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08 Mar 15

Kebon Agung Kindergarten, ars86care foundation Fourth School in 2014

English

Grobogan March 7, It’s Faris, an eight year old boy, first time volunteering at Kebonagung Kindergarten located at Kebonagung village, Grobogan municipality. His travelling of one hour flight from the city of Jakarta to Semarang city in central Java plus another hour and a half drive from the hotel in Semarang to Kebonagung Kindergarten, funded by Tanoto Foundation and Kids’ Best Friend, had brought him to meet with twenty one children from Kebonagung village. In a one day volunteering event trip to the kindergarten, renovated by ars86care foundation, Faris and his friend who live in the city got to know and make friends with the village children, while creating art and craft, singing, and dancing together.     

The morning session was filled with colors since the children created place mats from used banner materials and fingerpainted them with bright acrylic paint. They drew fishes, peacocks, even flowers, anything their heart desires. This place mat will be used for the school’s feeding day once a month. Still using hand as media to create artworks, the children handprinted their front wall with blue, green, red, and yellow, followed by the volunteers and the teachers handprints.  Before lunch time, the children, with smiling faces, went back home with goody bags containing an activity book and crayons, pencils and a pencil box, cookies and juice, completed with a boxed lunch, prepared by Faris and friends the day before at the hotel. Volunteers got a chance to have special local food in a bamboo weaved box, which were later being collected to store crayons and stuff for the children’s educative materials.

Outdoor activities took turn after lunch. Still working with colors, this time was the slide, the balance beam, the hopping tyres, and the swing’s turn to be painted. Not long after, the playground became colorful and ready to be played by the kindergarteners. Planting trees and creating vegetables and herbs nook were the volunteers goals next. With seeds supplied from local community, volunteers planted tumeric, ginger, local mint, lemongrass and many more. Three wooden trees were planted in the playground and in front of the school, in hope to give shades several months after, to create comfort and a cool temperature for children when playing.      

After all the work had been finished, when the sun was still shining, volunteers got a chance to enjoy a short walk to the village to see the villagers houses, paddy fields, and natural sceneries. Some kindergarten children accompanied the volunteers to stroll through pedestrian paths in their village. A glimpse of the villagers’ daily life had already been captured by this young Jakartan’s elementary student and his volunteer fellows, before going back to the hotel in the evening. “The time flies so fast,” said Faris, “it feels like a dream, and when we wake up we should fly back home.” Bit by bit, a seed of empathy had grown in the heart of the young volunteers. It was a moment of reminding the importance of giving back to our community, especially to the underprivileged children who live not too far away from us [MW].

 

Ars86care foundation started with a group of Indonesian architects who were concerned about the environment and wanted to improve environment quality as legacy for their children. Ars86care is a registered foundation for children, the environment, and education, with three main programs, including Space to Build, Words to Share, and Value to Do. The mission of ars86care foundation is to promote and to create high quality, child-friendly living spaces in order to achieve a better quality of life for the children, who are the future of Indonesia. The group has worked with over 1,000 volunteers sinceit’s establishment in 2007.

08 Mar 2015