Indonesia Education Centers

Brief history

Since the year 2000 Unity Foundation together with its local partner "Unity in Diversity" has launched and is running education and training projects in remote villages of North Sumatra and on the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia. In the meantime 11 Education Centers have been created. (4 in North Sumatra and 7 on  the island Siberut/Mentwai.  In these 11 villages 52 teachers have educated some 700 children, overpassing the initial goal of 46 teachers for 540 children in 7 villages, without increasing the budget.  Three of these Centers have been officially recognized by the Indonesian Government.  The purpose of the "Running of Education Centers for deprived Children in Remote Villages” project is to directly improve the social and economic conditions in certain communities through the education of children of various Indonesian ethnic groups in several remote villages deprived of educational facilities.  The “Educating Children in Remote Villages” works very closely with another project titled “Empowering Youth in Child Education” whose trained youth teachers are dispatched to the rural areas to train and educate school children.

 

The curriculum for children has been designed to make them intelligent, creative, being able to think for themselves, care for their environment, morally upright, free from all kinds of prejudice, racial and religious and serve society, oriented with purpose in life. Besides basic academic and language skills, children are also taught hygiene and cleanliness, computer skills and English.

 

On the Island of Mentawai, the Foundation  has also built and successfully maintained a boarding house to accommodate children while they attend the nearby schools.  The housing program includes several house parents who care for the children’s overall well-being and health.  

 

Description of the existing situation

 

In the remote villages of Indonesia, children are often deprived of a basic education. Even if they visit school in many places, the quality of teaching is unsufficient. Due to the low salaries or a lack of infrastructures, teachers are often unmotivated taking long vacations, leaving children with no classes for long periods of time. A lack of holistic education results in youth with no purpose in life, reverting to crime, drugs, alcohol, gambling. 

 

Educational facilities such as schools are only developed in villages which file an official request to the foundation for these facilities to be built, and villages are required to donate the land on which to build the buildings.  This helps focus the community’s efforts and energies towards the education of their children by directly involving the parents themselves.

 

Description of the project

 

The goal of this project is to maintain the running of the 11 existing Education Centers in the remote villages and to create 2 more, giving an education to 1040 children and educating some 325 youth. The main aim of the “Running of Education Ceners for deprived Children in Remote Villages” project is to improve the social and economic conditions through the education of children of various Indonesian ethnic groups in several remote villages deprived of educational facilities.  The project also seeks to directly improve the living standards of the residents by providing health education and health facilities.   As the youth are trained in child education, they are sent to these remote areas to serve the communities as qualified teachers.  Its aim is to also help gain the commitment of the parents involved. They are taught the art of consultation empowering them to consult on problems in the villages and are made aware of the basics of a  good nutrition and a balanced diet, guaranteeing health for their children. The project also aims to educate parents about the importance of enrolling their daughters in our Education Centers in the interest of the girls and the entire community.

 

Visit M. Abbas Rafii in field (2006)   here

Evaluation meetings here

Parents consultive commitee here 

Link: to pictures from this project

 

Duration of project: November 2008 - October 2012 

 

Budget

 

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Total €
MAE*	77.411	76.144	76.144	82.811	312.509
UF	38.705	38.072	38.072	41.405	156.254
TOTAL	116.116	114.216	114.216	124.216	468.764

 

 2009: The City of Luxembourg is subsidizing this project with 17.427€