SMK (Trade School) Muhammadiyah Bukittinggi

Meeting face to face with 10 sponsored students from SMK Muhammadiyah Bukittinggi, Sumatra Barat. It was also a great opportunity to hear from their principal and teachers how these students progress with their education.

It was great opportunity to get to know them and hear their stories.

Surat dari bu Ika

Yth Bapak/Ibu teman seperjuangan di jalan Allah


Assalamu 'alaikum....

Baru saya bisa menuliskan pencarian saya ini, setelah akhirnya berhasil menemukan anak yatim tsb...

Saya akan ceritakan kronologi keresahan saya...

Di bulan Agustus 2011, sebuah tayangan TV (ANTV) tak secara khusus menayangkan cerita pendek anak yatim bernama Erina/Erlina (saat itu disebut nama anak tsb seperti itu). Anak ini merupakan anak ke-5 dari 9 bersaudara, ayahnya baru saja meninggal, ibunya terpaksa merantau ke Kalimantan dengan beberapa kakaknya demi mencari nafkah. Satu anaknya telah menikah, tinggal di sekitar Polewali, namun karena kemiskinan pula, maka kakak ini pun tak mampu membantu Erlina dan 4 adiknya.

Jadilah Erlina yang di tahun 2011 duduk di kelas 1 MTs terpaksa bekerja pada seorang tukang bakso di pasar, mendapatkan bayaran Rp 15.000/hari demi tetap sekolah dan menghidupi ke 4 adiknya yang kecil-kecil. Erlina tinggal di rumah sangat sederhana, dengan ke-4 adiknya, dengan mengandalkan listrik meminta dari tetangganya. Ke-4 adik kecilnya juga selepas sekolah SD mencari kerikil di kali, untuk dijual demi menyambung hidup...

Saat itu, sungguh saya tak bisa tidur, membayangkan anak seumuran anak sulung saya (Bogi) sudah harus bertaruh hidup demi adik-adiknya sambil tetap sekolah. Maka dengan bantuan teman saya dosen di Unhas (Prof. Gemini Alam), saya ngotot minta dicarikan anak tsb minimal contact person (cp) dekat lokasi anak tsb. Seminggu teman memberi kabar, ada satu cp yg siap membantu, namanya dr. Hj.Nurlina, dokter di Puskesmas Polewali. Saya kontak beliau, singkat kata selama agustus 2011-akhir tahun 2012, alhamdulillah saya dan keluarga bisa membantu Erlina dan adik2nya, transfer uang melalui dr.Hj. nurlina. Di akhir tahun 2012, saya kontak beliau, beliau kabarkan bahwa sebentar lagi beliau akan pindah tugas bukan di Puskesmas lagi. Saya masih berharap bisa kontak siapa pun teman dr. Nurlina demi tetap membantu anak2 tsb...

Sayang, masuk 2013, saya kehilangan kontak dg dr. Nurlina, hpnya tak pernah bisa dihubungi, sms tak pernah direply. Suntuk saya...apalagi di ANTV, lagi2 ada kabar ttg Tasripin, anak Banyumas yg juga piatu, ditinggal ayahnya merantau, dia tinggal dg 2 adiknya. Beruntung Tasripin, sebelum saya dan teman dari UII mencarikan bantuan, rupanya Presiden SBY merasa gerah dengan berita ttg Tasripin yg diblow up oleh semua media (Koran dan TV). Jadilah Tasripin bisa lega, rumahnya dipugar oleh TNI atas instruksi Presiden, hidupnya dibiayai dinas sosial dan bupati Banyumas. Ayahnya pun telah pulang ke Banyumas dan tampaknya diberi pekerjaan.

Betapa rasanya tak adil dunia ini...karena Tasripin bisa lega, sementara anak Polewali ini masih tak tentu masa depannya. Dulu pernah saya tanyakan dr. Nurlina apa Dinas sosial Kab pernah membantu Erlina? Katanya pernah satu kali, itupun hanya memberikan indomie dan beberapa pakaian, sekali itu saja, itupun mungkin demi menutup malu gara2 pemberitaan ANTV tsb. setelah itu tak pernah ada bantuan dari mana2....sedih saya.

Rasa bersalah saya karena kehilangan jejak Erlina dan adiknya seperti tak termaafkan, walau teman saya di UII yang sering bersama saya mencoba membantu menyekolahkan anak yatim secara pribadi (selain saya masih menjalankan program Melbourne4orphanS) sempat menghibur saya...bukan salah saya jika kemudian saya kehilangan jejaknya...

