Called to be a Teacher
Sufair (17) is the second child of the third who born to a simple family. Sufair is a representative of Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) children in the Ternate Program Area. For years, Sufair has benefited from WVI's assistance. The joy he feels makes him want to do more for the children in Ternate City.
Sufair's father, Mudar (55), works as a farmer, and his mother, Farida (53), is a housewife. Sufair was helped by WVI in making birth certificates, family cards, and KIA cards.
Five years ago, Sufair, who was born and raised on Hiri Island, decided to leave the island to continue his junior high school education in Ternate City and live with his uncle and aunt. Not far from his house in Ternate City, there is an English language course. Many children attend a course at that place every day. This motivates Sufair to study there. Unfortunately, after two months of attending the course, Sufair decided to stop taking a course because both parents could not afford the course fee of Rp250,000 per month.
Despite having to quit the course, Sufair was not disappointed by it. One day, Sufair was called by his teacher, Fadila, to take an English course through the Akses Program, which is a government program so that children can take English courses for free for two years. Sufair took this opportunity. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all school and course activities were temporarily suspended.
In early October 2020, Sufair then returned to Hiri Island and discovered that many elementary school children could not study at home and only spent a lot of time playing.
Seeing this, Sufair took the initiative to call elementary school children from grades 4-6 to teach English children at Fala Baca (Rumah Baca) every Wednesday and Sunday. He said, "I do this activity so that children not only spend their time playing, but children can continue to learn even though school is still closed."
The material taught is counting and introduce yourself and how to greet in English. During the pandemic period, not only children in the Ternate region had to do distance learning, other regions in Indonesia also implemented learning from home programs.
Written by: Herlan Pembu, Facilitator for the Development of the Ternate Program Area Wahana Visi Indonesia
