blog post —

Diary of An Intern: First Time Visiting HHI’s Rebuilt Schools

Last week was the seventh day of my internship program at Happy Hearts Indonesia. Working on some tasks under the communications division, such as writing proposal, report, and a press release is what I do most of the time so far. Besides, I have also been involved with the fundraising division by meeting and lobbying the representative of some international schools in Jakarta. Although I love meeting new people and working on the computer, especially because I love writing story, those tasks are still challenging for me. It is because now I am no longer representing myself. I am the intern in Happy Hearts Indonesia which means wherever I go and whatever I do, I bring Happy Hearts Indonesia name along with me. On last Saturday, I was ready to face a new challenge as an intern. Mr Lusman as my supervisor asked me to join him and the representatives of Tzu Chi School to survey some of the rebuilt schools in Tangerang. At 8 am, I met my team and some students as well as a few teachers from Tzu Chi School at a meeting point near Soekarno Hatta Airport. Soon, we left for PAUD Mawar II and PAUD Dharma Pertiwi, two schools rebuilt by HHI a few years ago. We also visited TK Nurul Huda, a school that is scheduled to be rebuilt this year. At PAUD Mawar II, we met Mrs Alfius, the principal of the early childhood education school, and her husband. They welcomed us warmly as they told us the history of the school. She said that Happy Hearts Indonesia was like an angel coming from heaven that suddenly answered their prayer to have a better school building.  The students of Tzu Chi School and I laughed at the analogy. However, I believe that deep down we were actually amazed by how meaningful the rebuilding program by Happy Hearts Indonesia to Mrs Alfius and her students is.

Mr and Mrs Alfius while telling us about the history of PAUD Mawar II.
Seeing the teacher’s spirit in improving the quality of education in Indonesia made me speechless. The infrastructure that Happy Hearts Indonesia and its partner provided has restored their hope. We were told that the facilities have brought many improvements to the school and the surrounding community. There is an increasing number of students that goes along with the increasing awareness on the importance of early childhood education among the community members. Next stop is TK Nurul Huda, the next rebuilding project of Happy Hearts Indonesia. HHI plans to rebuild TK Nurul Huda this year as soon as the funds raised. Visiting TK Nurul Huda opened my eyes even wider on the fact that there are still many schools, especially kindergartens, that don’t have a proper building. It was when I realized that this rebuilding school program by Happy Hearts Indonesia is very important.  


One of the classroom in PAUD Dharma Pertiwi. Looking new, right!
We’re listening to the explanation about TK Nurul Huda from the principal.
Around 11 am, we moved to the last school we planned to visit that day, which is PAUD Dharma Pertiwi. It has been 5 years since HHI rebuilt this school but the building looked like it is newly rebuilt. I could tell that the management takes care of the school very well. The mural, the playground, the colour, and even the bathroom don’t change much. They’re still as good as new. The differences are just the number of students that keeps increasing and of course the quality of education that is getting better. From that exhausting day, I learned so much about how to be useful to each other as a human being. I can’t wait for more amazing experiences on the next 5 months of my internship with Happy Hearts Indonesia. Written by: Dinda