‘Networked communities’ help kids return to school

This week millions of children across Indonesia are returning to school to start the first semester of the new school year. For the vast majority this is not remarkable.

For a very few, the chance to go to school is an opportunity that can change their lives and cannot be taken for granted.

Students of SMK 5 Padang state vocational high school, one of the best-regarded high schools in Padang, have for the last two years been attending classes in a makeshift tent after their school was destroyed by the earthquake that devastated West Sumatra in September 2009.

The school has now been rebuilt from the ground up and reopened in time for the new school semester thanks to a multiparty public-private initiative involving local administrations, private companies and NGOs.

The devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake claimed more than 1,000 lives and destroyed more than 300,000 buildings, including homes, schools, hospitals, hotels and shopping malls. Following the earthquake, millions of dollars from domestic and international sources were pledged to help West Sumatra recover.

The Padang municipal and the West Sumatra provincial administrations are to be commended for the importance they have given to education and the urgency that they have placed on rebuilding schools.

If you visit Padang today, as I did recently to witness the handover of SMK 5 Negeri Padang, you will be struck by the sheer number of new, gleaming schools, from the primary through to high school level, that shine like a beacon amidst the rubble and reconstruction work.

The management of the many recovery projects involving corporate partners, NGOs, international aid agencies and the local community has helped return some normalcy to the area.

Focusing on providing sound learning facilities is not only critical to the children’s post-earthquake recovery; it is also instrumental to the long-term recovery and sustainability of the local community.

Also interesting is the opportunity that private-public partnerships have to deliver more than just return a return to the status quo. There is a chance to rethink how things could be.

Take SMK 5 Negeri for instance. As well as serving as a modern, well-equipped school, the building has also been designed to serve as a shelter for the local community in the event of earthquakes or tsunamis. The project did not stop there. Based on an assessment, it was realized that there was an opportunity to address social issues that stem from poverty.

The benefits of the new school were made to extend beyond students.

As part of the project, Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (YCAB) will provide English and computer courses for students, as well as for underprivileged children and those who have dropped out of the education system.

YCAB’s learning centers, known as Study Houses, are open to street kids and underprivileged youth who have dropped out of school who want to continue their education and to gain IT and English proficiency skills as well as vocational skills from reputable institutions. All this is done in hope to prepare them for the job market.

Every year more than one million kids drop out of school in Indonesia creating a generation of lost youth with little hope for the future.

We believe that by investing in the education of these kids, we are breaking the poverty cycle and investing in the future of our nation.

The kind of “networked” thinking exhibited in partnerships like the SMK 5 Negeri Padang project creates added value above and beyond the nominal sum of a charitable contribution or commitment.

“Networking” in this sense is a complete system of lines that cross a social issue. It is a connection between donors and volunteers, local governments and international agencies, individual experts and international networks, schools, communities, businesses, religious centers, working together for a common cause.

Identification of the stakeholders and getting them involved in the network and finding the right leverage or “crossing lines” are crucial for the long-term development and scaling-up of sustainable community development programs.

There is much to do in places like Padang and the many other communities across Indonesia devastated by natural disasters and afflicted by ongoing poverty. For example, two years after the earthquake, around a third of the schools affected by the earthquake are still closed and in need of rebuilding.

Indonesia is still learning how to put its best foot forward in order to relieve the extreme poverty faced by a large percentage of its rural population — a problem compounded by the multiple natural disasters we have experienced in recent years.

However, by creating networks to solve social issues at the local level and tackling the root causes of poverty, we can achieve more than we all thought possible.

One day going back to school will be an expectation, not just a hope, for all our children.

The writer is founder and CEO of Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa and an Asia Society’s 21 Young Leaders fellow (2007).