STEM education aims to use interdisciplinary studies to solve real-world problems through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The ministry of education in Thailand is campaigning for STEM education to increase students’ competitiveness in these fields because of the demand for STEM-related jobs (www.stemedthailand.org).

This year SEEDS members in Thailand began a number of STEM clubs in low-income and underprivileged segments of the city as a means to inspire youth from these backgrounds toward STEM career opportunities. A STEM Club is a great way for students to have fun with STEM subjects. Students learn by exploring, investigating, and asking questions related to an interesting topic or problem. A STEM Club is a fulfilling and exciting opportunity for youth who are overlooked by the national STEM education system.

One project involved building computers for the club to use. They learned about how a computer works and how to handle sensitive electronics. The students explored desktop PC components, discovering what they are and how they’re used. Finally, the participants had the opportunity to build a working computer. These computers will now be used by the clubs in subsequent STEM projects.

The participants of the club are gaining confidence, teamwork skills, and opportunities they would not have otherwise.   It also increases their motivation to study the STEM subjects in school with more intentionality and enthusiasm. These outcomes will in turn contribute to wider benefits for them and their families, in line with SEEDS objectives.

To find out more about SEEDS work in Bangkok see this post.

A team of workers from Indonesian charity Yayasan Pendar Pagi partner with SEEDs members to run a community centre in one of the most densely populated areas of Jakarta. Regular programs include various educational and recreational activities for children, a savings group for people living informally by the railway, and a medical advice service.

Recently the team held a highly successful community day, drawing in a wider group of people than the regular programs currently reach. There was a cooking competition for the men, watched by a whole crowd enthusiastically waiting for the judges to give their verdict on which ‘nasi goreng’ (fried rice) was the best. There was both a quiz and a colouring competition for the children, an information-sharing session for pregnant women, and a community rubbish pick-up specifically involving the children who attend the centre’s programs.

One team member made a wonderful display showcasing the charities’ spheres of activity, and overall aims. An additional highlight was the involvement of a group of new volunteers who have shown interest in the charity over the last few months. The team has put some thought into how to develop a good volunteer program, and some initial training to a specific group has already been given. Some of these volunteers will now become regular contributors to the programs running in the community centre.

This community day reflected SEEDS’ desire to work for change and to inspire others to work for change in the poor communities where we work across South East Asia. An overview of SEEDS’ work with Yayasan Pendar Pagi in Jakarta is available at https://seedssg.com/work/community-dev/urban-poor/

SEEDs partner charity Yayasan Pendar Pagi (YPP) works to support street children in Pekanbaru, Indonesia. One of these children is Robin. He is 10 years old and comes from a family of 12 children. His mother has been married twice but both husbands have left her and the children so they moved to Pekanbaru in 2013 from the neighbouring province of West Sumatra to find work. Even in the city Robin’s mother has found it impossible to fully provide for all her children alone. This desperate situation forced the children onto the streets to beg.

Yayasan Pendar Pagi provides basic lessons to street children in Pekanbaru twice a week, and Robin started to join these lessons shortly after arriving in 2013. He was able to learn reading, writing and counting. As one of the YPP social workers supported the family they were able to make the commitment for Robin to attend school. Our social worker met with one of the local schools to help get Robin enrolled, and the principal agreed to accept him on trial in July 2015. Unfortunately Robin struggled with his behaviour and became angry very easily, sometimes hitting other children when bothered by them. The Principal called the social worker and gave Robin a warning that he could be expelled from the school. With support however the situation improved considerably, and Robin worked hard at school. He recently did really well in his end of semester exams, obtaining 100% for counting and memorising of the alphabet.

Projects like these working personally at the grass roots with some of the poorest children, supporting them within their family context over a long period can make a huge difference in their educational outcomes, leading to possibilities of finding secure work when they graduate from school, and whole families moving out of poverty. SEEDs partnership with this local charity aims to help individual families experience these changes for themselves.

Local SEEDS representatives were recently invited by the Islamic State University Sultan Syarif Kasim II (UIN-SUSKA) in Pekanbaru to attend a formal event for the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the two parties. This new strategic partnership comes with the placement of a SEEDS member in the Faculty of Psychology as part of a new program to support the improvement of Academic English at the university.

Speeches were given to clarify the purpose of this partnership.  SEEDS members explained the role that strategic partnerships such as this play in achieving SEEDS’ vision for the alleviation of poverty in Southeast Asia.  Despite the somewhat formal setting of the signing ceremony, there were plenty of smiles once the documents were finalized and photos were taken together.

A week later, the official opening for the “English for Academic Advancement Program” was held at UIN-SUSKA’s Faculty of Psychology facilities, with SEEDS’ representatives, faculty dean and lecturers, students, and other faculty representatives in attendance.  The dean expressed how this English program was an important step towards achieving what he termed an “international Psychology class”, where students from abroad could come and study at their faculty in English, obtaining a Psychology degree that would be acknowledged on the world stage.

For more information please read here.

For several months Riau has been covered by haze caused by forest fires on Sumatra (especially from the Southern provinces), with little rain and challenges to extinguish the fires. The level of pollution has reached hazardous levels, with resulting health effects such as breathing problems, coughing, blocked noses and irritated eyes. Schools have been closed for over a month now. Children need to stay at home and are advised not to play outside.

In a village about 40 minutes from Pekanbaru the effects of the smoke are visible. People stay inside as much as possible, but even in their houses there is not much protection against the smoke. They still need to work at their farms and mine the gravel from the river. All this work is done in the smoke. There are a lot of people in the village who are affected by the smoke. They feel short of breath, have blocked noses and irritated eyes.

