Generate Income & Hope From Non-Recyclable Garbage

Wardi (58 years old) and his wife Juju (52 years old) are one of the families supported by XSProject.  Wardi and Juju are some of the longest members of the XSProject community, and they are the parents of Ahmad Fauzi, one of the community children who is now in college.  They have been collecting trash almost all their lives, and now Wardi oversees 5 trash pickers who work for him. 

Every day Wardi and Juju must sort the trash.  They separate the trash can be resold from the trash that can’t.  Every day they start sorting at 8.00 am.  At noon they return home to rest, eat and drink.  The troubling thing is that when they sort the trash, they don’t have gloves.  This causes their hands to always smell, even though they wash them with soap again and again.  They also don’t have masks to wear when they sort the trash, to cover their mouth and nose, which can irritate their throats and breathing,       

To protect their health, they need thick plastic gloves when sorting the trash so their hands aren’t contaminated.  And most important is to wear a mask so their throats and breathing are not inflamed.  XSProject provided them with gloves and masks, and  Wardi and Juju  were delighted to receive them.  They did not believe that others would be concerned about their health.    

So, to keep them stay healthy with the condition and the job they working in, we provide and give them with heavy duty gloves so their hands will not get contaminated with waste. And we also provide them with mask to cover their nose and mouth.

Your continuous support will help XSProject to continue provide the trash picker’s needs for their health and comfort in the work and live conditions they are in.

Following up on our story about Aminah  learning a new skill to be more independent – ‘New opportunity for Aminah in 11th Sep 2018, here is another life improvement for a better Aminah.

The biggest challenge facing Aminah in her learning a new skill is her eyesight.  She said: ‘It takes me a long time and I have to struggle just to thread the needle or draw the pattern on the fabric.”

During her training and practicing at home, quite often she makes mistakes when sewing and has difficulties in figuring out which is the inside and the outside part of the fabric. When she makes a mistake, she has to unstich the whole process and redo it again.

In one of our projects at GlobalGiving – ‘Generate Income and Hope From Non-Recyclable Garbage”, we allocate  funds to cover exams and eyeglasses for  mothers in our vocational and business training program. So the time could not be better for Aminah to get new glasses.

Aminah has had the same glasses for the last 10 years. When she finally had the opportunity to see the eye doctor, the doctor told her that for reading/prescription glasses she has to have an eye check up at least once a year to check whether her power is up or down. As much as she wanted to have new glasses, given the cost to going to an eye doctor and purchasing presciption glasses and frame, she instead would rather  use the money to make sure there is food for her famly and other 2 children’s needs. No wonder she always complains of not being able to see clearly.

Thanks to the donors who gave Aminah a chance to see better, she is now happier and it is easier to learn and practice sewing. 

Your donation to XSProject through GlobalGiving will have a direct impact on making this happen. XSProject can provide many more women with micro finance loans, or just to improve their skills so that they can do something for themselves. Poverty is often just a lack of opportunity. This is the way to go towards self-sufficiency and a sustainable income. We hope you will continue to support our work and you are making the difference for them.

All of us at XSProject Indonesia would like to express our gratitude and a BIG THANK YOU to the GlobalGiving community for your support of our programs in 2018. Generous and thoughtful donors have contributed to our social programs for the health and well-being of trash pickers and their families, and to the better education for a better future for their children.  

Health is still the major issue for the Cirendeu Community of about 100 families of trash pickers with a total of about 80 children under XSProject-XSEducation Scholarship Program.

When XSProject was thinking what more we can do, we received the good news of being nominated as Project of the Month. We have been wanting to have a Community Home Care where a doctor and a nurse come for regular visits to the community. They would not only check adults and children who are sick, but also encourage and teach the community the importance of prevention and early treatment. Due to either lack of knowledge or money, too often community members wait too long to seek treatment until they are really sick. XSProject will continue to provide health education and health awareness to the adults while we make sure that the children receive proper immunization and general health check up in the coming year. 

Providing new skills for the moms is also what we have been trying to do. Living in poverty for many generations with no adequate education, many women trash pickers don’t have the skills to do more for themselves. It may also be a lack of opportunity to learn, so we will continue to offer them and show them so they would want to improve themselves.

XSProject is very proud to have 6 students now attending college.  Coming from many generations of trash pickers, attending college seemed like an impossible dream.  But now their hopes have now been fulfilled. Their desires to further their education, despite all the difficulties they are facing, inspires other younger children at the community that they  too can now have the chance to dream big.

