Anyone who has visited Indonesia will know that the country is plagued by a garbage problem. It is thrown into rivers, blocking drains and causing flooding. Single use plastic is burnt in neighbourhoods, filling the air with acrid smoke. Thousands of tons of kitchen waste, rotten fruit from wet markets and coconut husks are thrown into garbage containers where they are rapidly filling up the city dump.
Five years ago I started to teach an English Conversation class for children in a village in South Thailand during their summer holidays. A local friend invited me to teach her children and their friends from the community in her house. The children enjoyed coming as they didn’t have much else to do except playing with their friends. I used objects and pictures to teach them English words in an informal, playful way.
While a large percentage of the world’s youth have returned to school and social activities, schools in Thailand have remained online for the past two years. There are signs that change may be coming, however. Youth in underprivileged sections of the capital city are eagerly anticipating the opportunity to play football again soon. After two years of quiet and empty football fields, signs of life are starting to appear.
months have passed since one of our SEEDS worker had to abruptly leave South Sulawesi (Indonesia) where one of SEEDS’ partners, Hasanuddin University, is located. On his flight back to Indonesia at the beginning of December 2021, our SEEDS worker wondered how the project of developing a curriculum in Digital and Embedded System Design based on FPGA technology has evolved in his absence.
SEEDS partner Yayasan Tunas Aksara (YTA) has equipped 37 teachers from 20 schools in Timor, Eastern Indonesia, to teach reading effectively using its Saya Suka Membaca [I Love Reading] curriculum.
This partnership with the Indonesian Ministry of Education’s Program Organisasi Penggerak will see almost 1,000 children taught the foundations of literacy in a fun and engaging way.
One of the big challenges that SEEDS faces is to make a sustainable contribution. International development projects may seem fruitful and effective, but the real acid test is when the outside resources, both funding and personnel, stop flowing. At this point it becomes clear whether there has been genuine empowerment and lasting transformation, or not. Ensuring that development partners are self-funding is an important part of the development process. This is why a new café in West Sumatra is such an exciting venture.
The quiet and empty football fields across the capital city are a constant reminder of the pandemic’s ongoing impact on young people.
The government’s pandemic restrictions over the past months have closed all schools nationwide and canceled all youth sports activities.
It has been difficult for many people to see beyond obstacles to opportunities.
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.
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.
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.