Yuniarti: A ‘helper’ for foster children

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

Yuniarti (42).

Apart from working as a teacher, Yuniarti smilingly says that she is also a “helper”. She has helped dozens of underprivileged children to stay in school and provides healthy school snacks for them.

Nine years ago, Yuniarti was assigned to teach at SMPN 2 state middle school in Batujajar, West Bandung regency, West Java. After obtaining civil servant status, she said she felt obligated to do something more for her students. Many of them came from underprivileged families with poor a literacy rate and lack of economic skills and life motivation.

“Because I love helping people, I just decide to become a helper,” Yuniarti, or Teh Ibey as she is affectionately called, said on Thursday (13/9/2018).

We were chatting at her school, SMPN 2 Batujajar, around a one-hour ride away from Bandung. It was after school hours. Eight students walked in to the crafts room, which the arts teacher transformed into her personal “headquarters”.

Among the students were seventh-grader Pian Sopian, 12. He was one of the 55 children eligible to receive healthy school snacks in Ibey’s program.

“I am happy to get food here; usually, it’s chiffon cake and milk,” Pian said shyly.

The youngest of eight siblings said he dreamed of becoming a soccer player and he wanted to graduate from high school.

“None of his older brothers do. His father has no money,” said Ibey, who graduated from the Indonesian Education University’s school of arts and design.

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

Yuniarti, 42, or commonly called Teh Ibey (center), poses for the photograph together with a part of the students, who receive additional feed at state junior high school SMPN 2 Batujajar, West Bandung, West Java, Thursday (13/9/2018).

Once a week, Pian and his schoolmates receive healthy school snacks from Ibey, who buys them using money donated by members of a nearby Quran recital group. Ibey usually buys various cakes and milk. Every month, she spends more than Rp 600,000 (US$39.37).

Ibey and other teachers in her school established the healthy snacks program in 2014. The program focuses on underprivileged students with a good learning spirit and behavior. The healthy snacks used to be handed out every day. However, in the past few months, it has been reduced to once a week.

The idea of the program came up when Ibey and other teachers saw students lacking nutritional intake in the school. This was based on observing the students’ physical appearances, their ability to understand lessons and records of their parents’ jobs.

“Once, there was a student who fainted in class as there was no food in her house. I then shared the story to the local moms in the Quran recital group where I used to teach. They fully supported my idea,” Ibey said.

She said she had all the names of the students eligible for the healthy snacks program in a list in her notebook. The amount of cakes and beverages each student gets is also on the list, which is part of her financial report to donors.

She then showed me a printed book titled “Batujajar Community Care”, which is the name of the community that she established for her various social activities. A second book contains a record of funding for her foster children.

She has 17 foster children in various high schools. The book also has financial reports for every semester.

Foster children program

Nine years ago, when she first found out about her students’ family background, the mother of two thought she should do something. Based on her personal calculations, only 30 percent of her students could enroll into a high school.

Ibey decided to help all her students continue their education. She visited their homes, no matter how far they were. “

Some of the houses are so far away, they look like dots on the horizon from here,” she joked.

Apart from surveying the students’ families, Ibey also tried to convince their parents to allow their children to continue their education.

“Many of them go to work in factories, at tailor shops, as ojek [motorcycle taxi] drivers or get married right after middle school. I try to persuade their parents to let them go to high school instead,” she said.

Ibey worked tirelessly even when she was pregnant with her second child seven years ago. At the time, she found five students who she thought fulfill all the requirements to be helped.

Along the way, she tried to gain support from her friends, many of whom were her work colleagues and parents of students at a previous workplace. She calculated that one student needed more than Rp 7 million to cover all their school needs.

Ibey then came up with a foster child scheme, in which seven donors are responsible for one child. Each donor donates Rp 85,000 a month. Soon, the foster child program was rolling. Ibey made it through her first year, overcoming various obstacles. An evaluation was conducted that involved parents. She holds meetings with donors and students’ families every three months.

She added five more foster children in her program in her second year, and then again in her third year. Once, she accepted more than 10 children in one year, as the number of donors grew and children in

her program became more enthusiastic about their opportunities. Ibey expanded her activities by taking the children to various exhibitions, outdoor activities and additional classes.

As of 2018, two of her foster children have enrolled at universities. Both are currently in their seventh semester at the Bandung State Polytechnic.

Miracle

What does Ibey get from her work?

“Oh, I’m exhausted,” she said, jokingly. “Well, surely, I have witnessed so many miracles here. There are times when people just come to me with lots of money or saying that they want to sell their land at a low price for the location of my foundation. The children have so many wonderful, wonderful dreams,” she said.

Despite having nearly given up several times, Ibey said she would use her all of her energy to ensure that her initiative stayed alive. She feels that the children she helps are not much different from herself.

Ibey had been able to go to university and become a teacher thanks to the help of many people. Therefore, she said she would not waste any opportunity that came from being a teacher with a civil-servant status.

“I will help my students in any way I can; buying them school supplies or food or taking them to a hospital when they are sick. If I can help them, I will do it. I am a helper. I help people,” she said.

Ibey’s community continues to grow and it has now been formalized as a foundation. Support for her activities continue to grow and she has purchased a piece of land not far from her school.