice Kitingan

Original blog post here: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/talkback/giving-street-children-the-opportunity-to-dream-of-a-better-future/506533

Children love being given the opportunity to play, create and dream.

I grew up in a family which highly valued the arts and creativity. My mother is an artist and she taught me from a young age to make, create, paint, sew and dance. My father is a farmer and taught me how to build objects using Legos, wood, metal and any other bits of material lying around.

We built rafts and cubby houses and used metal to create artistic sculptures. Through creative expression, children are able to grow, develop, imagine and dream.

The beautiful thing about creativity is its ability to engage the imagination and inspire individuals to see the world differently. It was Leonardo da Vinci who envisaged and designed a helicopter in 1493, hundreds of years before the first flying contraption was built. Creativity enables an individual to envision his or her own dreams and ideas about the future.

Through Sahabat Anak’s teaching programs, we also see the importance of nurturing the artistic and creative abilities of the children we work with. Not only does it allow them to be expressive, but it helps increase their self-confidence and belief in their own abilities. At each Sahabat Anak Bimbel (tutorial area), volunteers not only teach subjects like math and reading, they also teach dancing, singing, guitar lessons and painting.

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to go along to Sahabat Anak Cijantung’s second “Creation of Indonesian Youth” titled “Reaching the Dream.” Sahabat Anak Cijantung used this opportunity to showcase the talents and creative abilities of the children who attend its study house and programs. It never ceases to amaze me that marginalized children can achieve great things when we give them a helping hand. The performances and costumes were spectacular with traditional Malay, Batak and Padang dances, modern dances, drama performances, singing and musical performances.

It can be difficult for children to verbalize their emotions or experiences, but through drama, art, dance and music, the children from Cijantung were given a platform to express themselves. The drama pieces left a lasting impression on me as they reflected the real life experiences of the children.

One performance was about a daughter helping her mother make cakes to sell at the market and the daily struggles they face to make ends meet, while another performance was about a child’s begging on the streets of Jakarta and older people harassing him for his money. Even though these performances were interspersed with comedic relief, I was left feeling sad. I felt sad because these are the daily stories of so many of Jakarta’s poor and marginalized children.

The performances on the weekend reminded me of my own childhood and the numerous times I performed in school variety nights, plays and dance performances. My parents would sit in the audience proud of their daughter regardless of how boring, entertaining or long-winded the performance was. It was special to see the parents of the children from Sahabat Anak Cijantung also sitting in the audience and equally as proud of their children’s abilities.

Sahabat Anak Cijantung did an amazing job of coordinating the event while assisting the children in learning dances and creating their own songs and drama pieces. I am continually encouraged by the passion and enthusiasm of Sahabat Anak’s volunteers to help marginalized children have the same opportunities as more fortunate children in Indonesia. With such talented children emerging from Sahabat Anak’s tutorial areas, we can only guess what amazing feats they will be able to accomplish in the future.

For more information on Sahabat Anak, visit www.sahabatanak.com.

No Birth Certificate, No Identity, No Chance

by Candice Kitingan

The text of Candice's second article for the Jakarta Globe is reposted below. See the original article here: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/blogs/no-birth-certificate-no-identity-no-chance/505120

Two weekends ago I was out visiting Sahabat Anak (Child's Friend) in Prumpung. Every time I go out to one of our areas — Sahabat Anak has seven local branches — I feel like the streets are full of children and that’s because they are. According to an international independent organization Save the Children, Indonesia has more than 76 million children, the fourth largest child population in the world.

In Jakarta, many of the children Sahabat Anak works with do not have any legal documentation such as a birth certificate, which would recognize them as citizens of Indonesia. A lack of documentation leaves these children in a very vulnerable position.

The UN Convention on The Rights of the Child states the following:

Article 8 (Preservation of Identity): Children have the right to an identity — an official record of who they are. Governments should respect children’s right to a name, a nationality and family ties.

