20th Anniversary of

the 2004 Asian Boxing Day

Tsunami

I am proud to say that we have been able to remain true to our founding principles that all money raised should go directly to the programs benefiting the children of Aceh undiluted by administrative costs or international salaries. We have relied on word of mouth to raise our funding; it has been from the many individuals across the globe that allowed us to create a future child by child. I wish space would allow me to thank each and everyone one of you here publicly. On behalf of the children of Aceh, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart; you have made a huge and lasting difference.

A chance crossing of paths, with a little girl who was unable to speak, became a huge inspiration to me. Mayulida,(see below) though officially too young, spent her days taking care of her younger sibling in the dusty brick factory. Despite her parents only having completed primary education her thirst for knowledge and love of books became apparent very early on. As the years passed and her confidence grew, she started to speak again. Her determination to succeed and create a future for herself against all odds still inspires me today.   I had been asked early on “How long will you be running the programs?” and I had looked at her and jokingly replied “When our kindergarten children are in university!”

We started in a room 4m x 3m, with 62 children and an idea to give these children the luxury of hope and dreams. The only funding was the €700 to my name, I know it was illogical to start our educational support program, but the need was so great and it was needed then! As we received our first donation of notebooks and pencils, I was so embarrassed by our conditions, but received the great advice of “Think big, start small but start today!” That along with a quote from the Dalia Lama who said, “If you think you are too small to make a difference you have not spent the night with a mosquito” have become my mantras.

The community saw the difference our small Learning Center was making as more and more children from surrounding villages started to attend and we received the use of a community building. It became one of our principles when we are asked to replicate our Learning Center we use what building the community has available. It can be a mosque, house or even in a spare room in the local school. Our teachers are also from the community, usually university students. This not only creates a fun friendly environment but also allows them to fund their education.

Following our principles that we would never use donations for self-promotion but instead rely on word of mouth; after many emails sent, we started to receive support from individuals from across the world. It was this support from ordinary people wanting to help those that wanted to be helped that allowed us to establish our first library. This was the first time most of these children had encountered books other than school textbooks. It was not only the children who used the library, often parents would come and browse and borrow a book, occasionally I would see a parent reading a book to other parents who were illiterate.

Larger donations followed thanks to our supporters spreading the word of our work to foundations and businesses which allowed us to expand to incorporate computer literacy with the purchase of our first computers. This also allowed university students to study and write papers. Additionally, we ran touch typing classes and were able to purchase lots of educational computer programs (in those days apps were unheard of). As the word spread to supporters’ word also spread to other villages of our Learning Center and Educational Support programs and requests started coming from near and far afield to replicate it in their communities. We had a very simple model, provide a space for us and identify possible teachers, as it had to be a community-based program. We bring the rest – experience, training, supplies, equipment, computers, internet, funding and books with our concept that learning is fun.   

In the beginning one of the most profound things I found was the reply from children to my question of what they wanted to be when they grew up; it was always answered with “If I grow up…” I wanted to give them the luxury of hope and dreams. A few years later the children had dreams, but a little boy called Wahyu was able to shock me again when I asked him why he wanted to be a pilot.  He wanted to earn ‘lots and lots and lots of money’ but the shock was the reason he wanted so much money, it was to buy rice! One can only imagine the hand to mouth existence he was experiencing. It was this conversation which led to the establishment of our child sponsorship program

Mawardah, whose moving story of surviving the tsunami and her humble hopes for the future which many of you have read,  is now a mother herself and has her own small business Mawardah's Story (click here to read). Through education she has broken the poverty cycle in which she grew up in. Her mother and father had not been afforded the luxury of finishing primary school, however Mawardah finished senior high school. In fact, at the age of 14 she was one of our computer teachers and even helped the computer teacher in her high school

Mayulidar, the little girl that could not speak is now in her last year in university studying to be a nurse. The photo is of her a couple of months ago in Malaysia as part of a volunteer program helping with children’s education. She was the youngest in our Learning Center at the time when I jokingly said we will be here until they are in university … we are still going strong all these years later. From not speaking at all and being the shy child that was ignored at best, but often the victim of bullying, she has blossomed to speaking 2 languages and 1 dialect and on the way to fulfilling her dream to be a health professional to help others. I am so very proud of her incredible achievements and excited to see the future she creates for herself.

The last twenty years have definitely had their ups and downs. The passing of a very dear young friend and student to leukemia in 2011 was my personal lowest. Her last words to me were ‘Miss, every child must have the chance to learn, every child must be able to read and have books. We buy lots of books, yes Miss? We open many many Learning Centers yes Miss? Then children very very clever and will not need to work in brick factories again” I have continued to work hard to keep my promise to Fitrah, literally thousands of children have benefited from our free Educational Support programs, and it turn their families have also benefited. 

In memory of Fitrah and my promise to her, every book we have bought has a dedication in it to her.

Help us to help the children

To continue this promise and help create a Future Child by Child, please consider supporting us by donating, no donation is too small and WILL make a difference to the lives of these children.

I thank you again from the bottom of my heart for the support you have given our children. As you can see, that support really has helped to create a Future Child by Child.

We have achieved so much but the need for our help is still so great.