Despite the cooler weather, 45 people braved the cold to head out to St Matts Church on the Corso for another Cimena4Life event, held on Saturday 13th June 2009. Jimmy and the team from St Matts try to use this community event to impact our way of thinking towards everyday life through great films and the recent screening of Stranger than Fiction was no exception! $460 was raised on the night – a tremendous effort by all involved and just another example of how our community can band together to take action against poverty!

By Will Wrathall

Sumompo is a small village located 10km north of Manado city. In the centre of the community is a rubbish dump, providing work for around 100 people who scavenge for paper and plastic. Families, who have moved to Sumompo in search of work from nearby provinces, live in makeshift houses near or on the dump.

Every day dozens of trucks, both Government and private, drop off all sorts of rubbish from the city. People of all ages and gender participate in the work, scavenging alongside dogs. In hot weather thongs are worn, in wet weather gumboots are used, if they can be afforded. The key tool is a ‘gonjol’, a half metre steel hooked rod to help sort and pick paper and plastic. Even though each individual is responsible for how much paper and plastic they collect, there is a strong sense of team-work, camaraderie and family on the dump.

In January 2008 Christian Surfers Australia organised the inaugural Paddle Against Poverty, a 10km paddle from Collaroy to Manly that raised over $10,000 towards helping families on the rubbish dump. The money was used by Bridge of Hope to build a community education resource centre, buy books, guitars, arts and crafts, a tv and sports equipment, as well as employ Meldi, a full time administrator and teacher. The centre was named Sengkanaung, meaning ‘one in heart’, by a Meylan, a 15yr old local girl. Sengkanaung offers a variety of services focusing on education and health, opening the door of opportunity to the children who work on the rubbish dump, providing them with choices for their future.

Meldi has devoted 6 days a week, 11 hrs a day, over the last 6 months, working alongside myself, Will Wrathall from Manly, as I was given the opportunity to work in Manado through the AusAID Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Program.

Some 40-60 children attend Sengkanaung daily after school. They read books, play sport and games, get involved in music and art and learn English. Monthly quizzes always attract a great crowd of children to the centre, which is now a central meeting place outside the rubbish dump. Meldi also gives classes to 16 children every day from 5-6.30pm, AFTER they finish working for 5-8 hours at the rubbish dump, collecting 10kg of plastic, sold for as little as $3 a day. Two of these children are Lia and Diana.

It took several months for Meldi and I to gain Lia and Diana’s trust when they first started attending Sengkanaung, but slowly we began to receive smiles each time we met them. Both Lia and Diana are resourceful and industrious in their work, which in Indonesian culture brings great honour to their families. After working on the dump each day they come straight to the resource centre. Sengkanaung has now become a place of refuge, fun and education for them.

Lia (12) has a warm and loving family environment, living with her grandma and aunty and uncle. They live in a simple home with two rooms accommodating seven. As the eldest child, and for financial reasons Lia’s parents had to withdraw her from school several years ago to work on the rubbish tip with her grandma. Each day they walk to the rubbish tip together and share the workload. Her skin is darker than the rest of her family because of daily outdoor work, which is undesirable in Indonesian culture. To be fair skinned is to be beautiful.

Lia is a smart girl. Since she has been attending the classes at Sengkanaung, she has shown incredible discipline and motivation to pass her primary school exams. Amazingly this will provide her with the opportunity to go to a Government high school and allow her to stop working on the rubbish dump come July this year.

Diana has spent her life scavenging for paper and plastic on the dump. She lives with her extended relatives who are inconsistent in their support and care of her. Now that her extended aunt, her primary carer is getting old, Diana has to provide for her and her sick husband. Diana doesn’t know how old she is, but her aunt says she thinks Diana is 13. Her leathery hands, feet and rugged face suggest she has lived well beyond her age. Her new friendship with Lia provides a constant source of joy in her life.

Diana has never been to school and was overwhelmed with fear, shame and excitement at her first lesson. She now attends classes at Sengkanaung run by Meldi six days a week after working on the dump. Understandably, she is often restless and finds it difficult to concentrate. Diana hopes to pass her exams and continue her education through the informal system as she will need to continue working to support her family.

Sharing the transformational journey of the hearts and hopes of these two girls has truly been an incredible privilege that has transformed my life in the process. We will never be the same again because we joined together in relationship, supported by the generosity of others, through this wonderful enduring community partnership. God Bless you all.