You are making a difference in Indonesia!
A glimpse of what your sponsored child’s life is like in Indonesia:
HOME LIFE
- Indonesian cuisine reflects a variety of influences and varies greatly by social class and season. Rice with side dishes of meat, eggs, fish, or vegetables with sauces are popular.
- Homes vary based on status and location. In cities, the most vulnerable live in small stone-and-bamboo structures in crowded urban villages, often squeezed tightly together.
- Marriage is seen as an important way to create relationships between lineages or clans. In some traditional communities, the domestic unit centers around a grandmother with her married and unmarried daughters and sons in a large traditional house, where husbands only come as visitors.
SCHOOL AND EDUCATION
- In Indonesia, education is centrally controlled by the ministry of national education. Six years in primary school and three years in junior high school are required.
- The teaching style in public school classrooms emphasizes memorization and deference to the teacher’s authority. Although the youngest children are sometimes allowed to use the local language, by the third year of primary school nearly all instruction is conducted in Bahasa Indonesia, the country’s national language.
- Two types of Indonesian high schools are available for those who choose to enroll. One is for those planning to go on to university; the other is vocational in nature and focuses on finding jobs upon graduation.
INDONESIAN CULTURE
- English is spoken quite widely in the major cities of Indonesia.
- Indonesians value loyalty to friends and family above everything. The nation as a whole is viewed by its people as an extended family – with the president, school teachers, and business leaders referred to as “fathers” by society.
- “Gamelan” is the name of Indonesia’s traditional music, while “Dangdut” is a style of pop music accompanied by dance that has been a popular fixture of Indonesian culture since the 1970s.
COUNTRY INFO
Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia. Situated between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, it has more than 13,000 islands and is the world’s fourth most populous country, as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. The island of Java contains more than half of the country’s population. Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the world’s second highest level of biodiversity.
- Capital: Jakarta
- Population: 260,580,739
- Language: Bahasa Indonesia
FH IN INDONESIA
In 2004, Food for the Hungry (FH) began working in Indonesia after a tsunami killed 283,000 people. FH worked with devastated communities to help them rebuild their lives and homes. Since then, FH has focused efforts on long-term development work in agriculture, education, and income generation. Additionally, Indonesia is what is considered a “sensitive” country, where traditional evangelism is ineffective or even illegal. FH still strives to share the love of God in a culturally appropriate way.
AS A CHILD SPONSOR:
- You are increasing access to nutritious and affordable foods for families through different livelihood and income-generating activities such as goats and poultry distributions and vegetable gardening.
- You are improving the health and nutritional status of women and children through care groups that focus on lessons about nutritious food consumption, breastfeeding, and healthy lifestyles.
- You are helping children grow up free from poverty, remain safe, and achieve their full potential through education initiatives and interventions that train caregivers, teachers, and communities in early childhood development.
