The school break has just started, which coincides with the Ramadan Fast. All of the JabezKidz students are Moslems, so they participate in fasting from food and drink between dawn and dusk for a whole month. To keep the teenagers occupied during the school break, I suggested a visit to a few libraries in Jakarta. The teens agreed and said the visit would be better than watching TV and playing with their phones while waiting to break the fast at dusk.

After getting the parents’ consent, we started off our library tour with a visit to The Japan Foundation on public transport. Before we entered the building, we joined a queue to have our bags scanned and to pass the security guard with the metal detector. This was followed by another queue at the Information desk to present our identity cards and write down our details in the guest book. It was all part of the procedure of entering the building. When the teens learned to go through the queue, they learned about orderliness and taking turns.

As we entered the building, I reminded the teens to put their phones on silent and to be quiet in the library.

In the library, they looked confused as if they didn’t know where to start so I whispered a suggestion to pick any book or magazine and find somewhere to sit. The girls sat next to me while the boys decided to choose a table a little farther from us.

Everyone in the library sat quietly and read, including our teenagers. There was a reminder posted on every table to please push in the chair as you leave. It was written in Japanese, English, and Indonesian. One of the girls left the table without much consideration. I prompted her by pointing to the note. She smiled guiltily and corrected her behaviour by returning the chair properly.

Before we went home, I reminded them not to try to return the book to the place where they found it as they might mistakenly put it at the wrong place. I pointed out to them a place the library has for returned items.

After the visit, we had a discussion about the library rules and their experience while they were there. I asked about their observation of the process to enter the building and what happened while they were in the library as part of their attentiveness lesson. We also talked about respecting other people by not talking loudly in the library and having their phones on silent. Returning the chair properly meant not making it difficult for the janitorial staff. Putting the book at the designated table meant not making it difficult for the librarian and not messing up the arrangement of the books on the shelves.

I explained that a library is not only at school. There are public libraries in the community that they can visit if they have a school project and need some information that they can’t get from their school’s library. They can also visit those libraries in their spare time rather than going to the mall or just gathering with friends unproductively. I wanted them to know that apart from hanging out at the malls or movies, there are other things they can do in their spare time such as visit the public library. I asked them to share this information with their friends or bring them to visit a public library. Before we left the building, we went to the information desk to get our identity cards back. I noticed that some teens needed reminders to say, "thank you."

A few days later we went to the Korean Cultural Centre. It is located on the 17th floor of a 44 story building (the 5th tallest building in Indonesia). Before we entered the elevator, the teens noticed that there were elevators designated for specific floors and they didn’t understand why. One of the teenagers asked me and I was glad because I had been waiting for them to express their curiosity rather than just keeping quiet and passive.

After the visit to the Korean Cultural Centre, we also went to the British Consulate, but unfortunately we were informed that they no longer had a public library facility.

Another day, we went to South Jakarta’s public library, owned by the government. All the books in this library were in Indonesian. This library was much closer to their homes, compared to the other libraries we had visited. However, we felt that the atmosphere in the government library was not as good as in the libraries run by overseas organisations. I reminded them again they can visit public libraries anytime they couldn’t find the information they need from their school’s library or from our JabezKidz Centre’s. Even though in today’s modern age we can get information from the internet, I wanted the teens to develop an interest in reading books to broaden their knowledge. I hope all of them will continue their studies in the university and have better lives in the future.

We live in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. People know that our city always floods during heavy rains. The population of Jakarta is always growing. People come from all over the country to try their luck in finding a job. Jakarta is always raising new buildings, they build everywhere…

We continually have less and less empty space for the excess rain water. We don’t want to experience floods anymore, its miserable… the water comes in our houses and we can’t sleep because our bed, consisting of a thin mattress lying on the floor, gets completely soaked. Our other belonging get soaked as well. Recently, we learned something we can do to better our environment.

Our little action to reduce flooding is to throw garbage in the garbage bin, not in the river or the small canal around our neighborhood. We drew on a piece of paper what we imagine about this thing. One by one we stood up, brought our pictures and presented them to the class.

We learned how to speak in front of the class as we presented our drawings. Some of us were laughing after we were done with our presentations because we felt nervous,but it was so much fun, we wanted to do it again.

