Yayasan Sukacita
A Unique Approach to Mentally hallenged Children
By Ines Wynn

A trio of dapper Dutch ladies is carving out a unique niche in Bali in an area that is lacking adequate expertise and funding: the world of the mentally disadvantaged children. In 2010 Marieke Nijland, Mila van der Meer and Yolanda Onderwater created an organization named Yayasan Sukacita, literally meaning happiness and joy. Sukacita is a Dutch philanthropic foundation, headquartered in the Netherlands with a field office in Ubud and the specific goal of contributing expert knowledge, tools and education to Balinese parents, teachers, educational groups and institutes caring for children with intellectual disabilities. The three founders are steeped in ways on how to handle and contribute to the development of children whose intelligence is considered below normal. Yolanda is a child therapist. Marieke is a special education teacher and Mila is a social worker specializing in the education of children with an intellectual disability. Together their professional backgrounds, vast knowledge and keen expertise make up a potent package that is put to good use for the benefit of Balinese parents and educators to better manage and develop the children in their care.

Developed countries in the Western hemisphere are understandably farther along the path of educating people with intellectual disabilities. In the last 50 years especially, giant strides have been made in the care of their mentally disadvantaged citizens through the development of results-oriented tools, focused programs and therapies. They have the advantage of accumulated knowledge and expertise. It is precisely this advantage that the Sukacita founders want to share with their counterparts in Bali. Rather than spending time teaching directly to children with an intellectual disability, they broaden the scope and impact of their vision by teaching the people who most immediately deal with this particular group of children: the parents, caregivers, teachers and educators. They do this by sharing modern techniques, effective tools and methods, up to date information and accumulated knowledge via workshops, books and lectures.

A bit of background information, numbers and statistics. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), intellectual disability is diagnosed with an IQ of 70 or below. At this level, children display difficulties with language, comprehension and social interaction. WHO statistics show that there are approximately 117,000 people of all ages with intellectual disabilities in Bali. This group includes about 12,500 children in the 7 to12 age group. Within that age group only about 600 mentally challenged children attend the SLB-schools (Sekolah Luar Biasa) in Bali; these are schools for children with physical and mental disabilities requiring special education. This means that some 12,000 children with an intellectual disability are not getting any formal education at all. These are very conservative figures. Bear in mind that children below the age of 7 are seldom tested in Indonesia; therefore no truly reliable statistics are available.?

Professional care and education for mentally disadvantaged people is still in the primary stages in Indonesia. There are a few schools and institutions that cater to children who are unable to follow instructions in a normal school setting. In Bali there are 16 Sekolah Luar Biasa (SLB) spread over 9 regions. These schools primarily educate children with various physical disabilities that impede their normal development such as blindness, muteness and deafness. Only 10 of the SLB schools provide education for mentally handicapped children with IQs below 70. Children with severe problems or who live too far away from these schools are staying at home. And some children who have mild forms of delayed development go to a regular school. Sometimes they stay for years in the same class and often sit quietly at the back of the room. Teachers in normal schools are ill equipped to diagnose the problem; therefore these children do not receive adequate care for their condition.

Another lamentable situation in Indonesia is the scarcity of special education centers for the teachers themselves. Only a handful of universities –though none in Bali- in Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya have special programs to prepare teachers for dealing with, teaching and developing mentally disabled children.?

Anak Unik spreads the knowledge. The Sukacita ladies realize their task is daunting and they cannot possibly reach each parent, caregiver and teacher.? Rather than spreading themselves too thin, they are concentrating on spreading the knowledge and using tools and methods that will reach the maximum number of people. They have recently created and published a unique Indonesian language guide to the care of mentally challenged children. In November 2014 they launched a book called “Anak Unik” which they aim to distribute widely. The book is a cleverly written handbook for parents and educators. It breaks down a complex topic into manageable sections and provides priceless knowledge, step by step instructions, tips and advice in an easy to read, easy to understand format.? This is not a scholarly treatise full of arcane statistics and convoluted treatment processes. It is not a dreary, dry and useless manual. Instead, its brilliance lies in the approach to the topic: not from the standpoint of the teacher, the parent, the therapist or the educator. Rather, the book is written from the perspective of the child who struggles to understand the world around him, who often does not comprehend the words spoken to him, or the instructions given to him.? It explains how the child sees the world around him and why he reacts to his environment in the way he does. Why it is difficult to articulate his needs and why the incomprehension engenders frustrations that are acted out, sometimes in a destructive manner, and are not understood by the adults surrounding him. This shift in perspective is crucial to understanding the plight of the child with an intellectual disability and unearths the key to proper treatment and development.

The book is especially written for parents and schoolteachers who have mentally challenged children in their care and do not have the professional background or the education to help them understand the unique world of the child.? It offers solutions and different ways of helping these children to grow and learn. The strength of the book is that it is written in a very practical manner, addressing themes and topics that are rarely discussed in Indonesia. Theories of mental disabilities, IQ levels and statistics are touched upon, but the focus of the book is foremost on how to recognize a child with intellectual disabilities and how to treat and develop it. The book puts the reader in the shoes of the child and portrays how it feels when you do not always understand the world around you, and how frustrating it is when you, the child, are also not understood by your environment. The book zeroes in on the child’s way of thinking and acting, and the difficulties in adapting to its immediate environment. Reminding the reader that it is easier for the reader to place himself in the world of the child than vice versa, the book contains valuable advice and tips that readers can use to bring structure, routine and meaningful education to the child in their care. As the book’s title suggests, every child is unique and the methods to be used will be different for every caregiver because they need to fit the child and be comfortable for both child and caregiver.

The book’s topics are humorously illustrated by a cartoon character named Buki, drawn by Balinese cartoonist Jango Pramartha of Bog-Bog fame. It is an easy to read handbook for teachers and parents and currently given out at the various workshops run by Sukacita in Bali and other areas. The book is also available at Sukacita Foundation and Ganesha Bookshops in Ubud and Sanur.

Sukacita works hard to spread information so that more people will become more knowledgeable about the education of these special children. One of the important goals of this organization is to create awareness of the unique perspective of these children and to create an environment with more respect for them. One of Sukacita’s successful projects in Bali involved very practical and effective assistance to the teachers of Graha Anak Unik, a play-and-learn group for children with intellectual disabilities in the village of Kemenuh. Graha Anak Unik believes that a child learns through playing and the focus is on giving the child confidence in his abilities. This is a new concept in Indonesia, where the focus of formal education is still on the classical method of teaching the 3 R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic.

Sukacita’s 3 Wishes for 2015. Their first dream is to duplicate the success of Graha Anak Unik by giving support and guidance to a new play-learn group for children with intellectual disabilities. Dream 2 is close cooperation with Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) in Bandung. UPI is one of the universities with a training program for special education teachers. Sukacita wants to promote the Anak Unik book and start giving guest lectures. Dream 3 is to write and publish a second book on the use of key signs, called Understanding Each Other. Interacting with intellectually challenged children is different and communication through language is difficult. Miscommunication is common. The use of key signs promotes mutual understanding and stimulates the use of language.

Sukacita has built a bridge between Western knowledge and Indonesian practice and wants to spread that knowledge far and wide. Successful hands-on workshops for teachers and parents are regularly organized in Bali, Lombok and elsewhere. In Bali they work collaboratively with the Suryani Institute of Mental health. You can obtain more information about their projects at the Sukacita website, subscribe to their newsletters or follow their activities on Facebook.
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Photos courtesy of Sukacita Foundation

www.sukacita.org

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