Your donation to XSProject through GlobalGiving has a direct impact on making this happen. XSProject helps the children to aim to have a better life not just for themselves but also for their parents. Showing and providing more opportunities and new experiences outside the world they are living in will give more reasons to work hard in school and to be hungry for more knowledge.

We hope you will continue to support our work in the trash picker community. You are making the difference for them.

We are very grateful and we thank you all so much.

In November last year, we received an e-mail from GlobalGiving that they had selected XSProject’s Generate Income & Hope from Non – Recyclable Garbage project as GlobalGiving’s Project of the Month for December 2017.

The news came at the right time, when we had been thinking about what can we do more for the community. Health is still the major issues for the Cirendeu community of about 100 families of trash pickers with a total of 80 children under XSProject-XSEducation Scholarship Program.

We then informed the Project of the Month Club members what we imagined we could make into reality with the funds we received.

The idea was a Community Home Care, a doctor and a nurse who make regular visits to the community. They would not only help adults and children who are sick, but also encourage and teach the community the importance of prevention and early treatment. Due to either lack of knowledge or money, too often community members wait too long to seek treatment until they are really sick.

In January 2018 when we received the disbursement, we started with budget planning and the preparation for the program. But many things happened in the process that slowed the process down. But now, Cirendeu Home Care is finally open.

We have a room next to the children’s reading room which we have dedicated not just for regular doctor visits once a week to start, but also for us to run an immunization program for the children and adults, family planning consultation for the moms, and other health sessions and trainings.

Immunization program continues to be the number one priority, especially for the younger children. Now we can conduct the program on the premises.

Most of the moms are happy now that they can receive family planning consultation and health care regularly. In the past, we have witnessed moms who lost their pregnancies because they were sick and they waited too long to go to the doctor.

Outside the Cirendeu Home Care, we also use the funds to run a dental health program with a nearby clinic. We started with 19 children from Pre Grade 1 up to Grade 2. After having their first initial checkup, we received the report from the clinic, that almost all of the children have tooth decay. The children have to come back couple times to have their teeth fixed. Dental treatment is quite expensive. So, teaching the moms on dental health prevention is a must.

We have received positive responses from the adults.  The trash pickers live a very rough life, sifting through trash very often without any safety protection, so accidents like puncture wounds from nails and other sharp objects often occur.  The living environment at the trash site also contributes problems such as respiratory infections, typhoid and tuberculosis.

“When will the doctor come this week? Or what time will the doctor come today? We hear this request more and more as the community starts to have the benefit of having a doctor within the community.

Although the per-patient cost is very low, the demand for health program has been much higher than we anticipate.  However, we hope to use the funds from the donation to run the program for the next 3 years.

XSProject is so honored to be selected and to receive such a generous donation from the Project of the Month Club. On behalf of the community, we thank you and want you to know that the funds we received have made it possible in trying to give better health and better life not just for the children but also for their parents.

Aminah is one of the Angels at Cirendeu garbage dump. She was born in Jakarta on 19^th August 1983. Her parents have 6 children, both already passed away. Aminah went to school until SMK (Vocational School), she wanted to continue her education but her parents being a trash picker did not have money to pay her further education.  

 After finishing her school she worked at various shops as a sales person for the next 8 years. With limited education, she cannot advance her career and she has to work many hours and also weekends. She had to stop working because she got sick.

 She got married, had kids, and then opened a small warung (small shop) while taking care of her children.

 “I was never interested in sewing, but I was so disappointed when I asked my neighbor who can sew but she did not want to take my order.

That gave me the interest to learn how to sew so I don’t have to depend on other people when I need something that needs to be sewn.

 “I was so glad that XSProject offered the women at the community opportunity to learn a new skill. I took it without hesitation, plus my youngest child now is already at Pre Grade 1, and goes to school 3 times a week. I now have more time to improve myself, while my son is at school.

 “My goal of learning to sew is so that I can make clothes for myself and my kids and I can fix any clothes that need to be repaired, and maybe that I can also help other sewers if they need help.

 “Of course, I would love to have my own sewing business, so I can take orders and can earn extra income so I can help my husband earn more money.  It would be nice to have my own sewing business at home, so I can work but also still can take care of my family but I would also want to help other moms at the community by teaching them what I have learned, so other moms at the community can also learn new skills.

 “Without the help form XSProject I would not be able to sew now. “

 Your donation to XSProject through GlobalGiving will have a direct impact on making this happen. XSProject can provide many more women with micro finance loans, or just to improve their skills so that they can do something for themselves. Poverty could be just a lack of opportunity. This is the way to go towards self-sufficiency and a sustainable income. We hope you will continue to support our work and you are making the difference for them.