New Shoes for Children in Asmat

Going to school is not a priority for some families in Damen Village, Asmat Regency, Papua. Parents have not even encouraged their children to go to school, and do not supply the children's school needs. Shoes are a rare thing to have for children in Asmat. Through the Asmat Hope program, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) helps children to go to school using shoes through the donation of new shoes.

At least more than 60 children in Damen Village got new shoes. Although the announcement of the distribution of new shoes had been made in the previous week, in fact not all children were present taking their own shoes.

This happened because there were still many children who were invited by their parents to the forest to look for woods. In fact, teachers at schools have warned parents to encourage their children to go to school and not bring them to look for wood. Including asking them to tell the children to take new shoes at school.

"We have asked parents not to represent their children to take shoes. We will take the shoes back if there is still a representative of their children,” explained one of the teachers when the WVI team met.

The teacher added the appeal was made because there was an experience when distributing school uniforms, parents represented their children and then used these uniforms for themselves, so the children still did not have uniforms.

Not only giving new shoes, but students are also trained to wear shoes and put shoelaces because not all children understand how to do both.

Until now, through the Asmat Hope program, WVI continues to assist the Asmat Regency community through various community awareness activities such as IYCF, Handwashing with Soap, clean water supply, and so on.

You can help the Asmat community through donations of IDR 300,000 / month to support the Asmat community in getting a better life. For more information, click http://wahanavisi.org/en/asmat-hope.

Written by: Mian Panjaitan, Asmat Hope Program Manager Wahana Visi Indonesia