Tuesday 27^th Oct 09, 9.30am:

We went to visit the Yabim school in Jakarta which was established to provide free education to those children who could not afford to attend school, many of them ‘street kids’ who would go out everyday and sell various items on the streets of Jakarta as their families could not make ends meet.

Incredibly, this school had in excess of 1,100 students and only 12 classes which makes around 90-100 students per class. All the classrooms had been built by hand, many by the parents of the students.

Land was either donated to the school or they would fundraise for it. When we visited, they were trying to fundraise to purchase a plot of land to build a masjid upon, as the existing masjid next to them was to be demolished by the government to facilitate the extension of a bus station.

 Another amazing aspect was that all the teachers were graduates of universities and were teaching on a purely voluntary basis until they could find themselves permanent jobs elsewhere.

 

 Next I was shown a room which was basically a rubbish tip. In one corner there were piles of plastic bottles with flies flying around them, in another corner, plastic bags and like that, the whole room contained rubbish. I was informed by the head teacher that students would collect these items on the way to school in the morning and they would accumulate these then sell on to recycling companies so that the school could make a small profit for themselves and meet running costs.

 I can’t stress enough how vital this school was to the community. This school was providing free education, both Islamic and Secular to students who otherwise would be on the streets. Alhamdulillah, Ummah Welfare Trust was contributing to the school’s running costs on a regular basis along with another private donor from Indonesia.

 

Tuesday 27th Oct 09, 2.00pm:

I went back to the Al-Imdaad office after salaah and thanked the brothers for their hospitality. Brother Undang then dropped me off at the airport for my long flight back to London.

 

 

Monday 26^th oct 09, 2.30am:

Iqbal Rawat left Jakarta for field work in Burma

Monday 26th Oct 09, 8am:

I travelled with the Al-Imdaad brothers to Cipanas where UWT were carrying out an old people and widow sponsorship project.

 

I learnt directly from the beneficiaries themselves, just how important this monthly payment was to them. We had a file containing details of all the beneficiaries. We asked one of the locals to gather all the beneficiaries in the small community musalla which was mashaa-Allah, donated to them by one of the Al-Imdaad brothers in Indonesia, Riza.

While we were waiting for the brothers and sisters to gather, I took the opportunity to visit two homes.

The first was the home of a small, frail man who had the responsibility of supporting his family of 6. I could see from his deteriorated body that he had lived a life of hard and exhausting labour. He told me he would do odd jobs, often difficult and back-breaking and on a good day of receiving 6 hours of work, he would earn £1. That’s not a typing mistake, just one pound! SubhaanAllah. The monthly payment from Ummah Welfare Trust was alhamdulillah, supporting himself and his family.

Next I visited the home of another of our beneficiaries as I heard the brother and sister had given birth to a new baby boy. I thought I would visit the new baby, congratulate the parents and personally gift them with their monthly payment from UWT.

They named him Muhammad Ramadaani as he was born in the month of Ramadan.

We then distributed payments to the rest of the beneficiaries who all had to acknowledge they received payment by finger-printing as none of them could write. We also received news that one of our beneficiaries had passed away.

 

Monday 26th Oct, 2pm:

We then travelled back to Jakarta

Sunday 25^th oct 09, 8am:

We visited the Al-Amin madrasah and school project where 400 male and female students were currently studying. The whole compound and project greatly impressed us. It contained a large beautiful masjid, many classrooms, separate boarding and education facilities for male and female students, a science lab, an I.T room, medical room, washing and bathing rooms, teachers boarding facilities, a room housing a water purifying machine which converted the local river water into pure drinking water for the whole area, textiles education class rooms which contained state of the art embroidery and sewing machines which enabled poor students to make a living by producing clothes that they could then sell on for a profit to benefit themselves and their families. Overall, mashaa-Allah, a great project.

Ummah Welfare Trust have constructed a new block which will serve the female students of this school. 7 classrooms have already been built and we pray that UWT’s donors will take part in this project by donating towards further classrooms/facilities. The management informed us that they will commemorate any donor who donates the cost of constructing one classroom by displaying a plaque in their name.

 

Sunday 25th Oct, 10am:

We next visited the West Java earthquake zone where locals told us that due to the West Sumatra earthquake, many NGO’s and the government had forgotten about their situation.

 

Sunday 25th Oct 09, 4pm:

We travelled back to the capital, Jakarta. Another long journey by road.