Children as Teacher of Life

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Farida Lucky Utami

For Farida Lucky Utami, 43, children with special needs are the real teachers of life. All of them serve as supporters of therapy centers and the skills training center she has set up.

Farida’s warm greeting started her meeting with five students at Amanda Learning Center, Karawang, West Java, on Monday (25/1/2021). They were beginning their routine work that day, packing abon or crisply fried shredded chicken. They were well versed on their respective tasks.

One of them, Arya Taufiq NM, 18, a teenager with an intellectual disability, was filling abon into plastic packets with a spoon and funnel. He took great care so as not to leave the table littered with abon crumbs.

Beside him was Seto Iskhak S, 15, who was tasked with weighing the abon to make it 100 grams per packet. Another student, M Naufal Suryana, 14, was in charge of cleaning the packets with cloth.

In a month they can pack 10 kilograms of abon to be sold on consignment.

The amount of abon to be packed that noon was around 3 kilograms or 30 plastic packets. In a month they can pack 10 kilograms of abon to be sold on consignment.

Farida explained that the abon packing activity had been one of the many methods of therapy for children with special needs since 2018. This activity is done repeatedly to train motoric nerves, concentration and explore their varied interests,” she said.

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Farida discovered this method after training her own child, who is also mentally disabled.

Intercity therapy

The year 2008 was the first trial period for Farida. Her fourth child, Umar Aziz Nurcholish, was diagnosed with autism. Sadly, it wasn’t easy to get information about therapy classes and methods to train a child with special needs in such a small town as Karawang, West Java.

Based on information from the internet and close friends, Farida visited a number of therapy centers in Bekasi, Bandung and Jakarta. Finally, she chose the one in Bekasi. The cost of therapy was Rp3.5 million per month.

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Five days a week, she traveled back and forth between Karawang and Bekasi by public transportation means. But after two years, Farida decided not to continue the class. She was physically exhausted. “Then I thought I needed a place to train my own child,” she said.

So she tried to join a therapeutic institution in Bekasi as an assistant. She gained a lot more knowledge by following as many seminars and training sessions as possible on children with special needs. She became aware that disabled children had different characteristics. Therefore, the ways these children are handled should also be different from each other. Even to begin communicating with her child, she needed an intense approach by using an easily understood language.

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Farida Lucky Utami

Farida practiced all the knowledge she acquired and duplicated therapy class study aids with the stuffs available at home. Wooden blocks, for instance, were replaced with used beverage cans.

“Whatever aid media can be used to train children’s concentration and capability of identifying objects around them, visually as well as motorically,” Farida pointed out.

In the process, Farida increasingly recognized her child’s needs. She kept teaching him simple daily activities, from holding a spoon to eat, getting dressed, going to the toilet, to washing dining utensils. This was meant to train her child to become independent.

Several friends of Farida were interested in learning from her after noticing the development of Umar’s speech had improved. In March 2013, she initiated a study group, Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus (ABK) Amanda, for children with special needs. Amanda is short for anak mandiri dan berguna (independent and productive children).

That’s why ABK Amanda charges monthly contributions according to parents’ finances.

Farida fully understands that the high-cost therapy poses a constraint to some parents intending to send their children to therapy classes. That’s why ABK Amanda charges monthly contributions according to parents’ finances. Some pay Rp200,000 and others Rp1 million per child per month. For operational cost sufficiency, the group receives donations.

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In 2019, ABK Amanda changed its name to Amanda Learning Center along with the formation of a skill training center (BLK) and community study activity center (PKBM). The study group package program of the PKBM gives opportunity to children with special needs to secure certificates equivalent to those of school levels. Today 29 students are registered there.

The interest and hobby of each student are to be further explored at the BLK with eight teachers. This training is expected to open a prospect of employment for children with special needs so that they can later be independent and capable of self-supporting. So far the BLK of Amanda has graduated six students. One of them, Nuni, with intellectual disability, can now open a laundry business at home.

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Farida Lucky Utami (right).

For the future, Farida wishes to provide job opportunities for children with special needs. To date, many people have considered them unable to work like most citizens in general. In fact, their limitations pose no impediments to their service and activity.

Doubted

For over eight years, Farida has been engaged in the education of children with special needs. Quite a number of academicians and experts are skeptical about Farida’s efforts. In their view, Farida has no competence to handle children with special needs due to the absence of a formal background in this field.

Farida doesn’t bother about it and she continues to focus on developing Amanda Learning Center in order to expand its impact. She also keeps deepening her knowledge by joining various training programs and courses.

“While I’m not an expert, (at least) I’m a mother of a child with special needs. My basic principle is that a child’s initial education is in the mother’s hands. So, the one who understands the needs most is the mother herself,” she maintained.

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Farida Lucky  Utami (left)

Farida also realizes that children with special needs act as the teacher of life. From them she has learned about life. “Education for them is a journey along their life, starting from birth, overcoming drawbacks, training them to survive, until their independence,” she added.

Farida Lucky Utami

Born: Semarang, 17 July 1977

Education: Muhammadiyah Sumowono Senior High School (1994 graduate)

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira).