Beatrix Yunarti Manehat Scholarships from the Border Region
Beatrix Yunarti Manehat, failed to complete her college study. She did not want others to have the same experience. She initiated a movement to secure scholarships for poor children. She also set up reading houses.
By
KORNELIS KEWA AMA
·5 minutes read
TANGKAPAN LAYAR DOKUMEN BEATRIX YUNARTI MANEHAT
Beatrix Yunarti Manehat
Beatrix graduated from Kefamenanu Senior High School (SMA) 1 in 2010. At the time, she was forced to give up her dream of furthering her study at college for her bachelor’s degree because of her father’s illness. As his child, she had to care for and support the treatment of her father, which she did for two years.
She felt inferior as a consequence. “I didn’t feel comfortable as people always asked, what college do you go to? They began to see me as an abandoned child,” related Beatrix in Kupang, Easy Nusa Tenggara, on Sunday (19/6/2022).
Fortunately, Beatrix finally got the opportunity to earn her bachelor’s degree in accountancy at Tribhuwana Tungga Dewi University, Malang, East Java, in 2012. She finished her study in 3.5 years and then pursued her master’s degree at Brawijaya University, Malang.
She was grateful for it; but she inquired to herself, what about the children of poor families? The question prompted Beatrix to get involved in seeking donors to aid the funding of poor children’s education in West Timor, starting from 2014. She cooperated with several donor institutes, including Women Earth Alliance. With this effort, dozens of poor youngsters could finish their study at the bachelor’s level.
The Covid-19 pandemic halted the program. However, since 2022, the program has been resumed. At present four students have been sent to college out of the target of 20.
In order to obtain scholarships, prospective recipients need only to show certificates stating that they come from disadvantaged families. Since 2021, they have been required to grow 10 plants and gather 10 kilograms of plastic waste. The plastic trash is delivered to Mutiara Timor Waste Bank in Kupang, which cooperates with Beatrix.
Reading houses
In 2018, Beatrix expanded her movement to cover the area of literacy by opening reading houses for children in the Indonesia-Timor Leste border region. In the beginning, a reading house was set up on the terrace of her parents’ house in Kefamenanu, Northern Central Timor Tengah. It was funded with her private savings.
The reading house was opened to encourage early-age and school-age children to read, write and do arithmetic. She aimed mainly at children from poor families or those whose parents were Indonesian migrant workers.
They generally received no attention from their grandparents or attendants. So, Beatrix spent her spare time by accompanying them while learning.
Local children turned out to show a lot of enthusiasm in her reading house. Beatrix started thinking that the same house was also needed by children in other places, especially those along the Indonesia-Timor Leste border. In 2019, she opened another reading house in Wini, sharing the border with Oecusse district, Timor Leste, 30 kilometers from Kefamenanu.
DOKUMEN BEATRIX YUNARTI MANEHAT
Beatrix Yunarti Manehat (left) with a reading garden companion sorting out reading books sent by donors, at Yunarti's parents' house in Kefamenanu, East Nusa Tenggara.
The woman who founded Beatrix Yunarti Manehat Foundation found many youngsters in the border region unable to write, read and do arithmetic properly, although some of them had attended elementary school, even SMA. Even many of those already capable of reading could not digest the contents of the books.
The reading house in Wini is frequented by children of ex-East Timor residents living in the border region with their parents. Most of the ex-East Timor residents belong to the poor population category. They generally do not have decent houses and only own small plots for farming.
Seeing the encouraging progress of the Wini reading house, Beatrix set up a second reading house in Kefamenanu. In this house, children learn with a guiding assistant, who is a college scholarship-recipient candidate supported by Beatrix. Such a guide is very helpful in explaining to students their home assignments from school.
At the end of 2020, she further built reading houses at three sites on the Indonesia-Timor Leste border: Ponu and Napan, both on the border between Northern Central Timor and Timor Leste; and later, another in Motamasin, Malaka regency, bordering Kovalima district, Timor Leste. The last reading park was located in Moataain hamlet, Silawan village, Belu regency, bordering Batugade, Timor Leste.
“For the areas outside Kefamenanu, I cooperated with local district or village heads. They prepared the locations; I sent reading books and textbooks. For the reading park in Motamasin, we helped provide a laptop for recording data and information available around the place,” said Beatrix, adding that the laptop was obtained from philanthropists.
But everything can be arranged. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Apart from encouraging children to read, Beatrix also emboldens them to get involved in the environmental movement. Children coming to reading houses as well as scholarship-recipient candidates are obligated to plant 10 seedlings in house yards, water-spring areas and landslide-prone regions. The crops planted are those with economic value such as sandalwood, mango, jackfruit, banana, coconut, coffee and candlenut. They are also responsible for watering and maintenance until the plants grow big.
Additionally, Beatrix asks her trainees to communicate the forest-burning prohibition to nearby communities. Forest fires are common due to the extreme dry season, particularly on West Timor Island.
All these activities make Beatrix very busy. She has to divide her time between lecturing at Mandira Catholic University, Kupang, and running reading houses. “But everything can be arranged. Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” added Beatrix.
Beatrix Yunarti Manehat
Born: Bonubaen, Northern Central Timor, 2 June 1993