Every year there is one day I always look forward to: that is the day of my birthday. I am sure most of you do too. Why not? It is the best excuse to throw a party, shop for things we really like that is a bit pricy and just be the centre of attention for our family and friends.

For Iqbal and Ahmad, it is a different case. Every year on their birthday it is always just an ordinary day. But not this year. Last May 4, after our Sunday class we all surprised them with a cake, some drinks and of course a happy and resounding birthday song. It was Iqbal's birthday last April 20 and it was Ahmad's birthday last April 28. Iqbal was not able to contain his tears of joy while Ahmad could not remove the big smile on his face. Little did we know that it was the first time they were thrown a birthday party, much so a surprise one.

Together, they blew their candles from the small cake we had prepared for them. They were a bit shy but at the same time very excited to cut their cake. They joyfully served their cake and drinks to their friends. Everyone just had a great time. It was a very simple celebration but for Ahmad and Iqbal it was the best party ever.

For Ahmad and Iqbal, it may not be every year that they get to celebrate their birthday but it sure is enough for them to realize from this celebration that they are loved and are special. Hopefully they remember that for a good amount of time in their lives to motivate and give them joy.

The theme of this month in teenagers class was “Show and Tell". During this month the teenagers were given lessons about public speaking. The lessons included topics on body language, the carefully chosen words, and the way the information is represented in their speech.

To start it off, one of the ‘kakak’, Melissa, brought a back scratcher made from a real kangaroo’s paw and presented the personal item to the teens and did a 5 minute speech on why the item was important to her. At the next class, the teenagers had to bring their own personal belonging or something meaningful, and share with the class the story behind that personal item.

All the teens relayed that they felt nervous, and embarrassed when speaking in public even when the audience were their own friends. We can tell from their body language that they were not used to public speaking. We noted some girls covered their faces during their speech, some spoke with their heads down, avoided eye contact , and their speech was unclear. We encouraged the teens to keep trying to develop speaking skills and confidence.

At the following meetings, we had a ‘mystery guest' who was non- Indonesian, whom the teens never met before. This time, the teenagers worked in pairs. Every team had an opportunity to interview the mystery guest in English after the interview, and present their interview’s result in front of the class. The two ‘kakak’, Melissa and Sari were acting as judges, and gave scores for each team for team work, the quality of question, their presentation and body language. The mysterious guest also gave them scores based on how well they asked their questions. For our first mystery guest, we had Tony, a visitor from Australia. At the next meeting, our mystery guest was Yaser, an Iranian who is living in Jakarta.

The teens were very excited about this lesson theme, and were eager to put into practice what they learned. We saw that the teenagers were improving in public speaking and confidence. We plan to do more of this interactive lessons. Firman, one of the teenage boy, said that he got the best score among his schoolmates in English mid semester’s practical test, where he demonstrated how to make a picture framed handicraft in front of the class.

February is usually remembered as the month of Love. As a token of love to the kids, JabezKidz gave a gift of toiletries.

We explained the importance of personal hygiene and reminded them that they have to keep their body clean to keep away from skin disease.

• They have to wash their hair to keep it free of dandruff and fleas.
• They have to brush their teeth at least three times a day to keep their teeth clean and prevent toothache (after they take morning bath, afternoon bath and before they go to bed at night ).
• And they also have to cut their finger nails and toe nails.

We noticed that many of them have dirty nails; this is dangerous because they usually eat using their dirty hands without washing them first. After playing they forget to wash their hands and directly hold food or snack. At the end of February 2014, every kid who came received a goodie bag, which contained a bottle of body wash, shampoo, tooth brush, toothpaste, a towel and a nail clipper.

The children were very excited about the goodie bag and have promised that they will keep their body clean using the items from the goody bag.

I spent a few days teaching as a volunteer at the JABEZ Centre in Jakarta. I enjoyed my time over there and I was impressed about Icha´s motivation to work at the center. She was asking me a lot for advice about different topics and how she can improve her skills. She is very interested in new ways of teaching. I wrote a note for her with different games she can use (I know those games and strategies from my study and previous work at a school in Germany).

