So yeah, all of my classmate in Masters of Psych are now doing our internship. Some are at the schools, special needs centre, orphanage, child protection bureau and many more. Practically, we haven’t seen each other for a while. So, last Thursday night, the 3 of us decided to have dinner together at Malay Village, Surabaya.
I’m not going to write about the dinner (the deep fried kangkong is recommended!), but about the light conversation that we had that night. One of my colleague is placed in a center of special needs children. He considered himself not as a children lover, because he does not really have that passion toward children. But after dealing with the children in that center, he learned something invaluable. He can finds the meaning of beautiful children whenever he sees a normal child. Now, he knows that a beautiful child is not merely comes from the rich, but all the children in this world who has been born with perfect physical shape, for he has been with children who have Celebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, sight problems (blind) and many more.
Another friend of mine is also placed in a special needs center, but different compare to the previous place. In this place, most of the children are diagnosed with ADHD or autism. She shared her story of abusive caregiver in that center. She saw that the caregiver or what-so-called therapist was kicking on the child or giving command while playing with her mobile phone. The therapist will come in the middle of session, commanding here and there, and then push the child to do something that the child does not like and left the room while the child is crying. Sometimes, the therapist will frightened the child with something that the child really afraid of, such as, certain person or things.
In my place, I have to take care of 30 boys, from 5 to 8 years old. At first, they hesitated to come closer to me, but during my second week, they have become a part of me. I come there daily, 5 days in a week and I’ll be with the children for 8-11 hours/day. The orphanage becomes my second home within days. Well, hopefully I can learn a lot of good things while I’m there and able to help the children and the caregivers (looking at piles of books and journals on my table!).
Days during internship has just begun… we have to keep the fight until end of July!
My Writing Paper 