Yessy (age 12) never imagine that her school will be demolished and rebuilt. She has been studying in Madrasaah Ibtidaiyah (or Elementary Religious School) Darul Falah, Sumberwono Villlage, Mojokerto for six consecutive years and she is currently in 6th grade. Her school is just a next door of her house. Yessy and the other one hundred three students in the school are lucky because they do not need to pay any tuition fee. The government has given a financial support to run monthly operation of the school, but unfortunately there is no support for any development or renovation of the school. When she played together with some of her friends who study in public school in the village, her friends often tease her because of poor condition of her school. She expressed her previous school situation and said “I admit that my school condition is very poor. The situation is dirty, class window frame is flawed and eaten by the termites and the roof almost fall down. In the rainy season, our class bench will be wet because the roof can’t completely prevent the water to fall into our class. I’m embarrased but I could not do anything to change the situation.”
Yessy’s description is acceded by the headmaster of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) Darul Falah, Nurul Huda. “The window and door frames were broken, some of the ceilings were fallen off. Thank God it was fallen of during night time, otherwise our students would be injured. We were about to renovate the school as a response of affecting condition. However the plan is postponed due to weak building structure. It is useless to merely renovate this school because the building was established in 1965 and never been renovated. The only solution is rebuilding the school and at that time, we don’t have enough support to implement it”, he said.
Yessy’s picture about her school however will not persist anymore. Since 9 October 2008, HFH Indonesia-Surabaya Affiliate have commenced the rebuilding of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Darul Falah. The rebuilding project will take four months to completely finish. The villagers in Sumberwono supported a partnership between Monsanto Fund and HFH Indonesia to rebuild the school. It was proved by the number of people who gave a help when the project started. “In four days time, about eighty people from our community gave a hand together to demolish the building, clear the land, and transfer the materials and equipment of the schools. They are very enthusiastic about this project and therefore, they are wiling to give a help although their children do not study in this school”, said Abdul Rohim, Chief of Sumberwono Village.
Before the project started, HFH Indonesia Surabaya Affiliate had clearly defined the project to the community. “HFH Indonesia gave an explanation to us. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the District, school committees and other village leaders. Agung as the manager of Surabaya Affiliate told us about the achievement of HFH Indonesia in East Java provinces. He also gave details about the process of the project and requested the community to volunteer and lend a hand to make this project succesful” explained Abdul Rohim.
Along with her 19 classmates, Yessy is very enthusiastic to see her new school building. “I hope my school will finish soon and we can move immediately to our new building. I’m confident that my friends wouldn’t tease me anymore if they see my new school” exclaimed Yessy in beaming face. Nurul Huda as Yessy’s headmaster has same opinion with his student. “After the school rebuilding is finished, we hope next year more students will be interested to come to this school and not only that, we have planned to use this building in the afternoon for Madrasah Aliyah (or Senior High Religious School) students” he said. (cs)
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| Yessy, (far left) with her friends waiting for a new school building to finish |
The progress of the school project at the end of October |
