Indonesia Expat - issue 282

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cr ip bs su ISSUE NO. 282 | MARCH 3 – APRIL 6, 2022

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Families and Education Nature, Our Greatest Teacher Should You be Planning for an IPO? … and many more

THE FAMILY & EDUCATION ISSUE PHOTO BY PHILLIPE BOUT (UNSPLASH)

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Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

INDONESIA EXPAT MARKETING ADVISER

Edo Frese

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Dear Readers,

Contents

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Juni Setiawan

Indonesia’s workforce and education system is unfortunately back to Zoom and Google Meet.

For a good period of time, we were able to experience face-to-face interactions with friends, classmates, teachers, colleagues, clients, and even strangers – until the third wave starting tearing through the country. Public safety and health matter, after all.

However, it’s been two years since President Joko Widodo announced Indonesia’s first COVID-19 case had been detected. A period of confusing updates on what we can and can’t do, where we can and can’t go, what the time of operations were, and so on, invaded our lives.

This includes the education sector.

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10 ELDERCARE Aged Care – Better Here than There?

Luckily, Indonesia Expat presents the Education and Family issue this March. You can find observational points of views concerning education and families from the perspective of enduring two years of the pandemic. Moreover, this issue invites you to learn more about some figures from Jakarta’s international schools.

OBSERVATION Families and Education: Through Adversity Comes Strength

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Don’t forget, we’re working on more digital content with our YouTube channel, Indonesia Expat. This includes our new series entitled “Welcome to Indonesia: The Series”, where we cover insights into food, leisure, community, travel, tips, guides, and plenty more. Stay tuned by subscribing to our channel!

TIPS Filling the Void: How to Cope Missing Your Family While Overseas

Check out our daily news updates at indonesiaexpat.id, follow our Instagram @indonesiaexpat and Facebook @indonesia.expat to stay up to date on the daily COVID-19 case numbers and news, as well as find attractive promotions from your favourite hotels, restaurants, and schools across the country. Now, you can even access Indonesia Expat on the Tripper app, available on iOS and Android for free.

PSYCHOLOGY Parents, Here's How to Help Your Overwhelmed Children

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PT. Koleksi Klasik Indonesia

08 BUSINESS PROFILE Sekolah Perkumpulan Mandiri: The First School to Teach Leadership through the 7 Habits

In a way, we’re back to square one with online learning and meetings. Yes, we’re reliving the same overwhelming feeling in a new year. We need to move forward!

admin@indonesiaexpat.biz EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES

AWARENESS Family Empowerment and Sexual Violence

Happy reading!

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18 EDUCATION JIS Students Mobilise Vaccine Drive

24 INSIGHT Should You be Planning for an IPO?

Edo Frese Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writers and the publisher does not accept any responsibility for any errors, ommisions, or complaints arising there from.

26 MEET THE EXPAT Education, Family and Career Switch – Let's Meet Nick Biblis

No parts of this publication can be reproduced in whole or in part, in print or electronically without permission of the publisher. All trademarks, logos, brands, and designs are copyright and fully reserved by PT. Koleksi Klasik Indonesia.

30 EDUCATION Nature, Our Greatest Teacher

32 ONLINE LEARNING Learning through the Pandemic

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Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

awareness

Family Empowerment and Sexual Violence B YD

O N N YS

Y O F Y AN

PHOTO BY NATALYA ZARITSKAYA (UNSPLASH)

Content warning: discussion of crimes against children

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he lecherous actions of Herry Wirawan, a teacher at the Manarul Huda Islamic Boarding School and at the Madani Boarding School in Cibiru, Bandung, West Java, have finally been exposed. Wirawan had been raping his female students since 2016. This incident reminds us that violence against children has entered an alarming red zone in this country.

Violence against kids has reached an alarming level following its soaring trend in various cities in the country. This gets worse as working families become the norm, marked by working mothers and fathers, leaving the kids’ upbringing to housemaids at home. Numerous violent acts against kids such as domestic violence and paedophilia are inseparably linked to the lack of family empowerment. Despite the soaring violence on kids, family empowerment would be the best counter so long as it includes the following elements.

First, kids need to be taught soft skills as a part of their upbringing. In principle, soft skill is a catch-all term referring to various behaviours that help people work and socialise well with others. Parents need to know that soft skills for kids are instrumental in predicting their success in life, now and later, and reducing crime.

