First day

We land in Giakarta after a neverending trip: Roma-Dubai, then a 5-hours stop in the Emirates and another flight from Dubai to Indonesia.

You made your own idea of a place on the opposite side of the world, and now that you get there reality is so different from what you had thought.

Giakarta – 12 million dwellers and an annual growth rate of 6,5%. If you look up, among skyscrapers’ tops, you may imagine you are in New York or Dubai, or in  a similar hi-tech city.

But when your eyes turn down to the street, you suddenly realize you are in South-eastern Asia: because of the crazy traffic of trucks and makeshift taxis and sidecars and those itinerant kiosks spread all over on the road.

These are my first impressions in Giakarta.

I have no idea about this wide country and its problems, but I will know more in the next few hours. Tomorrow morning we are going to meet Gianfranco Rotigliano, UNICEF Representative in Indonesia.

Second day
                              

We meet Gianfranco in his office, in the center of Giakarta.

He is an Italian doctor who’s been working at UNICEF for many years across the world. He was appointed Representative in Indonesia on 3 January 2005 – just a week after the deadly tsunami.

Thanks to him I understand that Indonesia face complex issues, completely different from what I experienced during my previous missions with UNICEF in Malawi and Mozambico. I am struck by three major issues.

First, birth registration. Until 2006 it was not compulsory, leaving millions of children in the shadow, with no rights entitled. It is quite common, in some parts of the country, that a child can even be sold by his/her parents!

Secondly, this country is heavily affected by sex tourism coming from Western countries, and it brings a legacy of child trafficking, prostitution and paedophilia.

Finally, what hits me is to know that basically due to ignorance, 35% of the population (and children more than others) suffer from malnutrition, as their diet is poor of vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates.

After the briefing we leave to Banda Aceh, north-west of Sumatra, the big island where the tsunami of December 2004 made a total wreck, with thousands of square kilometres destroyed by the fierce tide.

The first thing I see there is an enormous clearing, surrounded by walls shaped as concrete waves, with three gates to enter. Here rest tens of thousands bodies, victims of the tsunami.

Indeed there is not much to see but the wide empty space. A grass with palm trees, that’s all. Not a memorial, nor burning torches - though you feel the impact of that tragedy as soon as you step into. Everybody walk slowly, talking in a low voice: the thought of the tragedy commands respect to any visitor.

The Siron Mass Grave is the greatest in Aceh province: 46.000 people are buried here.

Driving on dirt roads, through slums and open sewage, we finally reach UleeLee port, the place where the catastrophic violence of the tsunami hit worst.

In that point, for unknown natural reasons, two enormous waves crashed into each other, razing to the ground the fishers village on the coast.

It is surprising how the landscape has changed in only 4 years. Thanks to aids from all over the world you can see new houses, bridges, mosques, waterworks…everything witnesses that restarting from a tragedy is a positive, deep-rooted instinct of mankind.

The night is falling. Our tour is over for today, but there is still time to meet Jan, UNICEF programme officer in Aceh.

We have a nice dinner with the local staff and we say goodnight. Tomorrow it will be another long day in Indonesia…

Third day

Today we are going to visit some of the schools rebuilt by UNICEF in Aceh, a country where both the tsunami and the 30-years long war between the rebels of the GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) and the government army hit in the hardest way.

It strikes me to see how nature, which caused such a massive destruction, ended up resolving that endless conflict.

Due to the need to allow the humanitarian aids flow, the tsunami emergency forced government and rebels to come to a ceasefire, that became an actual peace agreement on 15 August 2005.

After one hour trip we reach the SDN Siron school, whose reconstruction finished on last March [thanks to the funds of the Italian manufacturers’ confederation  and the Trade Unions]. The new infrastructure is equipped with sanitation facilities, running water and electricity fixtures and – what I think is most important – has been built with earthquake-proof criteria.

We are welcome by dancing children, who show their hospitality throwing flower petals at us.

During the hours we spend with pupils here I am struck by the brightness, curiosity and dignity in their eyes.

They dress clean school uniforms and seem proud to have textbooks, chairs, desks, classboards and educational materials that, I know for sure, are all but granted in this part of the country.

The civil attention that people pay to the primary school displays their strong desire for development.

After lunch we leave to visit the Punge Child Centre, a structure for children who lost their parents in the tsunami and were took in by other community families.

The Centre’s main activity is giving psychosocial support to traumatized children, in the hope they can come back to normalcy, free from terror and isolation.

Here and in other 19 centres like this spread across Banda Aceh province, UNICEF has trained social workers to avoid traffic and exploitation that often threat children during emergencies.

