It’s All About Education

When I posted yesterday about all the things I’m “not” – one thing I didn’t mention is “well educated”. And in Australia my generation didn’t really need a good education perhaps as much as you do now. In Indonesia though, it’s a completely different story.

 First, thanks to everyone who made comments on the blog or via Twitter yesterday to support me through yesterday’s blog post. As I said, it wasn’t something that I wanted to share, but my frustration when I started this was the unknowns, and the purpose of this blog was to demystify the whole process, so I needed to get that out to be true to the intent of the blog. So… cheers.

I want to talk about the importance of education in Indonesia. Education is probably something we take for granted here in Australia. We tend to talk about our “right” to a good education, and to some extent to a “free” education – which I’m yet to actually find but I’ve heard this term used quite often.

At the start of this year my family was doing it very tough. We had been homeless, we had moved away from our children’s new school and we were on the end of living for an entire year without any income. Being homeless is, despite what you might imagine, incredibly expensive – especially when you have children and you’re trying to maintain a quality of life that they deserve.

We had faith in the “system” for some unknown reason, given it had already let us down, that when we were told our housing was “temporary” that it actually meant we would move again soon. Seven months later, we’ve accepted that we may live in this house indefinitely. Begrudgingly, for the sake of our younger children we’ve made the decision to move them from their school (again) and enroll them at the local public school. This means they will not have to spend 2.5 hours every day traveling to school, and that they can attend their school functions and socialise with children locally. Things that they’ve been missing out on while we lived in hope that more appropriate housing might become available.

At the start of this year we had to rely on the assistance of St Vinnies to help us with the cost of sending our children to school. As a proud family that has been financially independent and secure for over a decade, that was a very humbling experience which came soon after our first ever “welfare Christmas”. It’s soul-crushing to be unable to provide the very basics of human needs for your children. I can empathise with this absolutely first hand, because I’ve needed to accept assistance.

Rick and I are both exceptionally grateful both for the assistance that we received from Vinnies and for the fact that we are now both working and earning enough to support our family independently again. I think it’s important for me to point these things out to explain that I truly connect on an emotional level with those who cannot afford to send their children to school. We are incredibly fortunate in Australia to have these sorts of community organisations who can pick up where the government fails and assure that our kids get what they need.

Just as a side note, I really have an issue with the phrase “we have a birth right to education” – yes, we are born into or accepted as citizens of an incredibly abundant and fortunate country which prides itself in providing services such as education to our children. I think however, we spend too much time, as citizens of this country, focusing on what our “rights” are as opposed to what our “responsibilities” are. And I think the same can be said of humanity in general.

So, 3 of my children will start at a new school tomorrow. The cost to us by the time we buy uniforms and booklists will probably reach in excess of $1,000 but the local school is beautiful and they can catch a 5 minute bus, rather than spend all that time commuting.

When we think of Indonesia, we generally assume that most things are cheaper there than they are in Australia – and that’s completely true. Education, however, is comparatively more expensive than what you might assume.

The Indonesian system is broken down to 4 levels of schooling – Kindergarten, Elementary, Junior High, Senior High. The vast majority of kids in Bali, depending on their family’s status, might make it to Elementary school, some will go to Junior High, and very few will make it to Senior High.

The reason for this is that If you enroll at Elementary school you might pay, for example 1,200,000 ($150AU) rupiah to enroll – this covers your admin charges, building contribution, books, uniforms to get you started. Then you might on average be invoiced at a rate of 100,000 ($13) rupiah a month.  Many families find the initial enrolment fee – somehow! Anyway they can. But the ongoing monthly fees they can’t afford to pay.

For the most part the government school allows them to stay whether their fees are paid or not, up until it’s time to move to the next level of schooling. If their fees are not fully paid, they get no report from the school – no certificate which says they are eligible for the next school level. The only way to receive that certificate is to pay the outstanding fees. So if a family has had a child in school for 3 years, they haven’t kept up their monthly payments of 100,000 rupiah – they’re now looking at 3.5 million rupiah to finalise their debt, PLUS another 1.5 million rupiah to enroll in the next level of school.

Just to put this into context, the average monthly income for many of these families is around 1.5 million rupiah. We’ve met families of 4 living on 700,000 per month, and families of 4 living on less than 50,000 per month. A basic room to rent might cost 400,000 per month, food (healthy standards) would cost 10,000 per person per day. So you can see, there’s just no leeway for education. These parents desperately want their children to go to school. They know that the only way that their children will be able to make a better life for themselves is to get that education – but they need to survive.

The vast majority of these children will not get past elementary school because their education system will not allow it.

And this has caused a problem for Project 18 as well. We know now, that if we take these children in – in order for us to continue to provide them with the education they need – we will need to pay off their education debts.

This is also the reason many children end up in orphanages. It’s not because they don’t have parents, it’s just that their parents cannot afford to provide them with the basics. These parents know that if they give up their children to an orphanage they will get an education.

Can you imagine? What would I have done at the beginning of this year if the only way that MY children could go to school was for me to give them up?

What I want to do – what I’m PASSIONATE about doing – is making it possible for these children to go to school, without leaving their families. And that’s why I’ve set up the Facebook page – Project 18 Auctions for Education.

Our mission is to secure funds to sponsor children to attend school while remaining in their family home. This means we can provide an education and hope for a brighter future, without compromising their family, cultural and religious commitments.

I can’t save everyone. In fact, I can’t save anyone, on my own. We can however, focus on saving children ONE AT A TIME. On average, elementary school cost $200/year per child. Junior High school, on average will cost $300/year per child. Senior high school, $360/year per child.

I’m not asking anyone to donate $200 to educate a child. However, if you want to – I won’t say no either. What I’m asking is for people to join the Facebook group and participate in our monthly auctions. Indulge your shopping gene with us instead of elsewhere and know that every cent will go to educating these children.

If you’re a business, donate an item. A $50 retail value item may only cost you $25 to donate but it will convert to so much more when auctioned for a worthwhile cause. I’m trying to keep a theme to each auction. The July 20^th auction is all about babies, children, pregnancy. The August auction is all handmade stuff – and the handmade community is AWESOME!

Please join and invite all your friends, fans, followers and relatives to do the same. I’m hoping to crack 1,000 “likers” before the first auction so we have a chance to really raise some funds.

Oooh, and I almost forgot. Since we’re talking about education. Check out the promo video for Project 18′s youth initiative Planet You. Planet You is all about educating and empowering kids on environmental and social issues. Their range of videos is currently in production.