Orphans, elderly rely on public generosity

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 10/10/2007 3:57 PM | Jakarta

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The recently passed bylaw banning charity to beggars apparently does not prevent people from caring for the needy.

""There are plenty of other ways to donate to the poor,"" said A. Manap, one of the five founders of 29-year-old Yayasan Yakin (which stands for Foundation for the Orphans and Poor) in South Jakarta.

""People can directly donate to charity institutions, as well as to places of worship,"" the 68-year-old man told The Jakarta Post at a break-the-fast event sponsored by food packager Tetrapark at a foundation orphanage on Jl. Ketapang, Jatipadang Utara, Pasar Minggu, last week.

The foundation is currently helping some 75 children and 50 elderly persons and two university students.

For the school-aged children, full school tuition is paid as is 50 percent of the cost of uniforms and books. The elderly receive rice, sugar, cooking oil, tea, flour and soap on a weekly basis.

According to Manap, the support recipients were selected from poor families who don't have relatives that can support them. All of them, he added, must be approved by neighborhood, community, and subdistrict administrations.

""We are selective and only assist those with clear identity and family background. We do not just choose any child on the street or beggar,"" Manap said.

Street beggars are a well-known phenomena in the city, many of them coming from outside Jakarta to make a living under the supervision of so-called coordinators.

Daily caretaker at the foundation since 1994, Dede Wahdiat, 47, expressed his concern about the escalating number of street beggars, especially during Ramadhan. ""They are disgracing the image of Islam. They make a business of begging. They manipulate other people's misery.""

Dede also acknowledged that false charities were a business. ""So, some people are reluctant to donate to real charities like ours.""

Some 45 percent of the donations received by the foundation are from individuals who have visited the orphanage.

Yayasan Sayap Ibu, a foundation established in 1955, provides orphanage and rehabilitation for disabled children who are abandoned by their families.

Trusti Moelyono, with the organization for 21 years, says donations do not always need to be cash. ""We usually show to potential donors the list of the things our children need. It ranges from rice and milk to diapers.""

""This way, we can avoid getting donations that can not be used by these special-needs children,"" the 63-year-old woman said.

Yayasan Sayap, which employs 15 nurses, receives 60 percent of its donations in the form of supplies.

Currently the foundation cares for more than 100 children in its three orphan houses in Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Banten.

The Banten-based orphanage is for children with mental or physical handicaps such as hydrocephalus (water on the brain, which causes the brain to swell with fluid) and cerebral palsy (brain damage due to oxygen deprivation, infection and physical trauma, during or after pregnancy).

There are currently 14 disabled children between two and 14 years old in the Banten orphanage, a rented house on a 250-square-meter plot on Jl. Cut Nyak Dien, Bintaro Jaya, Tangerang.

The orphanage also assists more than 40 disabled children of poor families. Each child receives Rp 2.5 million to Rp 4 million a month depending on his or her health condition.

When asked whether the foundation is entirely supported by public donations, Trusti said, ""Yes. It is all covered by funding from society.

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