I think that the kids enjoy their time at JABEZ and that they are happy to go there, especially the teenager trust Icha and they share their problems with her. I think that this is a good base for the family that works. Icha tries hard to build up a good relationship with the families.

JABEZ is an important center in that area in my opinion. The kids have the opportunity to play together and build up good social skills. Also, they get classes. That means that their education improves. The kids love to learn new things and with JABEZ they get the chance to get more education which helps them to have a better chances fora job in their lives later on.

Tanja

Hi everyone! I am pleased to introduce myself, my name is Rifcaide Manik, but people call me Icha. I am the newest member of the family of Jabezkidz here in Jakarta. I am happy and proud to be part of this dedicated team.

To be honest, in the beginning I was hesitant to be part of such a ministry considering that the job entails to be in a marginalized area of the city all the time which is not the most attractive place to be in. What interest me though is its mission and vision to educate and bring hope to less fortunate people especially to children in a fun and encouraging way.

It is just my first month yet I have already had amazing experiences here in Jabezkidz. It has been really nice meeting the children who have been so welcoming to me especially the teenagers whom I have started to be close with as they spend time sharing to me their daily experiences. It is very interesting to be immersed in the community and get to know more people, get to know more their way of life and their struggles which something I look forward to do more. It is also such a wonderful experience meeting volunteers who generously share their time to teach and who show so much concern for the children’s future.

I wish that I can give my heart and my mind to this place, to the children and to the community. I wish that I can help Jabezkidz achieve its mission to be a venue for children to find hope and achieve goals.

Regards, Icha

In May/June, the kids had visitors from Belgium and Germany. Gina and Vanessa prepared a project with the title “Country of senses”. The kids got surprised with little Science experiments, Art & Craft, game activities and “Body in Action” games. For the kids it was a nice change to the normal activities and classes. Additionally to the normal lessons the kids were taught a new class “Explore the countries of the world”. With Jasmin, the kids learnt different countries in relation to the different volunteers coming from all over the world. This gave the kids the possibility to have a first impression of different countries, cultures and languages.At the end the kids got a short snippet of different languages, now the kids are nearly fluent in German, French and Spanish!

From time to time visitors were invited and new JabezKidz Friends shared their experiences from a foreign country. It was Bazar Time in June. The kids, like in December could exchange their hard earnt and collected coupons for a numerous of different items.

Under the slogan “Let’s have a Funday” the kids had the choice between classic school materials, Facepainting and Cupcakes- that they could decorate themselves. The day ended with a lot of coloured Butterfly and Tiger faces, cupcake mouths and bags filled with pencils and notebooks. Our previous Co-ordinator had to say Goodbye and now JabezKidz say a big warm “Welcome” to Icha. Icha is a young motivated lady who is going join our team at the center.

From now on Holidays and Ramadan are coming; therefore it is going to be calm at the center.

We wish you all nice sunny holidays,

Jasmin, Icha and Melissa

April has been known as Autism Awareness Month across countries, including in Indonesia. It gives a special opportunity for everyone to educate the public about autism and issues within the autism community. JabezKidz also uses this opportunity to educate the teens about autism by bringing them to see a movie and music performance by a local band, consist of young people with autism. The movie itself was inspired by a true story, played by real characters. ‘I’m Star the Movie’ tells a story of 4 teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder who have special talents in music, but struggle to be accepted into an inclusive school. 

The teens in JabezKidz, who had never known exactly what Autism was prior to this, were mersmerised by the movie and the live music performance they saw on that day. Prior to the outing, the teens didn’t know what Autism really means, and they had alot of misconceptions about people with Autism. For example, some thought Autism was a disease, and people with Autism were not able to function normally, and that they were weird. So the teens were given a talk about what Autism really is. The teens were made aware about the facts of Autism. Although it was good, but we feel that there’s more that we can do to help the teens understand Autism. 

So we decided to take them to this movie and music performance to get them to get a real experience of getting to know Autism even in deeper sense. The teens were really excited about the idea of an outing itself. Initially, they were also quite nervous because they have not met anyone with Autism before. At the movie, they came face to face with people with Autism and the teens can see for themselves that they were not that different to them. Through the movie, they also were made aware of the reality that many individuals with Autism struggled to be accepted into the community and there was still alot of prejudice against them.