Their self-confidence grows when parents encourage their kids to act on their interests resulting from their inquisitiveness. Thanks to inquisitiveness, for instance, a child will not easily trust anyone and like anything he or she recently heard and met.

Thus, it is necessary for parents to not be comfortable when their children tend to go silent, submissive, and inactive. Active children need to be prompted through preparation for answers they are asking and seeking that can be understood by their minds. This involves, among other things, basic self-defence mechanisms so that when kids are in danger or confronted with a new and unidentified person who is likely to hurt them, they can respond accordingly.

In Japan, this runs well as parents provide their kids with particular passwords a stranger must say as a part of identification, while in western countries, kids are taught to scream “stranger” if an unknown person approaches them.

Numerous violent acts against kids such as domestic violence and paedophilia are inseparably linked to the lack of family empowerment.

PHOTO BY ROBO WUNDERKIND (UNSPLASH)

Second, control but do not ban the use of gadgets by kids. Parents need to limit their child’s gadget time because technology and gadgets take a lot of quality time away from the family. It often happens that kids find it really hard to communicate with their parents because they do not spend much time speaking with them except when they need money and look at them like they are a money machine.

Due to social media, gadgets have been misused for various crimes, like violence against kids. Many paedophiles use social media as their grooming ground in their attempt to seek out their victims. Facebook, for example, is no longer a social network but also a social operating system on which assorted services rely on.

In an effort to protect children from internet paedophiles, parents should consider some tips, like children should never upload a picture of themselves to the internet, never ever give out personal information over the internet, and children should never be left alone in a room with a computer connected to the internet.

Parents can ensure a healthy parent-childgadget relationship through the use of applications. Kakatu is one of the familyfriendly apps in Indonesia, started in 2014, that helps parents limit access to apps and monitor their children’s use of them.

Supported by its features to limit access to certain apps, Kakatu lets parents choose which other installed apps their kids are allowed to access and can also set a timer to allow their kids to play with the gadget only for a limited time.

Third, self-reliance should be instilled in kids at home. What parents frequently skip when it comes to rearing their children is the strong correlation between children’s self-reliance and safety. The more selfreliant a child is, the more he or she survives and thrives. Children in the United States, the UK, and Australia get accustomed to saying “thank you” to express gratitude, “I’m sorry” for making a mistake, and “please” when seeking help. Consequently, they will not only be familiar with the ethos of fairness and professionalism in further social interactions, but also, they will endure social challenges given their understanding of social norms.

Many research studies suggest that children who fall victim to pedophilic actions are less exposed to independent and democratic values at home, which can come down to poor parenting skills. Parents need to remember that befriending, travelling with, and going out with their kids are effective in implanting independent and democratic values as early as possible in kids.

Bringing the children to the mosque to pray, to a car wash station, or the bookstore will gradually foster kids' independence. Such regular togetherness sets the scene for children’s curiosity, leading them to have more independent decision-making skills.

Parental pressure can have lasting negative effects on kids as they look for an escape which is often abused by child predators.

The writer is a lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at Andalas University

Why should every child learn multiple languages?

Adults also benefit from this not only in the area of language – they often solve problems better than monolingual comparison persons.

Language competence is key, not only to educational success but also an excellent foundation to a professional, international career. According to research, Bilingualism is promoting children's mental flexibility. There are plenty of advantages to multilingual education, here are some of them:

Career prospects Multilingualism provides a competitive edge in today’s job market. 50 percent of organisations looking for employees want to hire someone fluent in a language other than their own.

Why do children excel at language learning?

Most children have a much greater ability to learn and retain information than adults. Multilingual learning has the biological, chemical, and physical capacity to reorganise the brain's structure and enhance its function.

Does my child need to speak German before enrolling at DSJ?

Increased networking skills

In short - that will not be necessary. We are happy and able to teach your child German. Our school welcomes students of all nationalities.

Multilingual people are better equipped to see the world from different perspectives, therefore enhancing their ability to communicate in today’s global communities.

Based on our experience and our successful graduates, we accept students who have no prior knowledge of the German language up until grade 6.

Enhanced creativity When learning new languages, you get to look at the world in new ways, describing thoughts and things in a different way, which will flex your creativity.

Languages at the DSJ Our graduates speak English, German, and Indonesian at a native or second language level, opening the opportunity to complete university courses conducted in these languages.

