07.02.2005

Self-sufficiency for the handicapped

Sometimes hope comes from getting closer to animals.

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	Working on a farm brings much needed self-respect.

At least that is the case for some handicapped children and adults in Indonesia who have an opportunity to gain some self-sufficiency thanks to a programme that allows them to have a hands-on agricultural experience, breeding cows, chickens and goats.
The participants are either deaf or mute or both and many are orphans or from fatherless or motherless homes or from poor families.
The Alpha Omega programme is an outreach effort of the Karo Batak Protestant Church in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Established in 1988, the programme consists of a hostel with 10 dormitory rooms. In the past 14 years 69 young adults between the ages of 24 and 36 have been accepted by the programme.
They attend school in the mornings and learn sanitation and cooking in the afternoon. Now they are also learning about agriculture as the Alpha Omega programme has constructed three cowsheds and purchased nine cows.
The Reformed Churches Partnership Fund, administered by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), and the Fondation pour l’Aide au Protestantisme Réformé have combined efforts to assist the Foundation for the Welfare of the Handicapped Alpha Omega programme with this project.

Karin Wisniewski