Friday 3 October 2014

Our Work for Indonesian Street Children and Orphaned Children in 2013 - by Parvez Alam, FIGHTING FOR LIVES



I know this is coming up a little late. My university research groups have expanded and that has meant a fair bit less free-time for blogging all our activities at Fighting for Lives (have been concentrating more-so on 'doing'). Nevertheless, these posts have been put up quite some time ago on our facebook page so if you're keeping up to date with our progress there then you've probably already seen much of what has happened. I guess it would be good to start off with the summary video that I made earlier this year... here it is below:



In total we donated over 3000 euros at the end of 2013 split between numerous different projects. I shall go through a few of the bigger ones in chronological order:

SUPPORT FOR OUR MEDICAL CLINIC FOR STREET CHILDREN IN JAKARTA

This was a pretty momentous occasion with my brother Chico Wolf, who has been heading FFL-Indonesia for some time now. We put up the Fighting for Lives Banner on the front of our Medical Centre in Jakarta, Indonesia! - The fact that our medical centre tends to thousands of street children each year is a testament to its effectiveness and on top of that the wording next to the logo reads rather awesomely: "FIGHTING FOR LIVES INDONESIA - TREATMENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC"





SPORTS EQUIPMENT AND ACADEMIC LITERATURE FOR SCHOOLS IN SUMBING AND DIENG

The schools we were supporting in Sumbing and Dieng were in conjunction with the UGM-teaching group lead by mbak Dhanur. These schools are not particularly well off and with the same spirit we had when we provided 50 school kids with shoes that they could not afford last year, this year we did the same by putting funds into buying sports equipment and books for these schools to encourage healthy activity and quality of learning. I couldn't go to Dieng myself due to time restriction, but I certainly made it out to Sumbing and on top of FFL donations, this also meant the kids got to play and learn capoeira and play capoeira instruments. Mbak Dhanur took the remaining donations to the school in Dieng. Below are some pictures from the visit to Sumbing.













A DAY TRIP TO THE BEACH FOR THE RIVERSIDE KIDS, THE CHILD VICTIMS OF MERAPI AND THE STREET GIRLS NEAR UGM

The day trips we organise for the children are I feel, some of the best ways to help them get over any anxieties they may have. This day trip for 50 children didn't cost much more than 200 euros, but I really saw the kids having a great time and really putting everything else in their lives at a standstill for just this single day. They had the chance to learn marine biology from the Marine Study Group of Gadjah Mada University (big thanks all you guys!) - they had a nice meal and made new friends - they played tirelessly in the sea, on the sand, burying every adult they could find....and yes of course... they did some capoeira too (though I think the marine biologists were feeling the capoeira spirit quite strongly too!). All in all... psychologically, academically and physically - a very productive day! Here are some pictures:





































SCHOOL RELOCATIONS AND EDUCATION SUPPORT FOR ORPHANS IN SUMATRA

Perhaps you remember in my January 2012 video I mentioned that we were helping to relocate an orphanage school in Sumatra that was located in an earthquake prone area - and - at the bottom of a cavern such that mudslides also made staying at the school a little risky for the children. Well we continued our donations with another 10 million rupiah this year and the new school is looking good. Moreover, we put another 10 million rupiah paying education costs for the orphanage we have been supporting in bukkitinggi since 2012. A few pictures follow:







FINALLY - THE FIGHTING FOR LIVES AMBULANCE FOR OUR JAKARTAN MEDICAL CLINIC

We made a large donation towards the purchase of an ambulance for our medical clinic in Jakarta. The ambulance was finally bought in January 2014 and is used to bring sick children to our clinic who otherwise would not be able to come by themselves, and to carry the dead. Here is our simple but functional ambulance: