Why Indonesia?
In West Papua, there is an expression known as "HANCUR" (meaning broken) which accurately captures the current state of its educational system. In West Papua, teachers get a salary regardless if they are doing their jobs correctly or not. As a result, many of them don't even bother showing up to teach their classes. And when they do show up, instead of educating their students, it's become common practice for these teachers to bribe their students into performing chores at their homes in exchange for "passing grades."
BUT IT DOESN'T END THERE. Some of these students are physically abused by their teachers as well — many of them end up in hospitals due to broken bones caused by these abusive teachers. Even worse, there are NO child abuse laws in Indonesia to protect these children.
SO WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? Well, in certain West Papuan villages, schooling is provided up to the third grade. After that, these children are sent into the city of Wamena for further schooling. While in Wamena, most of these children find refuge in "tribal dorms." Unfortunately, these dorms come with no adult supervision and require a regular fee in order to maintain room and board; the tragedy is that the money needed to pay these fees don't always come from parents. And even if they do, how soon they get the money is often dependent on airline schedules. Because of this, many children are forced to walk the streets in search of food.
Who We Help
In 2006, a small pilot program with 16 kindergarteners began in West Papua, Indonesia. As a result of this program, today we have "Sekolah Dasar Balem Wamena" — a model school with 95 students ranging from kindergarten to 2nd grade. The ultimate goal of SDBW is to set the standard of what GOOD quality education looks like in a place where the educational system is in shambles.
In addition to this, SDBW not only plans on adding two kindergarten classes every year, but eventually hopes in building a school that reaches from grades K - 12. With YOUR help, we can make this goal a reality sooner than later!