Peduli Anak Newsletter 2020 COVID-19

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Safe and Healthy!

We are all safe and healthy and even more grateful for our new homes and facilities during this lockdown period. Just like most countries across the globe and following the recommendation of the local government, we have closed the gates of our campus. This means we are temporarily closed to visitors and volunteers until further notice and we don’t allow our children to go beyond our walls.

Unfortunately, we’re unable to do the “work from home” scheme due to the nature of our work, but we try our best to minimize our exposure to the outside world and practice social distancing. Sadly, this also means we must postpone our outreach activities unless an extreme emergency arises.

Some of our counselors have decided to stay on campus for the duration of the lockdown as well as a few construction workers and security staff members. All other necessary personnel that needs to enter our campus must go through screening and mandatory hand washing at the first gate before they are allowed to enter the second gate. Staff with flu-like symptoms is urged to stay at home.

In the meantime, we do our best to maintain a sense of normalcy for our children by continuing our daily activities. The children study from 8 in the morning until noon and then take a break to rest or take a nap. We organize several activities for them in the afternoon, focusing on physical health, creativity, social skills, and health and hygiene. Our high schoolers can earn some extra pocket money by helping with the last bits and pieces of our rebuilding efforts such as garden landscaping, construction, sanding, and painting.

We have been preparing for the pandemic since February by buying food in bulk. We have peace of mind when it comes to clean water and electricity supply. Our water filtering system and solar power system are a godsend on any day, but especially in times like these.

Thanks to our amazing donors: Stichting Samenwerking Lions Nederland - Indonesia, BrITE Foundation from Royal HaskoningDHV, Carl Page Founder of Anthropocene Institute and PT. Contained Energy Indonesia for the solar power system. The Vincentiusvereniging for the drinking water filtering system and Wies & Hanno Riegen for the deep water well installation.

All Homes Are Finished!

All children moved into their 14 new homes! Plus new office, the clinic, and volunteer rooms are also finished. Numerous joyous days and we are so very grateful to everyone who has made this all possible.

Each home has its own sponsor. We'd like to thank Koper Family, Propcon Golf Club, Bam International, PT. Bam Decorient, Jai Shastry, Van Der Poel Sharity, Selbstwertgefühl, Frisian Flag, Hollandse Club, ING Singapore, Van Oord, Atradius, and Stichting Jong.

The children are able to live in a comfortable place because of all the sponsors who helped us.

Peduli Anak Clinic

Even though it's small, our clinic treats all the children very well. Minor injury, skin, and ear infection are common problems from the new children who join Peduli Anak's big family. Thanks to Triodos Foundation, our nurse can treat them in the clinic. However, some children also have a hereditary disease and need treatment in the hospital.

Right now, we are fundraising for the children's health treatment so that in the future, Peduli Anak Clinic could treat more sick children in Lombok and Sumbawa for free.

Northstar Organic Garden

We are very thankful to Northstar for helping us purchase the land for our organic garden.

Our current gardening area is approximately 2500 sqm and expandable to over 3000 sqm! We have successfully planted fruits and vegetables for our own consumption, which help us reduce our food costs. We started this project in 2018, but it had to be put on hold for about a year due to the earthquake and rebuilding efforts.

In 2019, we were able to continue the project with the help of Green School Bali and ING Bank Singapore and Jakarta, by cultivating the land and planting more variety of fruits and vegetables. Since earlier this year, we have begun to see significant results in crop yields.

Almost every day we harvest some fruits and vegetables from our garden: cucumbers, long beans, eggplants, passion fruits, chilies, and more. They all go straight to our kitchen, ready to be processed for a nutritious and delicious meal.

The latest aerial view of Peduli Anak campus. The reconstruction of Peduli Anak has been finished. Thank you for your support!

Shri Shastry Middle School

The Shri Shastry middle school building is done. The school is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the children who live in Peduli Anak use the classrooms to study, while students from the village study at their homes.

