By Christie Pardede
A research paper released by Monash University in 2017 estimated that around 4.3% of Indonesia’s population lives with some form of disability. The most common forms of disability are vision, hearing and walking impairment with hearing making up the largest portion at around 12% of the disabled population, based on the said research.
Living with disabilities comes with its own set of challenges, particularly because our cities are currently not designed for people who are differently abled (disabled). At ABILITAS.ID, we have witnessed first-hand the gap in accessibility and inclusivity, particularly in our education system. Based on data in 2017 from the Ministry of Education, only 18% of kids with disabilities have access to proper support and education. Even so, many of the schools designed for the disabled lack proper funding to provide facilities to support their learning such as proper ramps for wheelchairs, guiding block, audio books as a substitute for textbooks, and other basic teaching aids. There is also a limited number of trained teachers who can properly teach special needs students vocational trainings.
On June 6th, our team visited one of our sponsored schools, SLBN 01 Mataram. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and students have stopped meeting physically since mid-March and learning has been conducted online to ensure the safety of students and their teachers. However, for the students at SLBN 01 Mataram, around 62% of them do not own smartphone, laptop, or internet service. Many of these students come from lower income families whose conditions have been exacerbated by the earthquake in Lombok in 2018, and now, lower business activities due to the pandemic. But even if these students do have a smartphone, laptop or internet service, online learning is not easy for them because they need additional learning support given their physical and mental limitations.
These moved the hearts of their teachers and they actually volunteer to visit each of their student’s houses to teach them directly without any supporting aid from the school or the local government to cover basic expenses such as transportation fee or internet quota. Due to the pandemic and the school being closed, some honorary teachers are not counted as ‘officially working’ and do not receive compensation for this work.
We believe these students and teachers deserve better, and in fact, we should advocate for them to receive better. SLBN 01 Mataram used to run vocational training to build students’ expertise in sewing and batik making. Students from this school even won a national competition for their skills in these areas. However, this training was stopped due to a lack of funding and facilities to continuously run this program.
ABILITAS.ID has been presented with an opportunity to collaborate with Jessica Tanoesoedibjo in her 26th birthday fundraiser #beginningofhope to fund relief programs for teachers and students at our partner schools (one of them being SLBN 01 Mataram). The program will be divided into two phases. The first phase will focus on students and teachers who are in need by giving basic food packages, providing transportation aid for teachers and important facilities for the schools (such as printers and projectors). The second phase of the program will focus on providing vocational training for students especially those training that were halted because of lack of facilities and professional instructors. We will also engage with teachers at these schools so that this program can continue to be delivered—particularly to the younger students—after the program ends to ensure the sustainability of these initiatives. If you are interested to participate in this birthday fundraising, there is still time for you to contribute! Please click this link to donate & inspire hope!
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