Kelas Inspirasi: SDN Marunda 02

"Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart." – Elizabeth Andrew

Sunday midnight, April 10, while I was  packing my stuff for traveling to Pulau Tunda with some fellows from Komunitas Inspirasi Jelajah Pulau (KIJP) Batch 5, I got an email from Kelas Inspirasi Jakarta that I was selected as facilitator for their 5th program – #KIJKT5. Although it was my 9th participation in Kelas Inspirasi, it was my first time to be a facilitator, so I was very excited about it.

Kelas Inspirasi Jakarta – May 2, 2016 – SDN Marunda 02

As facilitator, we need to stay "neutral" in the team discussion, while helping our team understand the common objectives and plan how to achieve those objectives through a well-prepared lesson plan. We also need to make sure that our team really understand about seven basic principles of our movement: voluntary, free of interest, free of financing, ready to learn, direct participation, hospitality, and sincerity.



Sunday morning, April 17, we met our team for the first time in the briefing day. Eventually I was assigned to help group #54, which consists of 3 facilitators, 35 inspirators, and 6 documentators. We were assigned to share our life experiences to the kids in SDN Marunda 02 (and SDS Terang Nusantara). It is located in northern Jakarta, 12 km from Port of Tanjung Priok. The elementary school itself consists of almost a thousand students, with 80s of them are kids with special needs. It is probably the biggest group ever in Kelas Inspirasi. However, we all were very excited.. Bring it on!!


Thursday morning, April 21, some of our group members visited SDN Marunda 02 to get better understanding of the school situation and introduce ourselves to the headmaster and the teachers. It took 3-5 hours for us to get to the school because it was heavy raining since the night before and the traffic was so terrible. We had to drive in the road full of container trucks before we met those cheerful elementary kids in Marunda.


Around 11am, we arrived at the school. The headmaster and all teachers welcomed us excitedly and asked us to have lunch together. Apparently they already prepared some lunch dishes for us. The headmaster also shared about how SDN Marunda 02 was growing so rapidly. The school itself is located close to Marunda Flats, which is infamous as flats where Governor of DKI Jakarta, Ahok, relocates people from areas that actually prohibited to live at, such as Kalijodo, Pasar Ikan, Luar Batang, etc. After Governor Ahok relocates all families to Marunda Flats, he gives all the kids Jakarta Health Card (KJS), Jakarta Smart Card (KJP), and free school bus transportation. The school bus operates from Marunda Flats to nearby schools including SDN Marunda 02.


The number of students in SDN Marunda 02 has been increasing since early 2016 because Governor Ahok started relocating people from several areas. Now it has almost a thousand students, so that the headmaster decided to have two shifts: morning classes and afternoon classes. It also gave us challenge in Kelas Inspirasi, because we need to teach those kids for both shifts from early morning to late afternoon. In addition, there is also SDS Terang Nusantara, a private elementary school that was just established less than a year and currently is borrowing two classrooms of SDN Marunda 02. So in total we have 30 classes to teach in a day. Yeah!