Terre des hommes

Pretty little Indah, proud to go to school and help her grandmother

Indah, “Beautiful” in Bahasa (the Indonesian official language) is five years old and lives with her grandmother in a village in the Padang Pariaman district, which was badly hit by the earthquake in September 2009.
Since then, her life has not always been as lovely as her name – her mother died of cancer when she was only two, and almost at once her father had to leave his family to earn a little more money in another area, entrusting Indah and her sister to their grandmother.

Indah is a pretty and proud little girl, thirsting for knowledge. She was soon able to attend the children’s centre run by Terre des hommes Lausanne together with Terre des hommes Holland. Every day at 8 am, she arrives at the centre, beaming, often shoeless but clutching a plastic bag with her books, pen and lunch. And she threatens her grandmother with tears if she does not come with her often enough to view all her latest work, and her friends, and everything she has learnt.

In this centre, Indah can play in peace with other children from the region. The youth workers are starting to teach them reading and writing, giving the centre an infant school side, up to now non-existent in the whole area. Like this, Indah will be prepared for primary school when she is seven, and her grandmother is helped with the school enrolment for the two little girls. The youth workers are also helping this lady so she can cope with this expense, which oblige her to work in the fields, despite her advanced age.

The whole family and the community attend, for example, meetings for child protection awareness making. Indah is equally happy at such moments, as then she can help her grandmother: she shows her how to wash her hands and brush her teeth correctly, and even tells her about the healthy and varied food she should eat to grow up well, although she does dream that this diet should not be composed entirely of aubergines…