Tapi hati kecil saya tak terima begitu saja, pedoman saya, selagi saya mampu mencari, mengapa saya harus berhenti. sering saya bilang ke suami saya: ingin rasanya saya ke Polewali mencari sendiri, namun pikiran saya masih waras, rasanya tak akan mudah...maka saya berusaha memposting keresahan saya di FB, dengan harapan ada yang bisa membantu. Benar saja Da Ed menawarkan bea siswa...mantan mhs saya menawari mencarikan lulusan/alumni farmasi di Polewali. Saya dapatkan nama pekerja sosial bernama Suherman. Saya kontak pak Herman, beliau siap membantu menelusur kembali anak tsb. saya sudah sampaikan karakteristik anak tsb...namun nihil pencarian tsb selama 2 bulan.

Saya mendapat hikmah dari Allah, ditunjukkan jalan...saya terpaksa merepoti Prof. Gemini Alam lagi, dengan memohon saya minta dicarikan kontak dr. Nurlina. Seminggu baru saya dapat kabar, ternyata beliau pindah kerja di Dinkes Kab Polewali di kota (berdasar info salah satu pegawainya). Saya dapatkan no beliau. saya kontak, langsung tersambung kembali, saya hanya pengin nama dan lokasi anak tersebut agar bisa dicari oleh Pak Herman. Ternyata anak tersebut ada di Kecamatan terjauh dari Polewali di Kec Binuang, desa Batetangga, Kab Polman. Lega saya...namun pencarian ternyata belum berakhir.

Saya sampaikan lokasi tsb kepada Pak Herman, ternyata Pak Herman sedang sakit butuh istirahat lumayan...maka saya hanya berharap agar segera Pak Herman sembuh, akan ada pencarian lagi, sambil saya sampaikan akan saya tanggung biaya pencarian tsb. Alhamdulillah, Pak Herman telah mendedikasikan hidupnya di jalan-Nya pula sehingga tadi pagi saya mendapat kabar gembira, anak tsb telah ditemukan tepat di lokasi yang ditunjukkan dr. Nurlina.

Anak tersebut ternyata bernama HERNIA bukan Erina/Erlina seperti yang orang panggil selama ini. anak ke-5 dari 9 bersaudara. Hernia saat ini baru menyelesaikan MTs, adiknya kelas 5, 4, 1 dan TK. Saya berkomitmen agar anak2 ini bisa keluar dari kemiskinan dengan sekolah. Dengan kerendahan hati saya mohon bantuan dari Melbourne4orphans selain dana pribadi saya demi menyelamatkan anak2 ini jika sekiranya Da Ed, Bu Dewi dan P Urai berkenan.

Selain itu, saya juga ingin melaporkan data anak yatim kita di Yk dan sekitarnya: anak yatim di Bantul 1 orang telah lulus SMK(Narti), 1 orang di Sleman juga lulus SMK. Jika Bapak/Ibu tidak berkeberatan, adik dari Narti (anak yatim piatu korban gempa di bantul) juga butuh bantuan.1 orang baru lulus SMP akan masuk SMK Kesehatan, adiknya kelas 3 SD. jadi data anak yatim bisa dikurangi 2 SMK namun ada tambahan 1 anak SD dan 1 anak SMP (jika sekiranya disetujui Bapak/Ibu).

Demikian sekedar cerita perjalanan saya yang kesannya mendalam, mempengaruhi kehidupan saya dan keluarga...yg membuat saya menurunkan nafsu duniawi...alhamdulillah saya dipertemukan Alloh dengan Bapak/Ibu sekalian yang mewarnai dan memaknai hidup saya selamanya...

Wassalam,

Ika Puspitasari

Kera Island Appeals

Last month one of Melbourne4orphanS' volunteers, Henri Shalahuddin, visited Kera island, a tiny island in the eastern part of Indonesia, near East Timor. After a long flight from Jakarta to Kupang in Western part of Timor island, the journey was continued by boat for a half an hour before they landed on the sandy beach of Kera island. What they saw on the island was really disturbing.

Pulau Kera or Kera island was home to 78 families, 317 people and they all lived in extreme poverty beyond comprehension. They lived in houses made of sticks and brances tied together as their walls and used recycled plastic sheet as their roof. Some houses had rusty zinc roof but only covered part of the houses. Inside the houses you found no furniture like chairs, tables or beds on the sandy floor. There was only one open space in most of the houses with most basic utensils like pots and buckets; there was no bedroom, livingroom, bathroom or kitchen.

The children attended school six days a week. But what they called a 'school' had nothing in common with any school in your mind except an old blackboard hung on the wall. There was no classroom, principal office, or teachers area. Don't mention to them computer, they had no ideas what it was. Students were all out of uniform; not because they didn't want to wear one, they could not afford to buy one. They came to school barefeet and sat on the sandy floor listening attentively to their teacher.

This is a gross neglegence from the government. These people are on their own. They need our help to establish even the most basic facilities like school, medical centre and religious hall. Melbourne4orphanS will sponsor some school age children from the island and put them in the list on top of the 88 children we send money every month to help with their schooling.

If you want to make donation, you can do so by sending your donation through Melbourne4orphanS' account (message: Kera Island). We will make sure that all your donation will get to them as soon as possible without any reduction.

Tribute to a Beautiful Generous Soul

Yesterday, I woke up to the sad news that one of our most generous sponsors to Melbourne4orphanS had lost her battle against lung cancer. My body was shaken and I was close to tears as I read the message on my phone; bu Ida passed away. We were supposed to visit her that morning. It was only the night before my wife told me about her condition and we had decided that visiting her would be the first thing we would do the next day. Why wouldn't you?

She was one of the most generous sincere persons I've ever known. She didn't want recognition! When she made her donation, she was always anonymous.  I only knew that the big amount of money that was transfered regularly to the orphans account was from her because she was the only member of our community who lived in that area. She had supported Melbourne4orphanS from day one we started this effort. My wife told me when I went to Hajj several years ago and she was pregnant with our third child, bu Ida came to our house to ensure that my wife was fine. She would bring some food and cheered up her and our two young boys.

Bu Ida, now you have gone. On behalf of the orphans you have supported, we pray to Allah:

Allahummag firlaha - warhamha (O Allah, please forgive her and have mercy on her)
Wa 'aafihi wa' fu 'anha (and protect her from all bad matters and pardon her)
Wa akrim nuzulaha (and honour her arrival, o Allah)

Allahumma laa tahrimna ajraha
Walaa tudhillana ba" daha

The story of Refli Kurniawan

I met Refli in December 2010 when I was visiting his sister, Santi, one of Melbourne4orphanS' beneficeries. We were in our Indonesian holiday trying to spend as much time as possible with our parents. But my sister for some reason was very insistent that we had to visit Sinta in her home town in Pasaman which is around 6 hour driving from my hometown in Padangpanjang. I soon found out why as we arrived at their house.

This is what they call 'house'. If you stretch your hands, you almost reach the two corners of the house; when you stand, your head touches the roof; the floor is dirt soil; the wall was made of used timber; there's no ceiling to protect the occupants from the heat of equatorial sun. I politely declined to their invitation to go inside of the house because I couldn't bear the heat inside.

Santi dan Refli's father passed away six years ago. Their mother works as a shepherd, minding a neighbour's catle. Santi was in her second final year or schooling, she was very grateful that we sponsored her, without which as she said, she wouldn't be able to finish her school.

Refli was twelve years old. He is as old as my oldest son who was coming with me. But physically, he was as big (or as little) as my four years old daughter. He was born without anus!

I was shocked when I was told about his story. Medically, he was supposed to have operation when he attained the age of two. But that did not happen because of their poverty, and because no one helped him, not even the government! I don't know why we should have a government in Indonesia if they can't take care one of their citizens who needs most like Refli.

All this time Refli had to rely on the artificial hole created on the left of his stomach to go to toilet. Even to properly manage this supposed temporary solution, they could not afford to buy the medication and the bags! No wonder Refli was many years behind in his physical, intellectual, social and emotional development.

I promised Refli's mother that we were going to help Refli to have a normal life. I wasn't sure that we could help him through Melbourne4orphanS because prior to this our commitment only to help orphans with their schooling.

God makes it easy for Refli. Not only we got approval from other board members but also money came from every where to help him to have operations.

Refli had undergone three operations in Padang in his bid to have a normal life. He is still waiting for the fourth and final operation in June this year. But already he is a different child. He puts on more weight and develop rapidly in term of intellectual and emotional development.

Refli has changed our course. Since then we have helped Mega, a 7 year old child to have an operation to remove a gal stone. This poor child was always in constant severe pain since she had this stone in her bladder four years ago. Thank God, our little help makes such a big different to a child.