Indonesia: “Dreams do come true!”

I just returned from visiting a slum school that has recently been renovated through the efforts of Family Care Indonesia. It is just down the alleyway from a home for street children, in a very, very poor part of Jakarta.

The alleyway leading back into this slum reveals scenes unknown and unbelievable to most westerners. The whole area could be described somewhere between a slum and floating swamp.

Last year when I saw the school, the walls consisted of rough boards nailed loosely on a framework, the sunlight shining through the cracks in the walls into the two “classrooms”, although it was quite a stretch to label them by this term.

This year I see a permanent brick building, with several classrooms, all with bright painted walls and ceiling fans, happy children in school uniforms, the school even boasting a state-of-the –art computer lab courtesy of HP.

These slum children now receiving an education, last year at this time were begging on the streets, one of the breadwinners of their impoverished families.

As the young, dedicated, energetic school supervisor (pictured above, on right), who has labored here for years, told us over tea: “Dreams do come true!”