The teens informed us that they were surprised that although these young people “act differently”, but they looked pretty ‘normal’ and liked the same stuff like they do, such as gadgets, games and music. Most of all, they all also just wanted to be accepted and have lots of friends, just like any other normal people. 

We hope that through this experience, the teens can developed more knowledge and understanding about other young people who diagnosed with autism. Through this understanding, we hope that they can be the catalyst in forming an understanding and inclusive community for various individuals with special needs.

March 2013

The second edition of the Sportsfestival took place last Saturday, March 23 at the JabezKidz Center. A total of 5 volunteers and 55 children gathered for the event.

Under the bright sunshine, the kids fought for first place. There were games that required speed such as Carry the Queen with the Egg, there were games that required skills such as Little Spoon Find Your Way and there were games that required critical thinking such as Letter Salad. After two hours, two hundred liters of sweat and sixty happy faces, there were homemade melon cocktail and pudding for reinforcement. After the ceremony, there were prices given to all the winners.

Wahyu, our highly motivated JabezTeenz was honoured and thanked with a JabezKidz t-shirt. Aside from all the other children who actively come every week to the center with their heart and soul, Wahyu has extra ordinarily demonstrated dedication and consistency for the past recent months in taking responsibilities in the center. He has been very helpful and reliable for the teachers and the children which has become inspiring and fulfilling to observe for teachers and other children.

It was a great afternoon for the center. We were able to have fun with the children and we became closer in a different level. Such moments like this really connect...

December 2012

Bazaar at the JabezKidz Center

Some of us may remember the Effort Cards that was given in grade school for good grades and good behavior. Every few weeks, these cards could be exchange for school supplies.

This same system also exists since a few months in JabezKidz Center. The participating children receive a coupon every Saturday. They collect them during three to four months. Last Saturday, 15 December, the children finally could redeem their hard collected coupons for school supplies, bags, sanitary articles or toys. The Jalan Masjid an Nur was quickly transformed for a few hours, under sunshine to a lively bazaar.

Early in the morning, at 8:00am the teenager came to help us to prepare and to decorate the tables. At 12:00am, we started with a short introduction and an "Angklung performance". All the children tried, of course to get the best prices and the best stuff. In between they counted over and over their coupons. Some children tried to influence, with “teddy bear eyes” the "sellers.” Some had success.

From time to time a little quiz was dropped. The child with the correct answer was rewarded with a small prize. At the end, everything was given out for bargain coupons.

To summarize it was a very successful last morning for the year 2012 at the JabezKidz Center. All the children went home satisfied and their bags filled with goodies.

We would like to thank all the helpers for their support and generous donations.

December 2012

New Year's Wishes and Resolutions for the Year 2013

Last 8th December 2012, Saturday, all the children and teenagers gathered in the center to write down on “their hands“ their wishes and resolutions for the coming year. During this day, we painted, cut out and philosophized together.

It was nice to see how the younger children and older children sat together in the alley and helped each other. Afterwards, our wishes and resolutions were hunged in the JabezKidz Center so that we will be reminded in a few months what we wanted or desired to do.

25. November 2012

SPORTS FESTIVAL in Kebayoran Lama (Jakarta)

End of November our kids could demonstrate their talent in sport. Between 1 pm -5 pm, the volunteers transformed a side street next to the JabezKidz-Centre into a competition area. The challenges have not been restricted on the children’s physical abilities only as many activities required a lot of cleverness and team-spirit.

November 2012

JABEZKIDZ in WATERBOM PIK (Jakarta)

On November 15th the „JabezTeens“ had the privilege to visit the water park “Waterbom” in Jakarta with their English teacher Miss Meera.

Leaving the Centre early in the morning at 7am, all the teenagers enjoyed a sunny day and a very unusual bus ride without traffic jam – in Jakarta!

Having the time of their life by testing all the different water slides in the park, the teens had a lot of time to connect more to their “JabezKidz-friends “ and build closer friendships. Especially the volunteers appreciated to get to know their students much better in such a relaxing environment. After a delicious lunch and wonderful day in the park, the JabezKidz team could finally return home – all having a smile on their face.

For all her support, the JabezTeens and the volunteers would like to say: THANK YOU Miss Meera!!!