Wahid Dreams to be Trainer of Traditional Self-defense Arts

By Bartolomeus Marsudiharjo, World Vision Indonesia communicator 

Rahman Nur Wahid, 12, loves traditional self-defense arts and last year he won second place in a competition held for participants from Jakarta and the surrounding cities.

“I want to be a trainer of traditional self-defense arts so that I could participate in the national sport competition in the other provinces,” Wahid says. The country has just held a national sports competition in Riau province in the Sumatera Island. In the future, Wahid hopes that he will be a participant in that competition. 

Although the activity is hard and he risks injury, Wahid loves it. “Injury is a risk. Every activity has its own risk,” he says.

To prepare the national examinations, Wahid takes extra classes in all subjects examined: English, mathematics, Indonesian, and science. Wahid seriously prepares for the next year’s examinations as it is the only way to get good grades and be able to continue to study at a state junior high school.

“To be able to study at a state school is not easy. There would be many competitors who are also willing to study there,” says Kelik, 38, Wahid’s mother. She explains that studying at a state school is free while studying in private school is very expensive. 

“If he would not be able to enter state school, we plan to send him to Islamic boarding school,” Kelik says.

Wahid joins several activities organised by World Vision such as attending a study group, reading books in the mobile library, studying on the computer and joining football activities.

“Joining the computer course held by World Vision makes me more prepared when I study computer at school,” Wahid says, admitting that he gets good grades of computer at school.

Wahid’s parent has been living in Susukan, East Jakarta for 20 years. Previously, both Wahid’s father, Sarwadi, 48, and Wahid’s mother worked in companies in East Jakarta. As the companies laid off many workers, Sarwadi and Kelik lost their jobs.

“When we were unemployed, we considered to return to our hometown in Central Java,” says Kelik, explaining that they don’t have idea how to earn money.

Fortunately, someone asked Sarwadi to build a house. Sarwadi, who is a graduate of technical senior high school, began to do the jobs relating with construction and continues to build even today. For a day’s work, he gets 100,000 rupiahs [some 11 US dollars].

Kelik helps her husband get extra income by selling traditional cakes. She has joined World Vision’s cooking class and has been able to get income from her new skill.

Wahid has an older brother and a younger sister. His brother, Adi Setyo Nugroho, is now at senior technical school, while his sister Andhini Vitria Larasati, studies at elementary school.