Sponsorship
A sewage swamp
On the coast near Jakarta a project for children has been established at a fishing village called Maura Angke. Maura means ‘a river mouth’ while Angke is a ‘decomposing corpse.’
This name typifies a region where an overwhelming stench often makes breathing unbearable.
It is a swampy area at the river’s mouth, which carries waste from the city of Jakarta.
It is here where, because of a slow flow, sewage collects creating the stagnating swamp where the sewage of the city collects.
The polluted black water combines with the stench of rotting fish to attract millions of disease bearing mosquitoes and flies. This not only causes a foul odour but is also a serious health hazard.
In addition the swamp serves as a toilet for those living nearby. When flooding occurs, as it did recently due to the tsunami, the seawater rose high enough to floood the entire area thus increasing the stench and risk of diseasae.
Because it is not considered part of the ‘disaster area’ it was not earmarked for any aid.
How this affects the children
The people here live mainly off fish and shellfish, which is also dried, salted and sold.
Their shantys have been built on any dry area of the swamp often consisting of but a single room, 3x4 m., for a family of 5-6 persons.
Many live on boats or rafts. Although the children are keen to go to school, most cannot because of poverty. Of necessity they are drafted into the arduous work of processing fish.
Therefore the lot of the children is a tragic one. Although little is said about it as the problem is so widespread and a sensitive issue.
Under Islamic law child marriage is permitted and girls are often married off at a very young age because of the dowry their parents receive.
A young girl who marries can help her parents get out of their poverty stricken situation.
Often an older groom takes such a girl as his ‘bride’ and then proceeds to sell her in Singapore from where she will end up in a market place in South-East Asia or the Middle East.
There are some nuns in Singapore, who have taken pity on these girls, trying to change their fate. However the children usually finish up as prostitutes or household servants. Boys too are sold in these ‘slave markets’.
From Singapore the children, including those from Indoneasia, frequently finish up in Lebanon in the Middle East. Once a child is ‘sold’ it cannot be helped.
Therefore we attempt to send as many children to school as possible because a child who is educated stands a good chance of having other opportunities and not being so readily sold off.
Against a background such as this, it is abundantly clear that children must be given an opportunity to go to school.