Australia Indonesia Association
Canberra, ACT
Our Projects
Support to Disadvantaged in Indonesia's Education
AIA has continued providing assistance to help the disadvantaged in Indonesia and assist with their education throughout the year.
Support to Indonesian Language Training at the ANU
AIA has continued the long standing practice of providing an annual Award for best Indonesian language student at ANU, which is $500 pa.
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Support to SMP 2 PLAYEN
For the last 20 years AIA-ACT has provided funding to support the education of 20-40 disadvantaged students per annum at SMP 2 Playen in Kecamatan Playen in Kabupaten Gunung Kidul in Provinsi Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta.
The school has recently reported that again in 2020 the funds have provided very beneficial assistance directly to the very needy and appreciative students and the school continues accounting and managing the funds excellently.
Late 2019, prior to COVID-19 travel restrictions, AIA-ACT President Les Boag again visited SMP2 Playen and reported on the benefit that the funds are achieving and how well they are managed and appreciated. In 2021 AIA-ACT is again sending AUD$1,500 to assist the disadvantaged students at SMP2 Playen.
Covid Prevention Assistance
AIA-ACT has given assistance to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Sulawesi and in Nusa Tenggara, through:
AIA-ACT funded AUD$1,500 of the cost of Nusa Tenggara Association (NTA) providing materials to help prevent the spread prevention of COVID-19 throughout the Nusa Tenggara Islands.
AIA-ACT funded AUD$1,000 for a program in Sulawesi to provide materials such as masks and disinfectant to traditional villages (kampung adat) in Central Sulawesi.
Sulawesi Tsunami and Earthquake Victims
On 28 September 2018, Palu (the Capital of Central Sulawesi Providence) was hit by a 5-meter high tsunami shortly after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred 80 km north of the city.
The earthquake killed 1,705 people, with 1,549 injured and 832 missing in the city.
AIA made contact with a person on site coordinating support and provided first AUD3,000 from AIA Funds followed by another AUD3,000 raised by Indonesian Ladies led by Ibu Yetty Daly and Ibu Shinta Benilda and then a further AUD1,893 raised at a fund raising dinner.
The funds were used 100% to provide essential food and living items to some of the 70,000 displaced victims.
Some of the money was used to purchase items for TK Permata Hidayah in Donggala Sulawesi whose school and all it’s contents were destroyed during the Tsunami.
The school was fortunate to have a new school built for them by the Indonesian Government but they lacked table and chairs and activity items for the children.
In total AIA-ACT sent almost AUD9,000 sent to the victims of the 2018 Sulawesi Tsunami and Earthquake.
Sulawesi Flood Victims
On 22 January 2019, floods caused by heavy rainfall struck the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi.
At least 68 people were killed and thousands were displaced. Gowa Regency was particularly hard-hit, experiencing the majority of the fatalities.
AIA held a very enjoyable Indonesian Cultural function on 20 October 2019 with the Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP).
The Indonesian exchange students preformed enthralling regional and national Indonesian dancing and singing, and AIA members tried valiantly to reciprocate.
This was held in a hired entertainment building in Green Square Kingston and importantly raised AUD1,240.00 which was 100% used to help the flood victims in Sulawesi.
NTA Teacher Training Program
For the past 4 years AIA-ACT has provided funds to the Nusa Tenggara Association (NTA) to support training of local teachers in two groups.
AIA-ACT will again in 2021 provide AUD$3,000 to NTA to fund the training of local teachers.
These funds were used to run 3 days training courses for teachers in West Timor.
The poor rural schools in this area struggle to attract fully qualified teachers and rely to a large extent on guru honor (teachers with a basic school education usually sourced from local communities).
The training program is particularly aimed at providing some basic exposure for these teachers to teaching techniques and the school curriculum.
Eighty teachers participated in the two training programs 2019 and forty teachers participated in 2020.