By Farhanah Mustari (Year 2022)
Teman Saling Berbagi Foundation and Gaharu Keluarga of Ashoka Indonesia organized learning collaboration to strengthen social-emotional competency-based parenting at the orphanage and provide reflective & implementation training for caregivers to cultivate children's empathy.
The goal is to establish a comprehensive social-emotional education curriculum consists of a learning design, material content delivered, and evaluation instruments that can be used to measure changes in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of orphanage’s caretaker. The curriculum can also be used as a baseline to develop a positive and thriving ecosystem in the orphanage and help the caretaker nurture children’s social-emotional development through intensive coaching sessions for the children to plan their future. This collaboration aims to address various challenges such as:
Orphans are vulnerable to the risk of mental well-being
Caregivers in orphanages often feel overwhelmed due to the large number of children and the need for caregiving knowledge.
Teenagers in orphanages lack responsible decision-making aspects related to life planning.
The situation becomes more complex when the stigma of helplessness among children in orphanages is ingrained in societal perceptions. Social-Emotional (SEL) learning and the development of positive relationships between adults and children are widely recognized as one of the interventions to address the physical and mental growth of children, particularly those residing in orphanages.
Twenty-two caregivers from five orphanages in Bandung, Indonesia as the training participants were satisfied with their engagement in this program. They felt that the training materials as well as the trainers were in accordance with their needs as caregiver. The module, worksheets and training curriculum were considered very helpful for them. Download the module here (in Bahasa Indonesia).
This collaboration depicts how foster parents learn to approach caregiving with a deeper understanding of the social-emotional aspects. They underwent personal transformations as they care for children with more empathy and awareness of the children's feelings. It then transformed the orphanage itself, creating a warmer and more supportive atmosphere for the children living there, highlighting positive changes in the lives of both children and caregivers and conveying an important message about the power of learning together and understanding emotions in shaping better relationships. This opportunity doesn’t only impact the caregivers engaged in the program but also Farhanah herself as the social entrepreneur and her organization.
Their data showed that the children in orphanages also experienced positive changes in their emotional well-being due to better support from caregivers and they feel greater emotional support in their personal development and can build positive relationships with themselves and others.
Beyond this collaboration, Farhana hopes that in the future, they can organize more training for youth counselors in orphanages as an extension of care beyond the caregivers and training for caregivers beyond this year's participants to have the opportunity to understand social-emotional competencies.
