Planting PAUD Hope in Papua

By: Cory Rogers, Communication Officer

 

Sorong, Papua Province, Indonesia -  Just 15 minutes east of the Sorong port sits STIKP Muhammadiyah Sorong, a serene teacher’s college awash in the blues of the sea.

Between two mid-campus ponds, Herman, a third-semester student at the college, winces as he relays an early school memory.
 
“We often didn’t even have paper to use [at school],” he says, one hand twirling pen strokes, the other scratching an ear. “So we took notes on our thighs instead.”
 
Peers were left to wonder: How many words even fit on a five-year-old’s knee?
 
“I want to return home after graduating [to teach],” Herman continued. “You know, half the time, the teacher didn’t even bother to show up.”

Early Childhood Development : A Fair Chance for All

By Sun Wook Jung, Education Officer

Meeting teachers at the Puspa Hati ECD Centre, Surabaya. ©UNICEF Indonesia/2015

I was a ‘drop-out’ of my kindergarten in Korea many years ago. I would always fight with the boys and one day just decided to stop going. But I did well in my education so went on to underestimate the value of Early Childhood Development (ECD).

However, I realise now that I was so lucky to have a mother who read me books and taught me how to count. So, even though I dropped out of the Kindergarten, I did get appropriate early childhood education at home.  This is not the case for many children around the world, especially children who are in marginalised and poor families in Indonesia.

Surviving the tsunami, creating a better future

17-weeks pregnant and carrying her three-year-old daughter at the time, Rosna credited her survival to a TV programme about tsunami that made her aware of what was coming after the powerful earthquake. © UNICEF Indonesia/2014/Achmadi

JANTHO, Indonesia, October 2014 - Rosna was saved from the tsunami by her television. She had seen a nature programme about earthquakes and volcanoes and seismic activity. When she felt the large quake that preceded and caused the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26th December 2004, she suspected what might be about to happen.

17 weeks pregnant with her second child at the time, she ran from her house in Banda Aceh, carrying her three-year-old daughter Cut Rachmina with her. Although caught up in the water, she managed to reach higher ground without injury and was eventually reunited with her husband Johansyah, who had also managed to escape.

The disaster wiped out most of Banda Aceh, but Rosna’s family was extremely lucky to survive. Their home, however, had been destroyed. They had no water, no food and could not save any of their possessions. In the space of a few hours they had gone from house owners to IDPs – internally displaced people. A makeshift tent became their home.