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18 Jun 20

ars86care foundation COVID-19 Response Programs

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During the COVID-19 Pandemic, many if not all layers of the community have been highly affected by the impact it brings. Since mid of March, the Indonesian government encourages us to implement social distancing, physical distancing, and stay at home to curb the spread of the virus. Various aspects of life including the education system are also affected and adjusted. According to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, as many as 646,192 educational units experienced the effects of this pandemic situation, including 68,801,708 Students and 4,183,591 Educators. The Indonesian government sets policies on all educational units including early childhood education to carry out the learning process from home. These adjustments are required to create new health-related habits and have the equipment and capabilities that can support their long-distance communication. Children are also impacted by this pandemic situation, both who live in cities and rural areas.

 

Most people who economically suffered from this pandemic are those who come from a lower-income background which includes farmers, fishermen, factory workers, and online motorcycle services. These people had either lost their job or cannot find one which makes it hard for them to afford to pay for school tuition or even buying school supplies to cater their children need to learn from home. This transition demands teachers to be more innovative in approaching their school materials.

 

Ars86care foundation has taken the role of extending C19 response programs to help these communities within Central Java and Special Region of Yogyakarta – ars86care foundation school partners for early childhood education (Demak, Grobogan, and Boyolali Municipality in Central Java, as well as Gunungkidul Municipality in Special Region of Yogyakarta). Based on our survey, it was found that children really need basic school supplies such as pencils, erasers, and books to do school activities from home let alone an equipped online school from home system. The urgency was there, and it was our job to take care of these children and ensure they could still contribute towards learning even from home.

 

Ars86care foundation distributed The Learn From Home Kit Program to 1009 children in our four areas of work in Demak, Grobogan, Boyolali, and Gunungkidul Municipality on the 17th of May 2020. The kits consist of storybooks, activity books a creative learning tools, as well as backpacks and stationaries. This kit was successfully distributed with the support we have from our local partners and teachers who delivered these packages to each of the children under the safety regulation from Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB).

 

The children were incredibly happy seeing their teachers delivering these packages for them. “Thank you ars86care foundation, we can continue learning while staying at home.” Rere’s thank you note in his drawing paper. (Pembangunan Kindergarten's student in Grobogan Municipality). These Learn From Home Kits are expected to provide children with basic learning tools for them to stay productive at home, and also allows village teachers to have additional materials for them to teach from home.

 

Ars86care foundation also develops Creative Teaching Tools, which are Educational Teaching Aids from recycled materials and materials that are easily obtained around the house. Videos on how to make this Creative Teaching Tools are distributed free of charge for early childhood educators and parents of kindergarten children to stimulate children’s sensory, motoric, logic, literacy, in the form of games. Ars86care foundation encourages early childhood educators in 31 ars86care foundation's school partners to adopt creative learning tools from recycled materials as their other teaching methods. There are 47 educational learning tools’ videos on our youtube channel, “Yayasan Arsitek86 Peduli” which can be used by children as learning activities at home.

 

Our direct approach also answers the second majority need the school community has, which is a sanitary tool for people in the village to use, called Pojok Cuci Tangan (Washbasin Nook). This program encourages a clean and healthy lifestyle to the community, as the government instructed us to stay at home and frequently washing our hands to curb the spread of the virus. The program was conducted in two villages within ars86care foundation's area of work in Boyolali Municipality, those are Gubug and Gedangan Village. Three nooks had been placed in easily accessed locations, at the village center area and road intersection. These facilities hopefully can accommodate the communities' needs in implementing clean healthy habits. This washbasin nook installation equipped with two pedals to release water tap and open hand soap container, in order to minimize the hand-touch on tap. Three units of Pojok Cuci Tangan had been handed over to the Head of the Village, representing the people, on 18th of May 2020. In the long term, indirectly the community in village partners are encouraged to adopt the healthy hygienic lifestyle by building C-19 Respond Village/Community through this program.

 

Our movement has only begun, as the new normal is enforce by the Indonesian Government we are ensuring that these communities which lies under ars86care foundation partnership receive the necessary information to adapt as well as the necessary tools for teachers and students to have in order to maintain their right to a fair education.

18 Jun 2020