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.