Sure I am going to talk about child protection in my field trip diary again.

Fourth day

We get to the Mataram airport, ready to fly to Lombok, one of the islands in the Nusa Tenggara province. It is raining when we land. We rapidly move to the Panti Werdha Crisis Centre, where children and little girls who were victims of violence and traffic are hosted.

Here all I have read and discussed with my colleagues of UNICEF Italy’s delegation becomes real life. Starting from the eyes of those 11 little girls who are welcoming us with a traditional song about family warmth.

Their sad look, their wrinkled foreheads, all of their juvenile sorrows pierce my soul with a mix feeling of pain, anger and impotency.

They are 11-15 years old girls, who were rescued by police from child trafficking, often just for a matter of chance. They had to be sent to Malesia, where should have become prostitutes. Each and every among them has a story to tell, a sad and hard to believe one.

I am really struck by this meeting. While my mind can deal with the consequences of a tragedy driven by nature, like tsunami, I can’t realize such a shameful man-made activity, this pitiless criminal trade depriving those girls of their right to live.

We spend a lot of time with them. I talk to them, underlining how they were brave to report their persecutors. We confort them, hoping that UNICEF, governmental authorities and the police will make a change in the future of this country,

As the visit is about to end, the situation becomes less tense thanks to a play where everybody changes his role. We give girls our cameras and they start taking pictures and shooting movie. Finally we see smiles over their faces! It has been so easy to let their vital energy come to the surface!

We greet each other very warmly, and we watch their hands waving goodbye through the windows until our bus turns around the corner.

I keep silent during the trip back home. I am sad not only for what I saw today, but also because of the haunting thought of the many children who won’t have the same chance than those girls have had to be saved.

In the evening our delegation gathers again in front of the sea. The President of the province, who has joined us, tells us more about the island’s situation and thanks UNICEF for its aids and support to the local authorities.

Fifth day

Today the Italian delegation is directed to the SDN Batu Kumbung, a “child-friendly school” where the prevention of child abuse is actively practised.

People here welcome us with brightness and courtesy. I wonder how well teaching and education seem to work in this school.
I plunge for a while in their world. They let me teach, draw, even sing a song (a little girl asks me to do so and I whisper a song in her ears because I am ashamed to do it aloud…).

How school is important for these children! This is the place where their roots are bred, where the basis of their life is put. And it is sad to know that children of 9 or even 7 years have to follow lessons on the prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation, so that they get aware of the dangers they may encounter.

They are taught not be afraid to report the crime, however hard it can be - because most of times abuses happen inside family, then a child victim needs a great deal of awareness and resolution to face it.

We leave them with joy however.

Later on we are at the Special Unit for Women and Children, a police team mainly composed by women, specialised in prevention of child abuse and support to the victims. Police officers, psychologists and doctors work together within this unit.
We are informed about a wide prevention campaign against child violence, whose messages are displayed on the web, on wall posters and in schools.

We also visit the team’s surgery, where abused children receive first health care, a gynaecological examination and psychological support. All is managed with great sensitivity and care.

We have lunch with the guys of the Children’s Forum. The Forum is an extraordinary initiative taken by a group of adolescents (15-18) who decided to meet after school and create a centre where they could discuss of their own issues. The Forum’s volunteers organise group lessons in the primary schools to explain pupils how to avoid abuses and exploitation.

A boy of 13 tells me his story. He had been forced by parents to beg in car parks to raise some money. Two years ago he managed to come back to school thanks to a local governor’s grant and he joined the Forum. Today his mission is to go out and meet other children in the street and help them understand the importance of going to school and have an education.

His tale is a clear example of how things can get better. And I think it is important to underline, this successful project stems from a group of boys, from their uncommon desire for dignity and social change.
It is nightfall now, time to come back to Giakarta.

Sixth day

Last day of our mission. We meet the chief of the Indonesian police team for trans-national crime, who sheds light on their daily work against child trafficking. Talking with him I discover an open-minded and willing person.

He cooperates with UNICEF, with government forces, with any association that can play a role in the fight against child exploitation and traffic. There is no arrogance or showing off of power, here – just the eagerness to fix the problem. A model for our country, maybe?...

Last thing we do is paying a visit to Mr. Gianfranco Rotigliano and his team at UNICEF headquarter. We report what we have seen during this week, our feelings and impressions. We take stock of the whole experience, and it is definitely a positive outcome.

I come back home with lots of sensations, but the strongest is that hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel, for children of Indonesia.