As SEEDS-workers go into the village they explain the importance of wearing a mask when outside, and they also bring free medicine to relieve breathing problems or to help with irritated eyes. At several points in the city free masks are being handed out and SEEDS-workers bring free masks to the village. They are advised to close doors and windows as much as possible to prevent smoke coming into their houses. They are also advised not to burn their rubbish as it will add to the smoke.

The day of graduation at one of Indonesia’s major universities draws near. Electrical engineering students who have been lectured and supported by a SEEDs professional look forward with expectation for the future. Graduation is an event that is joyfully celebrated with family and friends.

Whereas in many industrial countries there are many open job opportunities, here in Indonesia it is still difficult to find employment in the field of integrated chip (IC) design. Graduates end up in jobs that are not related to their academic qualification (see Training in New Technologies that Brighten the Future).

Recognising this challenge, this SEEDs member worked with one of the graduates of the masters program to survey the availability of low-cost hardware. They found that most of the hardware was expensive due to import costs or not cutting-edge technology.

What if the hardware was produced, marketed and even packaged with training by local engineers themselves? A cost analysis was made about components that are available or could be produced locally and about those that still needed to be imported. It would be difficult to compete with foreign manufacturers but promoting the products with available service and training could be a convincing selling factor and actually meet the needs in industry and academic institutions to further get acquainted with IC technology.

A business like this could also help to create more jobs for electrical engineers with skills in IC design, supporting the local and national economy, in line with SEEDs’ vision to support young leaders to find solutions to the challenges they face in order to benefit their communities and country.

SEEDs workers

SEEDs workers partnering with local charity Yayasan Pendar Pagi in Riau, Sumatra identify families that are unable to find regular work due to poor health, age, or other limiting factors with the intention of empowering these families with the means to supplement their income with home-raised chickens.

One such family is that of Mrs Bini, whose husband died several months ago. As a widow raising four children and supporting her aging parents she is in need of additional income.   SEEDs workers joined with local village leaders to identify this family and together construct a sturdy chicken coop capable of housing 20+ chickens. Mrs Bini and her family received one rooster and two hens as an initial step towards their families’ success in raising chickens.

Mrs Bini’s whole extended family network is quite poor, but it was encouraging to see that another family member who had a friend at a local saw-mill saw Mrs. Bini’s chicken coop and constructed his own using scraps that the saw mill was planning on throwing out. Now Mrs. Bini’s extended family also has the hope to be able to sell chickens at the local market.

SEEDS workers in Jakarta work with local charity Yayasan Pendar Pagi (YPP) to run a reading garden by a busy inner-city railway line, teaching children who are not in school how to read. Two of the children who attend the program are Lisa and Wulan. Lisa (7) lives in a shack by the railway with her parents, who earn a living by singing for money on public transport around the city. Wulan’s (8) father is a rubbish collector, making a living by selling used plastic for recycling.

When they started attending the reading garden two years ago they couldn’t read at all. First they learnt to recognise shapes and patterns, and to hold a pencil and colour in shapes and draw, to listen to stories and to make sense of a series of pictures. Next they learnt some letters, and started to combine them to read simple words, and short stories relevant to their daily lives. Even after a year, reading was still a slow and difficult process for them. But their hard work has paid off and now they can read fluently and write pretty well. More excitingly, they’ve started school, and recently were proud to report that their teacher had said they were the “cleverest readers” in the class.

Now that these girls can read, the challenge is to help them to continue to progress to become fast, expert readers, and also to support them in other areas, such as with maths. Their success is infectious: one mother has commented how she wishes she’d made her child attend regularly from the outset, and another has hinted that she might like to learn to read herself, with a group of other mums.

“Sorry, I’m shy to speak English, I’m afraid to make a mistake…”

This is something Yayasan Pendar Pagi (YPP) staff at the English Resource Center in Pekanbaru, Indonesia hear on a regular basis from students who are attending for the first time. Many of our students who have gained confidence and fluency in speaking within the months or years of attending the Center can well remember feeling exactly the same.

SEEDS professionals working with YPP at the English Resource Centre recognised the particular challenges faced by newcomers to the Centre, and now weekly ‘beginner’s level discussion groups’ have been started. Each is led by four student volunteers who receive some initial training.

This program has proven very popular and helpful both for beginners and those leading the groups. New students find it easier to get settled into the English Center community. They get to know the other students in a fun and relaxed setting and practise their English in a less threatening way. On the other hand the student volunteers are building up their confidence to speak in front of a group, learn to prepare appropriate activities and develop their leadership skills.

With excitement and fear Mansur’s family waved goodbye as they watched their son leave to go to Jakarta to fit a functional prosthesis. Two years ago he lost his right arm in a work accident mining gravel from the riverbed, and since that time has struggled to find productive work in his village where most men rely on manual labour for an income. SEEDS was able to help him obtain a cosmetic prosthesis soon after the amputation, but he has still been ostracised in his community through only having a functional left hand in a culture where all interactions happen with the right.

SEEDS workers who had journeyed with Mansur partnered with Jakarta School of Prosthetics and Orthotics and the graduate students from the academy to craft a functional prosthetic. An assistant who spoke Mansur’s dialect provided support throughout the process and accompanied him to Jakarta where he was personally fitted with and taught how to use a functional prosthesis. He grew in confidence as he worked with the makers to fashion the hand to meet his needs.

The day came for Mansur to return to his small village, and his family traveled early to make sure they were there to greet their son as he returned with his new arm. With fresh enthusiasm in his voice Mansur told of his experiences in the capital city and showed them how he was able to use this new hand. Now Mansur is much more talkative in the village and is again interacting with his right hand that he can hold out to greet people. He looks forward to the new job opportunities available now that he has two hands that he can use and hopes to realise his dreams to own a motorcycle!

SEEDS workers continue to build on a track record of high quality health advice and support in this rural area of Sumatra, working with local services to support, enhance and complement existing provision.