Covid lockdown in Thailand meant for some people no work and income and therefore a lack of food. SEEDS workers wanted to help some needy families and communities by giving out food parcels with basic food items like rice, noodles, oil, fish sauce and fish cans. We contacted a community leader and asked him to give us a list of families in need at this time. He chose some villagers who are handicapped and others who lack income.

Neighbours at the office helped to order and pack the food items. The community leader asked the people to pick up the food parcels at his house. They were waiting when the SEEDS worker and local volunteers arrived. It was a special experience to work together with local volunteers in helping local people at this time of need. This can be the start of further activities in this community, building trust and strengthening relationships.

In another community, a local friend of a SEEDS worker who is a health volunteer distributed food parcels to needy families for us. Once we gave out lunch boxes to medical personnel who are working hard to treat Covid patients.

Besides money donations, people from abroad also donated masks for local people. We gave them out to health volunteers, who shared masks with villagers that don’t have the means to buy masks.

Local volunteers were so happy about the gifts received and enjoyed sharing them with others. It is a joy to give to others at a time of need. Even those who don’t have much themselves want to share what they have received with others.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted people of all economic levels and even in different generations.  For many Indonesian children and their parents, the past year and a half of schooling has been a struggle due to the pandemic requirement of learning online at home.  Many schools are ill equipped to teach in this manner, leaving parents to pick up the slack.  In October 2020, national partners with a local non-profit foundation initiated a child literacy program to help alleviate the pressure this situation has put on families.  Using the Saya Suka Membaca (or “I Like Reading”) curriculum, program volunteers encouraged kids aged 5 – 8 in not only acquiring adequate reading skills, but also enjoying reading for its own sake. 

National staff shared of one girl, Novi, who was in Grade 1, but still unable to read with confidence.  Her mother would shout at Novi to spur the girl on in her reading efforts, but to no avail.  Day by day, staff members would take turns gently teaching Novi the letters and their respective sounds.  Before long, Novi was sounding out words, and then reading full sentences.  Today, Novi is confidently reading books and loving it!  Our hope is to see more children like Novi experiencing the joy of reading and discovery, even during this time of pandemic restrictions. 

What are you doing every Saturday morning? There are some people, including University students, professors and even children, who wake up at 6am and go to clean the beaches every Saturday, early in the morning.

Today, I would like to introduce to you a meaningful project called Trash Hero, which is developed by a professor who teaches at the Faculty of Rubber and Polymer Science Technology in the University. This project aims at creating sustainable and community-based projects that remove existing waste and reduce future waste by inspiring long-term behavior change.

First, we will collect the trash from the beaches and then separate them into different categories, such as plastic bottles, plastic bottle lids, glass bottles, lighters and old slippers. We send the plastic bottle lids and old slippers to the lab of the university to make new slippers. This project can educate the public about creation care and make them aware of the problem of plastic pollution, when Thailand generates almost 2 million tons of plastic waste each year. Sometimes, there will be some special events, like collecting the trash during a marathon and zero waste camping, where so many like-minded people can gather and have a good time sharing.

The project also has some funding to hire some local people to help making the slippers, so this project can help the local people to get a job opportunity. I hope that, not only are the products are sold to different parts of Thailand, but also the value behind the project can be spread out. 

University classes in Sumatra have been online for three semesters now. Most students returned to their home villages and many who don’t have computers are joining Zoom discussions and doing assignments on their cell phones. The pandemic has disproportionally affected education for the lower classes who have less access to technology and who may lack good internet signals in remote areas. Many students are becoming lazier and it is challenging for instructors to keep them motivated to be diligent in their studies.

Our SEEDS workers, who are teaching, look forward to being back in the classroom and to helping the students catch up to where they need to be academically.

After several months of delays due to COVID-19, the end of March saw the start of several pilot football projects in south Thailand. We had been planning and surveying with local partners to identify the neediest areas in which to launch the projects. We hope for good beginnings of these projects and practical impact amongst children and youth (7 to 12 years old) from at-risk communities. With new local coaches, SEEDS workers can slowly begin to implement value-based coaching as we seek to improve physical fitness and develop the skills & characters of the children and youth we work with. Moving forward, this will be the cornerstone of our community development focus through football in Songkhla province, and we hope to expand these projects step by step. This launch in Songkhla also coincided with the visit of the Thailand director of the organisation we are partnering with, to launch and expand the football projects in South Thailand. The visit was a helpful time to consult with the director and do some refresher training.  

Meanwhile, in Pattani province, there was bad flooding at the end of last year. Several families of children involved in the project were affected. After receiving funding, SEEDS workers and local coaches were able to distribute up to 20 relief packages to the worst affected families from the project. Although the flooding had passed already they were very appreciative for our support in a small way.

2020 was a year of tremendous disruption for the world, and Indonesia was no exception. The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in school closures and the cancellation of all in-person teacher training and mentoring for SEEDS partner Yayasan Tunas Aksara and the Saya Suka Membaca (I Love Reading) program.

As a result, the team turned its attention online, making a series of online videos that teachers can use as a reference for how to teach reading, and that parents and children can use to practice reading at home. The team started off using the cameras on their smartphones but quickly learned how to improve the quality of the picture, sound and presentation in the videos, eventually producing more than forty videos in 2020, and making them freely available via YouTube (see link below).