In Indonesia, the process for obtaining a birth certificate is convoluted and costly. Once a child is born, the parents have 60 days to apply for the birth certificate. During this time it is free. If they apply for the certificate after the 60 days they will have to pay a fee of Rp 1,000,000 ($110).

If the parents fail to apply for the birth certificate after one year, they must then go to the District Court. For parents from marginalized backgrounds who cannot read or write and do not understand these procedures, all of this is too complicated, and they frequently fail to register their child’s birth.

If parents do know how to apply for the birth certificate, these are the documents they must have:

Surat Tanda Lahir (Certificate of Recognition of Birth). This is a letter from the hospital stating the child’s date of birth.
The Problem: As it is too expensive to give birth in a hospital, most children in marginalized communities are born at home with the assistance of a local and unofficial midwife.

Parent’s Birth Certificates.
The Problem: Most parents from marginalized communities do not have birth certificates.

Marriage Certificate.
The Problem: Most parents from marginalized communities are not legally married because they cannot afford to pay the registration fee, or they are a single parent.

Kartu Keluarga (Family Card). This is a card that married parents can legally apply for to show that they are a family.
The Problem: As most parents in marginalized communities are not legally married, as stated above, they cannot register as a family because they do not have a marriage certificate.

Some of you might be wondering why it is important to have a birth certificate. For Indonesian children, a birth certificate is needed to fulfill the administrative requirements to enter public school. Previously children could enter school by producing a birth confirmation letter from the local district office. Now schools, especially public schools, require official birth certificates from the Citizen and Public Records Department.

Sahabat Anak has a scholarship program that assists marginalized children in returning to formal schools. Frisca Hutagalung, a volunteer from the Sahabat Anak Grogol branch, helps children with the school registration process. She says, “It has become more difficult for marginalized and street children to enter public schools. Not only must they produce a birth certificate for registration, but the school also requires a family registration card.”

Not only are children unable to access their right to education, but without a birth certificate, they are also unable to apply for a KTP (Identity Card) when they turn 17 years old. This means that they are unable to access government services, apply for a passport or have an identity. And, perhaps most importantly, they cannot vote. These children are second class citizens as they cannot practice the same rights as their fellow citizens who have the financial and educational means. The system continues to keep marginalized communities sidelined and without a voice.

The biggest question we ask ourselves is, “How can we improve a child’s welfare through education if even their existence is not recognized?”

At Sahabat Anak we continue to fight for the rights of marginalized children in Jakarta. Walter Simbolon from the Sahabat Anak head office is working hard to help the children at Sahabat Anak register for birth certificates. Right now he is helping 42 children from Sahabat Anak’s programs obtain their birth certificates. In his experience, it usually takes up to three months to successfully acquire one birth certificate.

The Sahabat Anak movement encourages all members of the community to love and care for marginalized and street children, acknowledging them as human beings. If you would like more information on how you can help, please check our at website www.sahabatanak.com.

Giving Street Children Money Won't Help Them. Volunteering Will. (Candice starts writing for the Jakarta Globe)

Candice been invited to blog weekly for Indonesia's largest daily newspaper, the Jakarta Globe on issues relating to street children.

Below is the text of her first blog entry which you can find here: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/talkback/giving-street-children-money-wont-help-them-volunteering-will/503335

Every day when you are on your way to work and held up in a traffic jam, what do you see? Children busking, begging, or working on the streets.

When they look up to you with their big brown eyes, gaunt faces, and grubby hands, it’s so tempting to drop a couple of rupiah into their hand. The unfortunate thing about this solution is that this will never help them. It will make us feel better, because in our minds we think we are helping. But in reality, giving these children money only keeps them on the street. Their parents enjoy the daily income their children bring home and would prefer them on the street rather than at school.

What is a better solution? Volunteering!

