The Java Village Foundation

The Java Village Foundation supports women and children in desa Cisarua, Indonesia, helping them to break the circle of poverty and to build a brighter future for their community. We are a small scale foundation and base our help on the priorities of the people of Cisarua. An important condition for our help is that it stimulates independence and cooperation. Once a month our field worker in Indonesia visits all the projects. We work together with local experts and organisations/companies. Because we work only with volunteers, our help benefits the people directly. This is our focus:

· Youth and education;

· Micro-credits for women;

· Health and environment.

Seametry, a Dream School for Village Children in Cambodia: Muoy You Comes Full Circle

By: Gabrielle Yetter

Forty years ago, Muoy You’s pursuit of a quality education in France saved her life. Today, she wants to give the same educational opportunity to young Cambodians.

In 1972, she received a scholarship to study overseas. She never dreamed it would be 31 years before she returned home to Cambodia.

Unbeknownst to the enthusiastic young woman at the time, her education probably saved her life. The journey to France took place while tables were turning in her home country and, exactly two years and five months after her departure, the Khmer Rouge marched into Cambodia, evacuating thousands and tearing the country apart. From her apartment in Paris, Muoy watched it on TV, powerless to connect with the family she’d left behind and unable to return to her home.

After decades of searching, waiting and reuniting with lost family members, Muoy returned in 2003 and opened Seametrey Children’s Village in Phnom Penh as a way of giving back to the country which, she felt, now needed her help.

Cikananga Animal Rescue Center, Where Nature’s Orchestra Calls

By: Kafil Yamin

School students may have known Indonesia’s endemic cute animals such as the orangutan, the Javanese eagle, rhinos, from books or magazines, but have they really seen it? Most likely, only a handful of them have. Those who haven’t still seen them can still experience these seeing these beautiful animals, only if they are willing to travel some 150 kilometers from Jakarta to an isolated enclave in Sukabumi’s countryside of Cikananga.

Toward Indonesian Children’s Awareness for Diversity

By: Labodalih Sembiring

Indonesian children today face a greater challenge than ever. We do still have street children, children who cannot continue their education, and child labor. Lately, however, children are faced with another serious problem at their schools, namely the narrowing of spaces where children can develop their awareness for the diversity that makes up this nation.

The above statement was made by Nia Sjarifudin, the Secretary-General of Aliansi Nasional Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (ANBTI), or the National Alliance of Unity in Diversity, at a capacity building training for caretakers of 60 children’s communities all around Yogyakarta and Central Java on February 18-19, 2012. The event was held by SOS Children’s Villages Yogyakarta in Kaliurang, Yogyakarta, and its theme was “Toward the Self-Sufficiency of [Children’s] Communities.”

The Tileng Foundation

The Tileng Foundation’s mission is to improve living conditions in the villages Imogiri, Baturraden and, of course, Tileng on the island of Java in Indonesia. It achieves this by financing and supporting locally initiated projects.

The Tileng Foundation has been actively supporting projects in Indonesia since 2000. Through these projects, houses and schools have been built, scholarships provided and a prestigious cattle project has been set up.

Study Group Photography: The Story behind the Image

Study group Photography and New Media by Tino Djumini

Spotlight Media and Cemara 6 Art Gallery in Jakarta, in cooperation with Latitudes, organize a study group photography! In this study group  the basics and practice of photography and new media are presented to beginners and advanced photographers. The idea and concept behind the image and the engagement with the subject are the main areas of the courses. We start with a short history of photography and how the medium developed over the years, from the analogue camera, pinhole and photogram to the digital SLR that dominates today’s photography practices. The course encompasses a wide range of aspects emphasizing the importance of photography and its ability of changing the way people look at daily life reality.

The Meraih Bintang Foundation

In the West, going to school is one of the most natural things in a child's life, but in Indonesia this is not the case. Children are kept home for many reasons but mostly because their parent(s) or caretakers simply cannot pay for the necessary school uniforms, other school costs/materials and send the children to work so they can help out their family financially. The aim of Meraih Bintang is to take away all the reasons there are to stop a child from going to school. We want to offer children continuity in basic schooling from kindergarten to primary to higher secondary education.

Enlarging your teenager’s horizon? Try YEP!

By: Sita van Bemmelen

The world is getting smaller every day. This implies that parents may wish to equip their children with the social skills to take full advantage of global integration. Children of expatriate parents already have a relative advantage in this respect compared to others, as they are accustomed to adapt to different cultural environments since they were young. But how can parents create the opportunity for their children of having a similar experience, albeit for a more limited period of time?

The path chosen most often is sending kids abroad for a university education after their high school graduation or after they hold a bachelor’s degree. Abroad they usually stay on a university campus or in a private boarding house. There they meet many other students from the host- and other countries who share their own predicament of having to find their way. However, whether he or she will develop the social skills for international communication depends very much on his or her adaptability and inclination. Perhaps it is just too much for them and they stay within their comfort zone, communicating primarily with other young people from their home country who happen to be living in the same place.