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SA's History

A long journey with a spirit of friendship

Year 1997. Street Children Jamboree (SCJ)was held for the first time, coordinated by Beny Lumy. The committee was consisted of young volunteers from various university located in Jabodetabek such as UI, ISTN, and UKI, with 200 children participating. They came from various area in Jakarta like Blok M, Kota, Cililitan, Pedongkelan and Cikini. This very first SCJ was held at Cibubur Camping Ground took a very simple theme that was to commemorate National Children Day on July 23 by bridging street children with those who care for them.

Year 1998. Second SCJ was held again at Cibubur Camping Ground under David Panjaitan’s coordination. Total number of children and chaperones (kakak) were about the same as the year before. SCJ follow up was to start a House for the children in Kebun Sirih office area, Jakarta.

Year 1999. SCJ was again held with more variety under Alles Saragih coordination. The follow up project from this year’s SCJ was called SA Car. This project’s concept was visitation to street children area and to provide tutoring, mobile library, nutritious food, and free medications.

Year 2000. SCJ took ‘I’m precious’ as its theme. Led by Lina Tjindra participants started to increase up to 300 children. The follow up project was to start regular tutoring (bimbel) for the children at Prumpung, East Jakarta.

Year 2001. At the beginning of this year, the format team was formed. They were Beny, Lina, Alles, Lanny, Lucy, Fabio, Ino, Ian and Maxeca. These 9 young guys took commitment to unite for 5 years in SCJ committee and formed continuous themes until year 2005 and will facilitate committee formation and follow up team after SCJ. In July, the 5th SCJ held with ‘I CAN MAKE SOMETHING’ as its theme. This SCJ was coordinated by Lucy Siahaan. The after SCJ follow up project was to start tutoring in Grogol area led by Frisca Hutagalung.

Year 2002. Carlo Sitompul led this SCJ with theme “Me, Art and Sport”. Place and participants were about the same as the previous year. The follow up was the born of Manggarai Tutorial.

Year 2003. Taking “Me and my environment” as theme, this SCJ was coordinated by Nikolaus Widjaja and was held no longer at Cibubur Camping Ground but Ragunan Camping Ground. The concept was about the environment and committee invited participants to visit Ragunan Zoo. By this time total of participant has exceeded 300 children with almost 200 kakak. This year after SCJ project was the born of Cijantung Tutorial.

Year 2004. “Me and IT” was the theme. This time SCJ was led by Lanny Manullang. The location was back to Cibubur with a totally different concept. According to the theme, the activities were filled with scientific experiments and competitions which turned out to be pretty interesting to the children. This year’s follow up has no new tutorial, but to maintain existing tutorial which needs more volunteers. The year 2004 was the end of the Format-team job, therefore on Jan 2005 they declared themselves dissolve.

Year 2005. In the beginning of 2005, the Format-team held an evaluation meeting at Lucky’s residence for 2 days. The result of the meeting showed that the progress achieved by that time can no longer be handled optimally by the Format-team. Therefore restructure was needed and a new team was formed called Outreach Division, a team with more clear structure led by Imanuel Nanulaitta (Ian). After a few months, exactly on March 2005, Outreach Division change its name to Sahabat Anak (SA) Division, a name which taught to be more precise and down to earth. But Ian resigned in May to finish his study and was replaced by Alles Saragi. After this restructure, a rapid progress of SA was easily seen. Financial SOP was applied, an SA website was launched, annual meeting was held, have fulltime staffs, have an SA bank account, regular fund raising, another new tutorial (Senen Tutorial), managed to have partnerships, etc. The year 2005 was also the end of the 5 year agenda made by the Format-team. This year’s SCJ was coordinated by Jhonly Singal taking “Let’s Learn” as its theme in order to motivate street children to keep on studying despite their conditions. This SCJ was quite memorable because it was held outside of Jakarta for the very first time at Kinasih Camping Ground. The number of street children participating reached 350 children. They are all from the tutorial area under SA. New tutorial, Gambir was born after being visited several times by fellow volunteers. In this very year as well, a non-formal school called Child’s Centre (PKA) was started as a solution for those drop out teenagers who cant no longer be handled optimally at Tutorials.

Year 2006.  SA started that year by regenerating board of members led by Beny Lumy to a clearer direction especially for the next 5 years ahead (until 2011). SA has 2007-2011 strategic planning and started to be a legal foundation. Principals and visions were even firmed. Child’s centre could go on with its concept. Capacity Building’s program felt much more needed by fellow volunteers. Fund raising-team has been more and more aggressive in campaigning SA’s service and in getting more public support. Financial system has got neater, SA’s liaison with Tutoring Area has been made clearer. SA got partnership, SA’s movement was getting wide and its programs were getting reasonably applicable and SA Olympic as arena to demonstrate achievements was held by the end of the year. This year, instead of calling it Street Children Jamboree, SA gave a new one called SA Jamboree (SAJ) coordinated by Elia Nenoharan, and this name will continue to be used until year 2011, and will keep on taking children’s rights as theme.  These themes are interesting and needed by the children plus to show SA’s sensitivity on the fate of the children of Indonesia.  SA has no longer talked about how to care, but started to step on to transforming service which not only fulfill the needs of marginal children but also help the children fight to get their rights.

Year 2007. This year SAJ was held for the first time at Mekarsari Cileungsi. The number of children participating hit a record of 700 with total kakak and committee reached 300 making total of 1,000 participants. Theme elevated was “Protect Me” under Herry Sebastian coordination. After JSA, Tanah Abang Tutorial was born, located nearby the Pejompongan water dam area, which is quite dangerous when it comes to rainy season.  Led by Fabio as SA Director by then, SA firmed development program and volunteer provisioning through Leadership course and Read-Write-Calculate Course for tutors. Scholarship program system for high achievements students was also perfected and included in Child’s Center main program.

Year 2008. The very 1st SA Day was held, located at Kridaloka Senayan, opened by Governor of Jakarta Mr. Fauzi Bowo who raised the flag to release the participant of the Walk of Love after the declaration of Sahabat Anak Movement by chair committee Sitta Manurung. Fun-stage, Musical story-telling, puppet-show and many other games made merry the one day event participated by SA tutored children along with children from enlisted Jakarta’s ‘normal’ family. Beginning of July, SA themed “Me and my dreams” Jamboree was held at Ragunan Camping Ground under Rolof Satriyanto coordination. It was opened to the children that when it comes to dreams it doesn’t necessarily have to be an engineer, doctor, or other scientific titles, but also cooking skill, hair styling, make-up doers, music, writing, and farming which could become the way of living if done keened. In this particular year, Mangga Dua Tutorial officially joined SA.

Year 2009 Sahabat Anak held program Shoes for My friends. The program involves public to donate one pair of shoes and two pair of socks to 3,117 children in 37 marginal areas. Visit http://sepatuuntuksahabatku.wordpress.com to learn more.