The first time I met the garbage man’s family, they were stopped at the alley way leading into their little make-shift “village”. One of his children slept in the garbage cart while he repaired one of the wheels. His wife was watching him and also watching the other children playing nearby.
The next morning I met them at their house. The house is very small and measures about 8 by 12 feet in size. They have electricity but only up to 100 Watts maximum usage and it costs them $3 a month. The room has no windows, little sunlight and the smell is awful; nevertheless, two children were sleeping there when I entered.
Their neighborhood consists of about 20 families all living under similar circumstances and all sharing the same communal toilet which isn’t large enough for all of them making it necessary for some to go to the river to relieve themselves and bathe.
All of the houses are small, with dirt floors, and garbage collected from the streets and garbage dumps fills the space between the shacks. A day’s collection of plastic and other recyclable materials will yield, on a good day, between $1 and $2.
Cooking is often done outside and on the ground. The family sleeps on a very smelly kapok mattress on the dirt floor of the shack. When I visited them they borrowed, from their neighbor, a small piece of carpet for us to sit on. There were no chairs.
They usually leave their house with their children about 8 in the morning and sometimes search for recyclable material as far as 10 miles away. While the parents look through the local public dump areas the children will look in the garbage cans of the people living in that section of the city.
Few if any of these garbage family children attend public school which even though “free” can still be expensive in Indonesia. Uniforms have to be purchased along with school supplies and teacher’s salaries have to be subsidized. This man’s 11 year old daughter is now in school, thanks to the generosity of others but his other children are not.
As you can imagine, living in all this garbage can result in health problems. Skin rashes and infections are common. Tuberculosis, worm diseases and other more serious health problems are a constant threat.
This particular family of five, divides 4 cups of rice between them and eats only once a day. If there is a day when they cannot forage, then they do not eat that day. Such is the life of the poorest of the poor in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Daniel
We feed children. 50 cents will feed one child one meal. $15 will feed one child once a day for a month. Could you send us a check for $15. Thanks.
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