1

Contents:

• Acknowledgement • Christmas 2013 Celebration • Students’ Attendance in Q114 • Highlights on Absenteism

• Miscellaneous Updates • An Appeal to All

Acknowledgment

2013 school activities was closed with a joint Christmas Celebration by TK Penuai 1 and TK Penuai 2 on December 6, at the Providensia Church in Kwamki Lama. It was indeed a joyful event enjoyed by the children, their parents and the elders of the local community.

An improvement of the school administration was started with effort to better record and report the students’ attendance.

The students’ high absenteeism and efforts to reduce the absenteeism is also highlighted in this report. Unfortunately there are factors affecting absenteeism that are beyond our control.

The students of TK Penuai 2 had an outing on March 7, to the Airforce base in Timika. The idea was to see the big air bus.

In February a repainting of TK Penuai 1 took place. However, the renovation and construction of a new school in Kampung Tengah is postponed due to safety issues. The tribal war between the Dani and the Moni in Jayanti and SP 13, that broke early in January but still going on as of now, and that has taken seven lives, and other issues forced us to wait.

Our deepest gratitude to PEP and our sponsors and donors. With your ongoing support, especially during this difficult situation due to the export ban, we can keep on giving the best for our children.

Yours sincerely,

Hadi Lee

Sekolah Penuai is a division of KBMY Foundation

(Yayasan Kelompok Belajar Murid Yesus). The foundation is a non-profit, non-

partisan and does not belong to or part of any religious organization.

2

A Christmas Celebration On December 6, 2013 a joint Christmas Service and Celebration of TK Penuai 1 and TK Penuai 2 took place in the Providensia Church in Kwamki Lama. About 80 children, along with their parents, the Kwamki Lama elders and the teachers – a total of over 120 - had a good time during the celebration.

After the service, the children proudly presented their special performances for Christmas. Each class of both TK Penuai 1 and TK Penuai 2 showed their talents in singing and dancing. Unfortunately, some children, mostly from TK Penuai 2 could not attend this joyous moments due to safety concern.

Parents representing both schools gave their thankful speech, and gifts from all were collected and handed over to Providensia Church – received by the Church Pastor. The teachers also presented their special performance.

A lunch was following the celebration. Parents and the Foundation brought potlucks and all is shared in a cheerful week end lunch.

At the end of the celebration, the children lined up to receive the Christmas presents.

To see short video on the celebration please click here or open youtube and search for “Natal TK Penuai 2013”

3

Students Attendance for Q114 Following are graphs of the students’ attendance in TK Penuai 1 and TK Penuai 2.

As a total, students’ attendance in TK Penuai 1 shows a slight improvements from January toMarch 2014, from 56% to 64% and 65% respectfully.

In general, the attendance percentage of TK Penuai 2 is better than that of TK Penuai 1. However, the figures of March is dropped from 72% in February to 67% in March.

4

The Dani and The Moni Dispute

A war between the two tribes broke sometime early in January 2014. The issue that trigered the conflict is a dispute over a piece of land, the Jayanti compound (used to be a sawmill). The war broke in the area and in SP13 too. As of March 2014, the conflict has taken 7 lives and over 30 people injured. However, while there are eminent people from both sides that reside in Kwamki Lama, the war did not got to Kwamki Lama. Nevertheless, the repercussions of the war, to some degree, are also felt in Kwamki Lama. Some of our children got absent as their parents somehow get involved in this war

Highlights of the Absenteeism The first question that may arise seeing a high rate of absenteeism is: "Is this a normal thing ? Attendance rate between 60 % - 75%? "

Following are the highlights of the high absenteeism put in its peculiar perspective. The objective is to raise awareness of the issue faced by the ministry and develop workable efforts to reduce the absenteeism.

1. Low attendance did not occur during the first quarter of 2014 alone. As a mater of fact, an attendance rate of 60% to 75% is what we have experienced during our service in Kwamki Lama. However, starting this year we will publish the figures as part of an effort to raise the level of school attendance.

2. Just to give an idea of how “normal” is this low attendace, let us take the case of the children’s prescence during our previous Christmas celebration last December 6, 2013. Supposedly, with all the meals, shows and gifts, the children would have flocked to the party; however, only some 70% or roughly about 80 out of 116 children showed up.

3. The attendance algorithm of above Statistics section is made as follow. Only registered students with above 5% attendance record for the past three months are put in the equation. Those registered but have 5% or less attendance records are considered non active and therefore not calculated in the Statistics.

4. Given the situation in Kwamki Lama, it is a bit difficult to precisely report the reasons of the child’s

absence. Whether it is due to illness, authorized permission, or simply negligence. Except in some cases where the mother came to school to explain about her child’s illness, most abscence cases would have to be reported as negligence as no information is readily available to the teachers. If, somehow, the actual cause was known, this usually happened very much later.

5. However, based on observation , more than half of the

child 's absence is due to illness. Children being frequently ill or not healthy is a rather “normal” phenomenon in Kwamki Lama. The direct cause? Problems in nutritional intake and unhealthy lifestyle. The indirect cause of these problems? Poverty, social and cultural circumstances. Another reason for low attendance (peculiar to Kwamki Lama) is these village / tribal feuds.

5

Gedia Tabuni & Nila Wandik

Both little girls (6 years old) are friends in Grade B in TK Penuai 2. Both are diligent students with 80% Q114 Attendance Ratings. However, on March 25, 2014, Gedia had to be brought to the school office during the class as she was nearly fainted. Nila was brought to the school office; too, the day after (March 26), as she got fainted just after the class was over. Help were given and now the kids are all right. The reason of the incidents was the same, though. They did not have dinner (from the day before) and they did not have breakfast, either.

6. There are issues beyond our control such those caused by poverty and these tribal / village wars. However, Sekolah Penuai are actively struggling for what we are able to do to raise the attendance level. We do what we call the Push Actions such as: making the best use of parents and teachers meetings, visiting the child in his / her home; and the Pull Actions, i.e., making coming to school more appealing to the children. Sekolah Penuai also works with the local Puskesmas (Community Health Center) to carry out regular health check.

Miscelleneous Updates TK Penuai 2 School Trip to Timika Airforce Base

On Friday, March 7, 2014, the children from TK Penuai 2 had an outing to the Timika Airforce base. The intention was to have a closer look of the big air bus (C130 – Hercules), however, due to last minute duty call, the children missed the plane. It was promised though that they will see the big bus next time.

6

Maintenance and Repainting of TK Penuai 1

A major maintenance and repainting of TK Penuai 1 was finished by end of February this year. Hopefully, a cleaner and more refreshing ambiance will make the learning process more conducive.

Rescheduling of Construction and Renovation of New School in Kampung Tengah It is true that the tribal conflict between the Dani and the Moni that has been going on since January 2014 takes place in Jayanti and SP13; however, as many of the Kwamki Lama residents are part of the two tribes, the tensed atmosphere is also felt in Kwamki Lama.

A good contractor that can do the job on a more independent manner is still sought for, as our efforts to do it ourselves did not seem to be workable.

Land title transfer appears to have to wait too. This and the contrctor issue and the not-so-conducive atmosphere due to the conflict, forced us to reschedule the contruction/renovation.

An Appeal to All Our ministry field is surely not a place for leisure. The social and cultural paradigms that might look totally different than we would expect to see in our world, should not detter us o help the children, nor should it cause us to misunderstand of what we are doing. For us, correcting our mistakes, improving our services and keep striving for the best for the children appear to be our calling.

Let us not make the difficult situation felt by all in Timika due to this PTFI export ban shy us away from the children. We might be their only hope in their bleak environment. Please make a generous donation now.