In late April 2011 my husband and I quit our jobs in Australia, sold our car and most of the stuff we owned and left the country for the next 13 months to volunteer in Indonesia. My husband was already set to volunteer with the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) while I was awaiting my approval for a volunteer assignment with Sahabat Anak (Child’s Friend).

Why this crazy decision to pack up our lives and spend a year volunteering in Indonesia? Well, quite frankly it came down to the fact that it was something we had always wanted to do. So we applied to volunteer with Australian Volunteers International; AVI partners with local organizations overseas through the work of an Australian volunteer. These activities are also achieved in partnership with AusAID through the delivery of the Australian Volunteers for International Development program.

My husband and I saw the AVI program as an excellent opportunity to give back to a community in our region (that is the Asia Pacific region) while having an adventure of a lifetime. Living in Indonesia was also an opportunity to put all that Bahasa Indonesia I learned at university to the test. I must say speaking Indonesian, in Indonesia, is much harder than speaking it at university in Australia. What is with all the slang?

I am now volunteering full time at Sahabat Anak as a Public Relations Officer. Sahabat Anak is a non-profit organization which provides quality education and children’s rights advocacy in an effort to encourage and inspire Jakarta’s street children to escape urban poverty. It is an organization and a movement started by volunteers and is still driven by volunteers today — there are only six full time staff and over 120 volunteers. Some of the volunteers at Sahabat Anak have been doing this for over 10 years. Their commitment is simply inspirational.

My office is in a rented house and we share the space with Sahabat Anak’s Children’s Activity Center, which is an informal school for street teens. Sahabat Anak also has eight tutorial classes throughout Jakarta. Mostly local volunteers living in Jakarta volunteer their weekends to provide free tutorial classes for children from marginalized and street communities. They teach the children arithmetic, literacy, science, music, dance, art, and much more.

At present, we are waiting for our new office building (which will also house the Children’s Activity Center) to be completed. For now, the roof in the rented house leaks, the office floods during heavy downpours and rats frequently run by, which makes me jump out of my skin. But all I can say is, I love it.

I love seeing the passion that my colleagues have for children’s rights, despite their working conditions. I love saying hello to the children at the Children’s Activity Center and eating lunch with them. I love the public relations work I do, which involves promoting the organization on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. And I love meeting all the wonderful individuals, donors, and organizations who partner with Sahabat Anak and who sincerely care about seeing marginalized children in Jakarta achieve their dreams.

But volunteering does not have to send you overseas, you can do it too wherever you are. All it takes is a couple of hours a week. You can volunteer with children rights, environmental, animal welfare or human rights organizations, or old people’s homes or orphanages. It can be anything that interests you or that you feel passionate about.

Volunteering is extremely rewarding. At times it will completely tire you out, and at other times you will feel completely invigorated because whoever you are working with has succeeded. Live a little and give your time to help those who need it. You won’t be disappointed.

For more information on Sahabat Anak, visit www.sahabatanak.com.

Popping in to Singapore

One of the great things about being in a major city in South East Asia is the ease of access to other parts of South East Asia. Singapore is easily the country I've transited in most in my life. So much so that I forget to actually see it now and again. In fact I don't think I had been to Singapore with for the express purpose of just being in Singapore since I was 9 years old.

Drinking beers opposite the Marina Bay Sands hotel and Casino

Seeing as we owed our friend Lisa a visit, Candice and I decided to do a weekend away in Singapore. So on the 10th of Feb we hopped on a plane with just carry on to explore the Lion city. Thanks to Lisa we had a splendid time!


People on outdoor benches make an unusual site from above

Dumplings and noodles at a food court - yum!

More and more mainland Chinese are coming to Singapore. This dumpling dish was the specialty of this Chinese restaurant and boasted the following soupy dumpling flavours: original, garlic, ginseng, szechuan, fois gras, black truffle, crab roe and cheese!


Singapore at night


Evidently these frogs were important


Lisa, Sophie and Candice pig out on pizza