Children's Happiness Comes Through the Simple Things

#BersamaMelawanCovid19 - PAUD (Early Childhood Care and Development) in Wae Kanta Village, West Manggarai Regency is not going well and has not been running for two years. That is because of the inconsistency of support from the village government in facilitating PAUD both props and PAUD tutor incentives. This makes the activities in PAUD not optimal until finally, the PAUD is not running anymore.

Seeing this condition, Maria Saina (28 yo), a resident of Wae Kanta Village felt the need to revive PAUD in her village. She teaches by visiting homes to help PAUD children continue learning even though they have to be at home. Nevertheless, Maria still enforces health protocol when meeting her students.

"Children don't need big things or fancy gifts to be happy, but the small things we do with children are infinite happiness for them. Don't let the Covid-19 situation make our children lose happiness, that is, being together with their friends all this time," Maria said.

With the presence of Maria, PAUD in her village was re-initiated to be reopened and assisted without demanding wages from anyone. With the support and participation of parents and villagers, PAUD is finally back on track and named as PAUD Wejang Nara.

Maria's good intentions were then noticed by the village government. In the Wae Kanta Musrenbangdes (Planning and Development Deliberation), the community proposed to allocate funds to the Wejang Nara PAUD and provide an official decree to PAUD tutors.

The proposal was also approved by the forum until last November 2019, PAUD Wejang Nara received an allocation from village funds for PAUD tutor facilities and incentives. Now, PAUD Wejang Nara already has two PAUD tutors who can help children play and learn.

PAUD Wejang Nara also became one of the PAUDs accompanied by Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI). Until now, PAUD tutors have participated in the capacity building twice in the form of K-13 Curriculum Training and knowledge of making APE (Educational Teaching Aids) facilitated by WVI.

At the Nempung Cama Forum (deliberation) with parents and village government, each party committed that the activities in Wejang Nara PAUD remain sustainable for the children in the village of Wae Kanta to get adequate education from an early age.

Written by: Staff of West Manggarai Program Area Cluster of Manggarai Wahana Visi Indonesia