The Indonesian Republic of 17,000 islands is the world's 4th most populous nation and remains one of the less developed countries in the Southeast Asia. With its population of 220 million, the country struggles to rise from the rubbles of political bankruptcy, economic shifts and religious violence that practically put its people further into poverty and debt. The 1997 Asian financial crisis largely devalued and deflated the local currency, which effectively reduced living standards sending 40% of the population living below the poverty line. In year 2000 the public debt stands at 99% of GNP and an annual income per person at $450, about 1.4% of USA's. These staggering economic figures partly explain the government's inability and difficulty to provide the necessary social and physical needs to improve the standard of living and quality of life of its people. This is most evident in the increase of children out of school, the lowering of educational standards and other social services which are not beneficial to the country as a whole.
The island of Kalimantan that occupies one-third of Indonesia's land area is one of the country's least populated and least developed area, with a population density of 21/sq. km as against Java's 951/sq. km, the country's densest.
The island however is blessed with rich natural resources offering great potential for development and attraction for investors. It boasts of the country's remaining rainforest that covers 75% of the island. To tap its natural resources, the island depends on its few population to provide manual labor, particularly in the mining, agriculture and forest industry. Due to the lack of appropriate technology for large-scale development, the island heavily relies on the laboring family for its economic survival. Children as young as 10 are considered an important economic entity. This unrestricted and unregulated employment of children denies these children a chance to develop to their greatest potentials as human being. Moreover, it deprives the island of a better economic future in the long term. Child labor is widespread not only because they are needed by their laboring families but also because they are disadvantaged by educational opportunities which is practically non-existent in their communities.
The gravity of the problem of child labor in Kalimantan was brought to the attention of the world by the International Labor Organization (ILO), on the occasion of the Fourth World Day Against Child Labor in June 2005. The International body turned the spotlight on the plight of children in East Kalimantan, in particular those working in mines and quarries. Children between the ages of 10 and 17 worked long hours and exposed to harmful dusts, toxic substances and in life-endangering work environment. In East Kalimantan alone, about 220,000 children involved in economic activities in the agricultural sector, trade, services and industrial sector. ILO reported, that of 638,498 school age children in East Kalimantan in 2005, 106,948 are facing financial difficulties that threaten their education. This is blamed to the drop in provincial revenue, which will in turn affect the local government's ability to provide social services and thus increases the number of working and laboring children.
The International Labor Organization sited that providing better access to education is one of the best ways of tackling the problem of child labor. Distance to educational centers discouraged parents in pursuing formal education for their children. It is this great need that the City of Praise Organization (COP-USA) in collaboration with the City of Praise Foundation (Indonesia) envisioned to bring education nearer to where the children and their families are.
Besides children with their own families, orphaned children left by their families due to religious persecution, natural calamities and economic dislocation also abound and continued to be traded for economic gains. Intercepting these children before they are being sold and disappear in the lucrative flesh business of the country is a daunting task and must be addressed seriously and handled accordingly.
Why West Kalimantan?
The indigenous people of West Kalimantan are of Manchurian Chinese descent with great potentials for academic achievement and development. Given the chance and opportunity, these children can compete academically and in other endeavors on the national level. This has been proven true from the trophies earned and received by the current student enrollees at the COP School by government sponsored academic contests. The City of Praise has been sponsoring these children the past five years that proved more and more that these children are academically competitive and can have great futures.
Providing the necessary social services, primarily education, with the necessary infrastructure, like classroom buildings complete with academic dormitories and school clinic/hospital will hasten the development of the island and its people. Permanent infrastructure insures a more long term and lasting solutions to this recurrent need.
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CORPORATE CEO
The City of Praise Development Agency was first registered in April 1996 in the State of California as the City of Praise Tiberias World Outreach, Inc. In May 2008 it re-registered its World Outreach Mission part as a Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation, with the expressed purpose of aiding the poor disadvantages children.
The founding chairman and currently the CEO, Alexander L. De Ridder was born in 1940 on the island of Java, Indonesia, formerly known as the Dutch East Indies. During the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945), he spent 3 years in a Japanese prison camp with his mother until World War II came to an end. At the age of nine he repatriated to The Netherlands and there, was educated in the field of Structural Metal Design. In 1959 he immigrated to the USA where he ran a highly successful engineering firm and machinery manufacturing business for 26 years with its' headquaters in Carson, California and Taipei, Taiwan. He, with the help of the Lord, advanced in metal, plastic tool and die and in the heavy hydraulic press machinery-manufacturing business and had additional offices in Tel Aviv, Israel; Shang Yang, North China; Osaka, Japan; and Jakarta, Indonesia.
The organization was established to realize the vision of the founder to help reach out and educate orphaned and working children among his own people. He believes that every child deserves the right to education. All the children must be given the opportunity to grow and realize their full potential and become productive members of their communities. Mr. De Ridder sees that the future of Indonesia rests in a well- educated citizenry.
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