Candice starts work at Sahabat Anak

I began work on the 30th of September 2011. After 4 months acting as a lady of leisure house wife I was really looking forward to getting back into full time work. Life had been pretty sweet lying by the pool, catching up with people for lunch and going to the salon for cream baths (a wonderful Indonesian head massage/hair masque). Only problem was I really didn’t have enough friends who also had nothing to do in the day time…so I started to get a little bored.

AVI has helped me find a position with an organisation called Sahabat Anak. They work with street children in Jakarta and focus on education and advocating for children’s rights. Before we came here I knew I wanted to work with an organisation that cared for the urban poor in Jakarta. Jakarta is a tough place to live and although it is a city full of millionaires, it is also a city full of people who can’t even scrape together enough for one meal a day. Children are particularly vulnerable in this environment. Frequently they do not attend school as they have to beg, busk or sell bits and bobs on the streets. They either earn money to feed themselves or to support their families. Frequently they experience physical and sexual abuse from private citizens but also from authorities as well. They are susceptible to becoming prostitutes or even being trafficked as sex slaves. Sahabat Anak is working hard to form friendships with as many street children as possible. Through developing friendships with the children they are able to provide quality programs that suit their needs such as educational, nutritional and health programs. Sahabat Anak aims to get children back into formal education and help these children dream of a bigger and brighter future. Already 15 of the children Sahabat Anak has worked with have continued onto university despite all the obstacles it takes to get them there.

My job title is Public Relations Advisor and consists of a whole array of things. Mostly I am looking into their social media networks and developing a blog for them while also improving their website. The internet is the biggest form of communication in this day and age and most foreigners who come to Jakarta hear about Sahabat Anak via the web in some shape or form. However, I really have no idea how to do all this, so thank God for YouTube tutorials. I am also working together with the Sahabat Anak team to develop a survey in order to collect data on the children that they work with.

While all this is going on I am also helping organize a fun run for the 18th of December in conjunction with The Jakarta Globe (a local English newspaper here). We also have a campaign which will run next year with The Jakarta Globe and Starbucks which I am also a part of.

There is certainly a lot going on. Our office is being renovated, so we are working in a construction site, and we also share our office with one of Sahabat Anak’s projects with is the Children’s Activity Centre – an informal school for street teens who are unable to access formal education. The kids are great though and are helping me learn more and more Indonesian. Although most of the time I have no idea what they are saying. I have loved the whole experience so far. And I am keen for next year and all the new projects I will be working on!