By Christopher Drake | Project supervisor
Dear friends and kind supporters of Taman Cipta Karya Nusantara Foundation,
The weeks have raced by and it’s good to be in touch again and pause for a moment to look back on recent developments. We have settled in to our new building and are now able to focus more on getting the right systems and procedures in place and, in particular, ensuring that everything is as environmentally friendly, welcoming and professional as possible. Rather than stressing a set of rules, we are seeking to emphasise underlying values that we hope will provide a motivating reference point for students, parents, staff and visitors while in the building, if not also more generally. This approach has its own challenges while at the same time engaging all concerned in a valuable process of working together as a community, with the vision of the building, and the way that it and the school are run, becoming an example for others. It’s been lovely watching the youngest change-makers amongst us, the toddlers and pre-schoolers, lead the way as they learn how to make good use of and develop love for the facilities, especially those within their immediate learning environment such as the classroom and playgrounds.
We continue to welcome visitors, from both near and far, and enjoy exchanging with them ideas and practices that express our commitment of “Learning for a Better Life”, in particular with regard to The Lilliput World, our Montessori school. A team came from University Widya Mandala in Surabaya with the aim of deepening their understanding of school learning implementation and we also hosted two batches of Sanata Dharma University students. Each batch was of some 60 students eager to learn about the Montessori Approach in a Kindergarten setting. The two sessions allowed not only for extensive sharing but also practical hands-on experiential learning as the students explored the classrooms and tried out our apparatus in a class setting. It was also a pleasure to host Yayasan Pendidikan Bumi Kartini who visited from Jepara; they already run many primary and high schools and will send teachers to study with us so they can then establish a preschool.
We now have some 107 students in The Lilliput World and although we will miss 12 of them after they graduate later this month we look forward to welcoming more new students for the new school year starting in July. While taking care to measure the growth in numbers against our ability to maintain quality we are continuing to expand and remain open for further new admissions with a view to reaching capacity within a further year or two. This will also see an increase in the number of teachers and we warmly welcome volunteers to come and help out as well. In the meantime, and more immediately, The Lilliput World is counting down to its year-end year celebration and a happy farewell with warmest wishes to our graduates as they prepare to leave their home away from home for their journey on to Primary school!
Our involvement in health education continues as a relatively small, but important, part of our overall activities and in May we collaborated with Prodia Clinical Laboratory and our friends at the Indonesian Children's Cancer Foundation (Yayasan Kanker Anak Indonesia, or YKAI) to run a health education seminar as well as gather support for children with cancer. We hosted the event in our building and invited members of The Lilliput World’s Parents Community to join in. It’s our intention to put the building to good use as a venue for events such as this and to continue collaboration regarding activities of general social benefit.
Elsewhere in the building, activity has been picking up for the re-launch of hospitality training courses, to be run by our Nusa International Hospitality College in collaboration with STAR4hire of Jakarta. We had previously run, in nearby rented premises, a successful small pilot course with jobs secured by participating village youth at good hotels within Yogyakarta. We then paused activities pending the completion of our own building and intend that its kitchen, dining room and hotel-style guest rooms will provide students with practical learning opportunities in the hospitality industry, including with regard to food and beverage products and service, housekeeping, barista skills and more. The course is set to start later this month and the team is hard at work, ready to receive the ten students who have already registered. While touring the building, many were intrigued by our rooftop hydroponic garden!
If you are in the Yogyakarta area, do please let us know as we would warmly welcome your visit and the chance to show you what you have helped make possible. In the meantime, thank you very much again for your support and joining us in our endeavours.
With much gratitude and warmest wishes from all of us at Yayasan Taman Cipta Karya Nusantara.
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