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.