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.
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