Children Program in Padang-Practical In-Situ Training of Teachers - 21 December 2009
Recently, AMURT & AMURTEL brought in a trainer from Malaysia with 20years’ experience in early childhood education to provide in-situ training of teachers at our 3 Child Centres in West Sumatra.
Sister Usha Chang, who operates her own kindergarten in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, spend three weeks from 21 Nov – 10 Dec 2009 with our Children Program teachers and Children Coordinator. Drawing from her wealth of experience, Usha was able to give practical advice and guidance questions ranging from classroom and children management to curriculum planning and implementation to interactive teaching techniques to creative play. Her cheerful and friendly manner quickly warmed the hearts of the little children as well as the teachers. Her respectful and discreet training style quickly won the acceptance of the teachers while her hands-on action-oriented demonstrations brought early childhood education theory to real life for the teachers yound and old.
At the end of her three-weeks training stint, all agreed that Usha’s visit had been an inspirational and educational experience that benefitted everyone involved in AMURT & AMURTEL’s Children Program.
Usha teaching the children about animals through an entertaining puppet sketch.
Usha introduced the children to the latest educational toys to stimulate creativity and dexterity. She also showed the teachers how to bring out the artistic genius in each and every child by providing them with bright and colourful art materials and encouraging them to freely express their inner spirit.
Usha’s teacher training format included discussion sessions followed by live demonstrations on how to implement various activities to develop the children’s body, mind and spirit.
Usha showed how a fruit-kebab “cooking” class provides the opportunity to teach the children the names of different fruits, vitamins and good nutritional habits, introduce them to elementary kitchen skills (peeling and preparing fruits) and also give them practice in large and small hand movement and dexterity (which prepares little fingers for handwriting). They also gain self-confidence and a sense of achievement. Best of all, the class combines plenty of good fun with a very yummy ending!
Report submitted by Ac.Ragodbhasananda Avt. dadaraga11@gmail.com
Sister Kalyanii KL Chew klchew@amurt.my
AMURT & AMURTEL Padang +62 751 498 219; +62 813 7500 3538
West Sumatra Earthquake Emergency Response Program – 14 November 2009
A 7.6Richter Scale earthquake struck West Sumatra province, Indonesia on 30 September 2009 at 5.45pm. AMURT & AMURTEL went in and started a distribution program. One of beneficiaries of this program is Ifel, 35, of Pasa Dama village in the district of Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra.
Photographs by Christian Jung
(Left) Ifel with son Razia stares into a daunting future. (Right) All three houses severely damaged.
As is the tradition with the local Minangkabau culture, Ifel, together with her husband and two small children live in her mother’s house with other relativies. Adjoining their house are the houses of Ifel’s grandmother and uncle. All are damaged beyond repair. The 40 plus members of the extended family living in the three houses are now camped out in two temporary shelters in the compound, one for women and children, and the other for the menfolk.
A football match was going on at that very time of the earthquake and most of the villagers were in the field to support their team. This probably explains why no deaths occurred despite the severity of building damage. Nevertheless, the experience of the houses crashing down was a very frightening experience for all. Ifel’s four-year old son, Razia, was so disturbed by the event that he now clings to his mother all the time. For many weeks after the earthquake he wet his bed at night and suffered recurring nightmares.
She is a research assistant with a local NGO in Padang town, but given the precarious situation in the village, she does not have the peace of mind to leave her children in order to go to work in town. Ifel is also worried that any aftershocks or new earthquake would send their unsafe houses tumbling down. This makes an already bad situation even worse because now she is no longer able to earn the much needed income.
More than 20 women and children from the extended family (above right) cram into this makeshift sleep area (above left) very night since the earthquake.
The family have no idea where they will find the necessary funds to rebuild their houses. Ifel’s traumatized uncle is in denial and insists that his house does not need to be torn down. Despite the heavy damage, he says that all it needs is some repair work. Meanwhile, Ifel’s elderly father (below left) is in despair at the sight of his house in ruins. He had poured so much money and energy into it. Ifel’s mother (below right) keeps busy with the cooking lest she too falls into depression.
Before she is able to attend to the multitude of problems confronting her, Ifel has to attend to the needs of her two young sons first of all. To help them return to some form of normalcy, she started a play session at a nearby clearing. Soon all the kids in the village were gathering there – it was good to hear the sound of children playing and laughing again.
But Ifel is also worried about the village children playing in the rubble of the earthquake all around the neighbourhood (below), unmindful of the dangers that may appear at any time. She says there is dire need for a kindergarten and/or child centre in the neighbourhood to cater to the needs of the children. She needs a place where she can leave her young children for a few hours, secure in the knowledge that they are in safe hands and happily occupied. Only then will she be able to have the peace of mind to attend to the multitude of urgent tasks at hand in the aftermath of the earthquake that has so devastated the lives of her family and their neighbours.
It is to help folks like Ifel and her sons that AMURTEL has started conducting children programs that will operate from child-friendly spaces in their village neighbourhood.
Donations for our Padang relief and development operations can be sent to:
AMURT & ARMUTEL, Padang, A/c No: 179679021, Bank Nagara Indonesia, (BNI) Padang Branch
Swiftcode: BNINIDJAPDG, Bank Address: JI. Praklamasi No. 45, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia
For more information: Rajeshwar Mandal <dadaraga11@gmail.com> +62 812 75003538;
Kalyanii KL Chew <klchew@amurt.my> +62 819 77537546
