![]() ![]() The mall was topped by a garden and swimming pool, plus three huge tower blocks which punched up into the sky. ![]() It was opposite Seasons City, a massive new shopping mall and apartment building on the site of a former cleared slum. We met Ferdie at the local government office on the edge of the slum. I travelled to the Jembatan Besi with Frieda, Nuraini and Rafael from UNICEF Indonesia. Without septic tanks or proper drains, the toilets simply flush out into open sewers in the street. Although there are toilets in the slum, they are poorly constructed and run for profit by local businesses. UNICEF is working with Bappenas to improve water and sanitation in the slum, through a community-led initiative. As part of this, we visited Jembatan Besi to document the lives of the people there and the challenges they face.īefore we went, we met Ansye from UNICEF’s water and sanitation department, and Ferdie from the National Development and Planning Agency (Bappenas). I was in Jakarta to help the UNICEF Indonesia office with their digital communications, including blogging and online video. Neng makes t-shirts at a local factory, earning $5 USD per day Even if I could leave, I wouldn’t want to.” All my friends are here and I can see them after work. “We don’t have a bathroom in our house and have to pay 1,000 rupiahs to use the public toilet. “The main problem with living here is that there’s no soccer field or place to play,” she continues. ![]() I keep 10,000 for myself and give the rest to my mum.”ĭespite her situation, Neng says she is happy with her life. I earn 50,000 rupiahs a day (around $5 USD). “Now I wake up in the mornings and help mum cook food for the stall. I don’t know why – I didn’t do anything wrong,” she says. “I left school because my teacher was always angry at me. Now she works on her family’s food stall and at a small t-shirt factory in the slum. But she dropped out of school when she was ten years old. Neng looks like a typical teenager, with a trendy haircut and ‘Gangnam Style’ t-shirt, reflecting the latest Internet craze. The air is stale and the lanes smell of rubbish and sewage. Here, the only light comes from neon tubes and bare lights bulbs hanging from wires. In the densest areas, people have built across the top of the alleyways, cutting out the sun altogether and plunging the lanes into perpetual night time. Sunlight is in short supply throughout the slum, due to the narrow alleys and tall buildings. The ground floor homes are reasonably well constructed but as they ascend, they become increasingly makeshift, with walls and floors made from wood and scrap metal. The slum is one of the most densely populated in Indonesia, rising to four stories in places. Unlike other children her age, she rarely gets to see the sun. She lives and works on Venus Alley, a lane in the notorious Jembatan Besi slum in Jakarta, Indonesia. ![]()
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