West Jakarta: 100 urban poor home mentoring visits

We at Bina Berdaya Bangsa seek to empower the community in Krendang. This means we care about the whole community including people with disabilities.

In 2022, we started visiting families who had a child with a disability.  When asked if they would like to be visited regularly, everyone said yes. This is a testament to the credibility that we have in the community.  In Indonesia, especially in poor areas, there is a lot of stigma around having a disability. Many parents try to hide it. But these families chose to open up to share their story with us and allow us to journey with them in seeking ways to improve the quality of life for their child.

Now in 2025, the visits continue.  So far this year, Bina Berda Bangsa made 70 home visits among 20 different families that had a children with a disability. The types of disability that these children experience vary from Down syndrome, autism, to polio. Some children go to school. Others stay at home. Some children are still young with mothers who hold out hope that their child’s trajectory can change with the right intervention. Other children are around 20 years old, and the mothers do not know what to do anymore. They often wonder, “Who will take care of their child in the future? My child walks far every day, alone in the neighborhood. What if something happens? But I cannot keep the child with me all day. There is nothing for my child to do. Sometimes it feels hopeless.”

During the visits, we focus on empowerment. We listen to the mothers and encourage them. Together with volunteers, we demonstrate and teach interventions that are feasible for the families to implement at home. The goal is to help the mother and child take small steps and discover the potential that the child has to learn and do something meaningful.  These interventions strengthen skills in:

• Communication
• Daily routines
• Stress regulation
• Sexual education and setting boundaries
• Emotional awareness and management

Mothers choose one of the interventions and then work on it step by step with us. We see progress which is beautiful and important in staying motivated to develop skills.  Mothers share more about their lives, express their feelings, and accept advice. Children also improve. For example, one mother wanted more structure in her child’s day. Together we made a schedule with sticker pictures on the wall at home. Because the child could then visualize what would happen during the day, the child felt calmer and enjoyed looking at the stickers and sticking them on.  Small steps make a big difference. Together we build hope, trust, and discover new possibilities. 

Will you join us in empowering these mothers to help their children with disabilities reach their full potential?