The Sun is faithful.
Present every morning to greet little singing birds, flowers and grass.
Its warm light hugs anyone. A child that is ready to go to school, stray cats, and food vendors.
It sneaks into a narrow house with dull green walls where an old man and his wife live with their 33 children.
A house described by a local newspaper in Surabaya, East Java, as more like a goat’s cage than a house.
Abdus Shomad Suryanto is the name of the old man. Together with his wife, they care for orphans of various ages. They named their house Panti Asuhan Al Mu’min Orphanage. The only orphanage that dares to accept babies who have only been born in the world for a few hours.
The two of them also realized that the children have the right to play, be creative, and be protected. The children deserve a clean home, healthy lifestyle, and a good education. Therefore they are determined that their children complete high school. That is why they try to provide healthy food and proper clothing. That is why they also seek a decent home. Sometimes they don’t know how to make all of those happen for their children. Especially since 7 years ago the Social Welfare Office in Surabaya stopped their assistance.
InDonation, a charity organization founded by 6 Indonesians here in Vancouver, has designated the Panti Asuhan Al Mu’min orphanage as one of the recipients of funds for 2019.
With the mission of promoting social justice as one of Indonesia’s Constitutional mandates, Robert Prasetya, Dr. Thomas Sulaiman, Heryadi Kurnia, Rina Kusumajuda, Mila Chaniago and Jacob Susetyo founded InDonation in February 2018.
InDonation organized relief efforts for a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on Lombok Island in July 2018 and a magnitude 7.5 earthquake followed by a 7 meter tsunami in Sulawesi in September 2018.
They raised a total of $17,000 and $11,000 towards helping victims recover from those events.
On those occasions, InDonation collaborated with the Indonesian Red Cross and ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
For now, InDonation is still giving funds in the form of money.
In the future, that assistance will be provided in other forms for sustainable change, such as providing clean water or renovating school buildings.
The year changes and the story changes.
Now the old man lives alone after his wife died in 2012.
But just as the sun remains faithful to appear in the morning, he also remains faithful to be the sun for his 33 children and reach their dreams together.
Invite yourself.
Invite your wonderful soul.
(Pinky Brotodiningrat — Brevan Sweeney)
This is a translation of http://www.indonation.ca/2019/05/19/menjadi-matahari/