We still need many more school desks to be able to host all our middle school students! We are also fundraising for equipment and computers for the science lab and computer lab. Please let us know if you would like to contribute or can introduce us to a company that could help us out.

Meet Our Psychologist, Ms. Lis

She guides the children through art- and group therapy.

Many of our children are traumatized due to their rough start in life and we can use her support to learn and understand how to best guide and help the children to a happy and healthy life.

Besides giving psychological guidance to all children, Ms. Lis also develops programs for children with special needs. These are unique activities and therapies tailored for each child's needs that regular school usually cannot provide.

Circus for Therapy

After following the holistic circus therapy training by Circus Aid earlier this year, our counselors apply their new skills to help the children. As one of the play therapies, circus acts help to build social, emotional, cognitive, and physical capacities.

The children are always happy to play! Play therapy is especially good for children who have experienced trauma in their life. Interaction and body movements help to release tension and negative energy.

Experimenting with Colors

Our children love to play with colors. They can mix colors, use brushes, and even their hands to paint!

Not only on paper or canvas, but they also use each other's face to paint on!

We organize an art class every week and create new things together. We have many talented kids!

And clean up is a must after making a mess with the paints :)

Afternoon Playtime!

In the afternoon, our children have many fun options to choose from, but cycling remains one of their favorites! Now that all our roads are paved, there is plenty of space. We have a bike schedule in place to give everyone the opportunity to cycle and to minimalize the chance of crashes.

The weather seems perfect to fly a kite too.

The children are always happy to wander around our beautiful campus. It is fun and keeps their body moving! Needless to say, they can also not get enough of our amazing KOMPAN Playground! The explore dome is absolutely amazing and gives endless fun.

The swing is also popular among the children. They are willing to wait and take turns with others.

Of course, swimming and playing soccer are also one of their favorite activities. We are so thankful for everyone who made this possible. We have a schedule to give everyone a chance to swim and play in the indoor soccer field. Every evening after homework time, there is always a group of children kicking a ball around. Apart from swimming, boys and girls do all activities together.

The afternoon playtime is a great way to keep the children happy and fit at the same time! Especially in times like these, exercise helps us to better prepare our immune system to fight viral infections.

Family-like Care

Before the earthquake, we already started implementing the concept of family-like care. Now that the new homes are finished we have picked this up again. Family-like care means children live in small groups of 10 in one house with a mother figure. To create a sibling-feel the children are all of the different ages and are either all girls or all boys. The mother figure lives in the house with them where she has her own room. Recently 8 mothers have moved in with us. The children call them either mama or ibu (mother in Indonesian).

Family-like Feeling

Every mealtime our children eat together in their own house. They sit and enjoy their meal with their house mother. Eating together like this creates a warm family-like feeling, which most of the children in Peduli Anak have never experienced.

The children come from different backgrounds: some are orphans, neglected children, or even victims of domestic abuse and assault. Creating a simple routine like this will hopefully give them the feeling of belonging to a loving family in a safe environment.

We are looking for child sponsors

With the new children, 50 new children on the waiting list and expected to arrive within the next few months, come great responsibility for raising funds to enable us to support them with livelihood, education, and healthcare.

We offer a child support plan to give you the opportunity to sponsor a child. Your entire contribution will benefit the child. Supporting one child fully can be a big financial commitment, we have therefore split our care plan into 3 parts. All the details can be found here.

How can you help? Here is our list of needs:

•   240 school desks, teacher desks, and office furniture
•   Computers
•   Science lab equipment
•   Books for the library
• Landscaping and gardening: grass, fruit trees, seeds, and gardening tools
• Sport area and equipment
•   WIFI equipment to connect all areas within the 2-hectare campus

and Bikes!

The children are counting down to 4 o’clock each day as this is the time when they are allowed to go on the bikes on the paved road in our campus. It is hard to express in words how much they love it. They are very happy to share the bikes we have, but with more children to come in the near future, the best gift you can give them is more bikes!

Continue following us via social media and pedulianak.org.

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