Languages
To promote and create high quality child friendly living spaces in order to achieve better quality of life for children as the future generation and build public awareness on the importance of child friendly living space
To develop guidelines and set implementation studies on delivering child friendly living space. To help, assist and work with communities in creating a child friendly living space
It all started back in the year of 2004, when a devastating tsunami struck the northern parts of Indonesia, particularly in the Aceh Province. A disaster of this proportion has inspired us, a group of five women architects plus*, who found a strong bond during their university years, to help the victims. Everybody was overwhelmed by the scale of this calamity. As mothers ourselves, it was heartbreaking to imagine the helpless children who were trying to cope with the unprecedented phenomenon.
With limited resources, we did our level best to gain donations for the children of Aceh. We started with simple contributions, which were in the form of activity kits. The intentions were to help them cope with the aftermath and to prevent them from suffering severe psychological trauma. Our donations were obviously ‘tiny’ compared to the enormous support from all over the world. However, it was an important starting point for us to become more serious in giving back to our country, especially to the children of Indonesia.
In 2005, we decided to form ‘ars86care’, which aims to promote and raise awareness of the quality environment as well as to focus on encouraging children to be the agents of change as they are the future generation of the country. In 2007, ars86care foundation was legally established as a non-profit organization with the majority of the members being alumni of Architecture Faculty of Parahyangan University badge 1986.
The year of 2012 was our milestone to establish a more professional management team and partnering with international corporation. More volunteers with different backgrounds join our team with their specialty expertise. Recognition from local, regional, national, and international institutions had built our confidence to move forward with our three programs Space-to-Build, Words-to-Share, and Value-to-Do to create a positive impact at our targeted areas.
Fourteen years after our first initiation, ars86care foundation became proactive in promoting children rights and creating children spaces in Central Java and Special Region of Yogyakarta. Thirty-five kindergartens had been built in Demak, Grobogan, Gunungkidul and Boyolali Municipality, five tittles of Children Picture Books had been published and distributed to elementary school and community libraries throughout Indonesia, twenty eight libraries had been established in Bandung city, Demak, and Grobogan Municipality, more than 1,000 volunteers had been involved in our program, and estimated 500,550 children age 4-12 had become our beneficiaries.
*Five women architects plus, including: Ria A Sitohang, Dessi Rajino, Harini Septiana, Ken SA Wilson, Marini Widowati, accompanied by Victor R Situmorang
