SENSE & FEEL
Sense & Feel, as how Putri and Adit like to call it, is the first and essential phase of Kawan Kasih Tumbuh. Before deciding on a village, Putri and Adit embarked on a month long journey to remote villages in the north and south of Yahukimo mountain to get to know the conditions of the children living in them.
To reach these villages, Putri and Adit walked and hiked a combined distance of 300 kilometers (192 miles) of thick jungle and rugged topography in the course of two separate months.
Read more about their journey here.
Findings
Only 3 schools out of 26 that exist in the area were functional. The rest have been inactive for 1 to 11 years due to the prolonged absence of assigned educators, a problem that has been plaguing Papua for decades.
The majority of the villages have only their elders and toddlers left because most of the productive age group have gone to the city either for school or to seek employment. Most of the time, they never return.
In the city, teenagers and school-age children roam the streets, without shelter and fostering. They add to the acute social problems that are caused by urbanization, which include: alcohol abuse, glue sniffers, high crime rates and HIV prevalences, homeless children and unemployment.
Beberapa Catatan:
In Papua as well as Yahukimo Regency in particular, there have been massive infrastructures development conducted by the central government in the past 3 years. Unfortunately, the lack of Human Development, spiritual guidance, and job opportunities for the rural villagers make this infrastructure development detrimental.
We believe that the Papuans should be the subject, and not only the object (of the development).
Having said that..
…the biggest challenge that ministries face is an insufficient number of people who are willing to invest the time and energy that it takes to walk through time with a needy individual or family.” When Helping Hurts, 2009