K i t o n g   B i s a

After delivering the talk in Jayapura, Kitongbisa flew from that capital city to Yapen Island, a small island with the distance of 2 hours flight from there. Yapen island is a small beautiful island with natural view, beautiful beaches surrounding. We had to catch the big aeroplane from Jayapura airport to Biak island, a nearby small island at the north of Papua mainland, and from Biak, we then changed to a smaller twin otter flight for another 20 minutes. Yapen Island and Biak Island both are located in the northern part of New Guinea mainland, in the Pacific Ocean. Most of the people are Fisherman, however there are a few who are farming to live.

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Kitongbisa learning center in Serui was founded a couple of years ago, after the CEO of Kitongbisa, who is originally from this island observed that the Kid’s knowledge about the world is really limited. When spending the times with the kids in the village, after traveling the world for work, Billy would give books, interacted with them and taught them few words in English. The thing the Kids really like was when he showed them pictures of different part of the world. The kids became more confident that they can also reach their dreams, looking at Billy’s life as an example, coming from a very decent and humble background, but then, conquer the world.

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As mentioned before, most of the people in Yapen Island are Fisherman, however, due to the geographical location which is very close to Pacific Ocean, there are times especially on the last three months of every year, when the wind and storms are havey. This make the fisherman can’t go for fishing. This leads to fluctuation of their income. The instability of the income they get makes it very hard for them to save money for their kids’s education. Many of the parents don’t perceive education is important and force the kids to be in the workforce really early. Kitongbisa learning center aims to reach these kids to give them lessons every afternoon, and we are also approaching the parents to  make them aware of the importance of education for their kids.

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It is, for the first time, after two years of studying in Australia, Billy Mambrasar, with the kitongbisa team is able to come back and visit the learning center while spending time with the kids. They are very excited, even 1 hour before the session with Billy was started, they have arrived, and kept asking when the class will be started.

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Kitongbisa team then started the session by introducing the team, and deliver the objectives of the meeting that day. Billy has an opportunity to share his experience of studying abroad, with the kids listened enthusiastically. They are then encouraged to share their dreams, of what they wanna do for living in the future. Most of them want to be public servants, as the only role model they have seen living sufficiently and comfortably are public servants. Just a view want to be entrepreneur, teacher or scientist. Most of them event don’t know what is scientist.

 

After them sharing their dreams, Billy then open their horizons by describing options of professions they can choose to do when they grow up. Starting from scientist, engineer, writers, lecturers, pilot and entrepreneur. They asked a lot of questions related to what path can they use to achieve those jobs, and also what majors they have to do in university. Billy then shared the options of majors, and what can they do with certain majors, options of school or university and how they can get there.

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At the end of the session, Billy then taught them how to do a brief introduction in English. With the assistance of the teachers, they then are able to introduce themselves. Billy ask their permission to take videos introducing themselves in the Camera, and asked them, which part of the world they want to go for studying in the future. Some says: America, some says: Australia, Netherland, and other countries. Billy then closed the session by describing Kitongbisa to roll out the scholarship program next semester, to those who are really eager to keep coming to Kitongbisa Learning Center in Serui, and get good feedback from their teacher. They will be given scholarships, and the money will be used to pay for their tuition fee in the formal schools.

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Kitongbisa learning center employs two teacher now which is partially funded by grants, and personal expense from the Kitongbisa’s CEO’s money. More and more kids are coming and register themselves, therefore the space is not sufficient anymore for the whole kids to gather and study. Therefore, Kitongbisa aims to fund raise to look for money to help building additional class rooms. With these additional class rooms, we are hoping that more children Yapen island will be part of Kitongbisa learning center, and at every end of the terms, they will be able to dream and work hard to achieve their dreams.

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Kitongbisa looking forward to listen from you if you keen to support these kid’s development, just contact us through the contact details put on the website. You can always be our sponsors, and by doing so, you have contributed to create a better future generation of Indonesia. For more about these kids and their activitie, see the video below: