| From Homelessness to Home of Hope | ||||
| By Riani Purnamasari and Ruth Putryani Saragih Translated by Tang Yau-yang | ||||
Without the shield of their family or home country, these Afghan youngsters ended up on the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia. Now they have a better place to stay.
I got separated from my family,” said Bismillah Joia, a 14-year-old boy from Afghanistan. “I miss my mother very much.” He had first met some Tzu Chi volunteers in Jakarta, Indonesia. He and eight fellow Afghan youths were then living on the streets, all having been forced to flee their home country. Afghanistan, long plagued by war, is a major source of refugees. Countless people from the nation have been forced to seek shelter in other countries. Bismillah Joia’s escape started with a flight from his country to India, where he took another flight to Malaysia. He traveled by ship for the last leg of his journey from Malaysia to Indonesia. To board the ship, he had to cross a 30-meter (98-foot) walkway. It was dark and he was very scared. “I covered my eyes with a cloth so I wouldn’t see the choppy sea below,” he said, his eyes welling with tears as he recalled that time. After the boy arrived in Indonesia with eight other Afghan youths, they camped on the street just outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in central Jakarta, waiting to be assigned to a shelter. They slept there for two months, exposed to the elements and relying on the mercy of passersby for food. The sun beat down on them during the day, and the lower temperatures at night were uncomfortably cold. They often starved, never knowing when another meal might come their way. A home at last There are currently more than 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers living in Indonesia. They are not allowed to work, and there are not enough shelters to house them. Many camp outside the office of the UNHCR in the hope that they may get a bed in a shelter. Tjhin Hong Lin (陳豐靈) is a Tzu Chi volunteer and CEO of DAAI TV Indonesia. In May 2016, when he learned that minors were among those camping outside the UNHCR office, he organized some fellow volunteers to visit the youngsters with him. The volunteers subsequently rented a house for those nine Afghan youths. They provide them with food and teach them working skills. The youths receive instruction in computers as well as the English and Indonesian languages. The volunteers also arranged for two adult refugees, Kamran Ali, 30, and Hussain Rasooli, 20, to step in as co-boarders and caretakers for the boys. The house is fondly referred to as the Home of Hope. Life greatly improved for the youth with the new living arrangement, and a stable life no longer seemed so out of reach. Bismillah Joia chose to study mechanics because he hopes to become a good electrician and plumber one day. Others opted for something else to their liking, such as cooking or barbering. Volunteers arrange for the boarders to exercise regularly. They play volleyball and futsal (a type of football) and they swim to keep in shape and build up their camaraderie. Volunteers also invite them to Tzu Chi events, which they never miss for anything. For example, they did their best to help with a blood drive in central Jakarta, from the preparatory stage to the very end of the event. They even donated blood themselves. “I was scared—that was the first time I had ever donated blood,” said Hussain Rasooli. “But I worked hard to overcome my fear, focusing on how my blood would be able to help some sick people.” Bismillah Joia and the other boarders also volunteer at a Tzu Chi recycling station. They contribute to the foundation’s environmental cause by helping reclaim reusable resources. They have become very good at sorting different types of plastics. Recycling is a sweaty job, but they are happy to contribute what they can. Preparing for the future As these boys settled into their new life, learning new things and skills along the way, they gradually started to feel more hopeful and less hateful, sad, and dispirited. To better prepare them for the future, volunteers have invited them to intern at Tzu Chi organizations, doing work in such areas as finance, administration, and cooking, applying the skills they have acquired in real-life situations. Since these youngsters are all school age, it would be best for them to attend school. In July 2017, when a new semester started, Bismellah Haidari, Shokrullah Ashkari, Bismillah Joia, Arman Haidari, and Reza Rezaie began auditing courses ranging from seventh to eleventh grade at the Tzu Chi school in Cengkareng. Three months later, Yonus, Sayed Hujatullah Azizi, Abdulkholiq Ahmadi, and Zainullah Hajizada joined them at the school to audit grade-11 classes. The students at the school eagerly helped their new classmates, knowing they had a limited command of the Indonesian language. They translated for them with an online tool and helped them study and assimilate into the new campus and new culture. Most importantly, they taught them to use the Indonesian language. As young as they were, the Afghan youths had been through many trials in life and had been out of school for years. Life on campus—making new friends, meeting new teachers, and taking part in new activities—has set their minds free of the agony of being refugees, if only for now. Though they still miss their families, they feel they still have hope for the future. Moving on Indonesia is a country of transition for Bismillah Joia and the other boarders at the Home of Hope. If all works well, the UNHCR will eventually assign them to another country where they can live permanently. After living in the Home for almost a year, Hussain Rasooli bid farewell to Indonesia in May 2017 and set off to settle in Australia. By that time, his fellow boarders and Tzu Chi volunteers had become more than friends to him. After all they had been through together, they had become like his family. It was very hard to say good-bye. “Do your best,” Hussain Rasooli said to his fellow Afghans. “Don’t be lazy, and don’t complain.” Those were probably the best pieces of advice he could give them. No matter what the circumstances, it is important to be brave and to never cease learning and improving oneself. A better future might be just ahead.
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