History
Here you can read about the Rumah Bambu Streetkids House in Depok, one of the houses helped bij the RumahBambu Foundation.
MISSION
The mission of the Streetkids House is to provide street children in Jakarta a place to sleep, a safe environment, food, education and basic healthcare. All these things will contribute to a brighter future for these children and to help Jakarta handle the problem with street children and to possibly reduce the amount of street children.
BACKGROUND
At 1 January 1998 the Rumah Bambu Streetkids House Organisation was established and it operates since that day. The organization was established by students of the University of Indonesia. They were concerned about the increasing amount of street children around their campus in Depok, Jakarta. At 25 February 1998 and at 25 October 2004 the Streetkids House got a juridical record letter from the Government of the Republic Indonesia to approve the continuing of this project.
The main activities of this organisation at present are to give shelter for street children, provide them education, food and teaching them and the local community about AIDS and healthcare. The age range of the street children varies between 6 months and 16 years old.
PAST
In the past some of children, like other ordinary children, really wanted to go to school as a student. Unfortunately, the organisation didn’t have enough financial support to be able to send them all to school. It was only possible for a small amount of children. In 2002, the economical crisis in Indonesia got worse. The Indonesian Government couldn’t stabilize the economical situation and there was a high inflation. This situation had a big impact on the Streetkids House. More children were brought, even by their own parents, to the Streetkids House, because families couldn’t survive anymore. The organisation had more difficulties buying food for the increasing amount of children. Some of street children had to drop out from school. But at that time the education of them continued. Some volunteers offered to come at regular times to the Rumah Bambu Streetkids House to give the children education, which they still continue doing at this time.
PRESENT
In the past the Rumah Bambu Streetkids House Organisation could operate on the donations of the volunteers and the local community. At present only the location for the youngest children is still receiving donations. . Sometimes the organisation receives money from projects held by schools in other countries, which mainly are used to buy educational materials and pay for reparations to the houses. But these donations are only occasionally and are not enough to guaranty the sustainability of the Streetkids House. That’s the reason that the RumahBambu Foundation in The Netherlands was established in 2008.
At this moment only the youngest children can go to school and besides that they get educated in the Streetkids House in the afternoon. They learn about the Indonesian language, mathematics, English, ICT and biology. Smiling, playing, learning new words and practicing together are common words to describe this education to the children. Collaborating with a local school, the Streetkids House Organisation makes projects in which the street children play and make artwork together with the children of the local school. Projects like these encourage street children to participate more in the society and helps them with their ‘abandoned society feeling’, a psychological impact from living at the street. It helped some street children to forget about their problems for a while and gave them back the prospect of having a bright future. The street children also get educated in making their own products which they can sell in order to earn their own money. They learn new skills which they can use later in their lives when they are not under the shelter of the Rumah Bambu Streetkids House any more.
FUTURE
From 2008 the Rumah Bambu Streetkids House is one of the houses for orphans and street children, helped by the RumahBambu Foundation in The Netherlands. As long as possible and as much as possible we will help the children in Jakarta. Please help us with our work by giving a donation.