Since the start of the pandemic, the Saya Suka Membaca videos have been watched more than 11,000 times, helping teachers and parents to learn new techniques to teach their children to learn to read, and to love reading – the foundation of education.

The Yayasan Tunas Aksara team is looking forward to getting back into the field in 2021.

For more information visit www.sayasukamembaca.org

Having been able to provide emergency food aid to coastal villages in West Sumatra during 2020, SEEDS partner the Perahu Nusantara Foundation has been back in one of those villages training young men with business skills.

The training took place outdoors, observing local COVID protocols, and participants learned about book-keeping, business planning and how to identify business opportunities. They also explored together what aspects of character make an entrepreneur successful for the long term benefit of the wider community and not just themselves. As many of the villagers are employed in fishing, participants also learned about fish processing as a way to add value, especially when catches are high and the price of fish drops. 

As part of the training, participants were encouraged to design and build their own business. They chose a dried fish business and with a small grant from the Perahu Nusantara Foundation have started this business. Staff from the Perahu Nusantara Foundation will continue to mentor these young men to help their ideas and passion to translate into community transformation.

SEEDS was already a global organization. Years before COVID-19 united the world’s attention on a single topic, SEEDS had already united people on every inhabited continent through the common thread of hope for Southeast Asia. SEEDS networked professional, educational, medical, and financial resources from diverse nations around the globe to Southeast Asia’s communities. While borders remain closed for COIVD-19 containment, some workers who would travel to Southeast Asia currently must wait in their countries of origin. However, the work of SEEDS goes on.

The Internet can connect SEEDS consultants with their communities of focus, no matter how far away they may be. Recently, a university in Indonesia evaluated more than thirty of its top faculty members for English proficiency, with the assistance of two SEEDS education consultants residing in Canada and the United States. From their own homes in North America, the consultants assessed university faculty by video conference at the Indonesian campus. This creative partnership between SEEDS and university workers transcended the challenge of distance. Without the consultants’ physical presence on campus, the language assessment still enabled the university to evaluate faculty needs in pursuit of excellence at English communication, discerning the strengths as well as areas in which to continue the journey of learning.

SEEDS recognizes the present and future value for Southeast Asian communities when institutions of higher education, and their individual educators, attain an international reputation for being among the best in their academic fields. The two consultants await their return to Indonesia, but in the interim period, SEEDS naturally surmounts the pandemic’s hurdles through its extensive experience in global work, sowing seeds of hope throughout Southeast Asia.

In unprecedented times, finding opportunities in the difficulties can be a challenge. Together with Indonesian colleagues SEEDS workers in Jakarta have sought to review, respond and (re)create.

Certificate Time – This Participant’s face says it all!

Review: During Jakarta’s lockdown (March 2020) we reviewed the impact of a year’s involvement in two kindergartens. Primary focus: delivering two courses (Parenting & Nutrition) on a rotation basis. The Nutrition courses (x4) finished just before lockdown. When surveyed, 80% of participants reported reducing their consumption of instant noodles; over half reported reducing their children’s unhealthy snacks and increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Basic computer training for teachers, facilitation training for parent volunteers, and one-off events were also held.

Respond: The computer training (August 2019) was in response to requests from the kindergarten teachers. They were increasingly expected to use Microsoft/online platforms for school reporting, which was proving to be challenging. While some possessed more than a baseline knowledge, a significant number of them were complete novices. E.g. no email address.

Fast forward to 2020 and the world has gone virtual. Kindergartens are still closed and teaching is online. Teachers are finding this difficult; including how much it is costing them in ‘data’. – Think early days of pay-as-you-go mobiles.

Informal 1-1 support for some of the above has been given by an Indonesian colleague. The simple act of sharing how to navigate your phone’s menu to an internet plan/add-on can make a significant difference.

(Re)Create: In January 2021 we plan to deliver: teacher training, including how to creatively use platforms such as Zoom and Canva; a condensed Parenting course–potentially via whatsapp–with a new focus on home based learning; and more planned up until June.

In these difficult times, remaining responsive to ever-changing circumstances is a necessary skill both personally and professionally. As is the ability to find the opportunities that exist. SEEDS workers and partners are endeavouring to continue growing in these areas; while journeying with the communities we have the privilege of navigating these times with.

We also look to the new year in hopes of a new normal that is better for us all.

SEEDS has recently set up a partnership with Pahlawan University, signed a 5-year MOU, and will bring a Registered Respiratory Therapist and bioethicist from the United States as an education consultant for an initial two years. See this link for the virtual signing ceremony.
Click here.

The SEEDS consultant will co-lecture in the nursing program on respiratory topics and support a continuous improvement project for academic English among faculty and students. As he assists researchers proofreading manuscripts for international publication, and aids students and educators in applying for international fellowships and residencies, the SEEDS education consultant endeavors to further advance the university’s ascendant rankings, prestige, and visibility.

This collaborative effort represents SEEDS’ investment in the people of Riau through educational development. For more information about the partnership, click here.