They will receive an individually tailored language course until they are on par with the language level of the class in which they are enrolled.

explicitly taught and learned through all of these subjects.

All lessons take into account regarding individual learning requirements and special needs of each child. We support each child individually, both in class and through additional offers.

It is worth noting that for 12 years, 99 percent of our graduates successfully acquired the Abitur certification - and almost half of them are from a nonGerman-speaking background.

But, how to learn German in Indonesia?

For students who learn German as a foreign language, skills are built up systematically from Kindergarten to Abitur (graduation). Our German (language) teachers apply in-depth knowledge of modern foreign language didactics and teach the German language in compact learning groups in an ageappropriate manner. Starting with thirdgrade several subjects are also taught in German. This way, primary school children learn subject-specific contexts by immersing themselves in German.

This means that the German language is

To learn more and for admission inquiries, please contact us at admsission@ dsjakarta.de

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business profile

SEKOLAH PERKUMPULAN MANDIRI

The First School to Teach Leadership through the 7 Habits

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cademic engagement is vital.

Moreover, Sekolah Perkumpulan Mandiri (SPM) also believes in instilling children with the philosophy of the Seven Habits to prepare them for their future. Discussing the school's distinctive approach to upbringing children beyond the school’s walls are Yenny Chandra and Diah Rajasa.

Hi, tell us about yourselves.

YC: My name is Yenny Chandra (YC), the Academic Director of Sekolah Perkumpulan Mandiri. While I oversee the whole school, I’m also the Junior and Senior High school Principal.

Diah Rajasa (DR), also known as Ita, is my colleague. Ita is the Principal of the Kindergarten and Primary campus and the facilitator and trainer for the Seven Habits programme. She trains our teachers and staff on the knowledge of The Seven Habits, including their implementation in our classrooms.

What brought you to SPM, Yenny?

I’ve been in our school for about 6.5 years.

It’s unique. We were the first Indonesian school to implement The Seven Habits curriculum from Kindergarten to high school. Nowadays, we are known as Seven Habits Pioneering School.

When I initially discovered the school – still as PSKD Mandiri then – through the previous Executive Director, I was impressed at how leadership becomes the school's core characteristic. I also contributed as an educator and channelled my passion for education through the work that I was doing.

For parents interested in enrolling their children at SPM, what can you tell them about the school's standout points in terms of its integrated curriculum?

YC: The foundation of our school is leadership in the Seven Habits. That's where we develop the curriculum and the programme to build our student's character.

We pride ourselves as a bilingual school that offers the Indonesian National curriculum integrated with international standards in terms of an integrated curriculum. In 2014, SPM started implementing the Cambridge curriculum starting from Primary School level to Secondary level and eventually to the Senior High School level.

For example, teachers from the primary level have adopted quality tools in teaching and learning processes to help students organise their obligations and be more responsible. Aside from academic focus, SPM enables your child to unleash their potential, f lourish their confidence, and explore their passions and interests. They have the opportunity to express themselves and take charge of their options to hone their leadership skills through various activities inside and outside of school walls at their own pace.

In your opinion, why are 21st Century skills fundamental within a school environment?

YC: SPM believes in equal opportunity to learn; thus, all students are leaders, no matter their age – your child is capable of success according to their interests, passions, and potential. They can be leaders in their class and school activities or school programmes.

We teach the International Early Years’ Curriculum programme at the kindergarten level, and students who move onto the next level learn the Cambridge programme alongside the Indonesian National curriculum. Proceeding to the Junior High School level are IGCSE and AS/A level programmes.

Students obtain dual diplomas, which are the Indonesian National and Cambridge diplomas. We’ve noticed a growth of interest in parents and students looking for an integrated curriculum to allow broader opportunities for further education in the best universities in Indonesia and abroad.

How does the school enrich building character and incorporate real-life experiences to students?

YC: SPM is the first Seven Habits pioneering school in Indonesia and has also been licenced as the Leader in Me School since 2009 – directly from Franklin Covey, USA. Two years after the licencing, we received our first International School recognition in 2012 as the first International Lighthouse School.

DR: The Seven Habits is a foundation for character building – a leadership programme. It starts in our Kindergarten right up to our Grade 12 High School. A group of students will be chosen as leaders annually to share ideas with the whole community, called the Lighthouse Team.

Every year, all school members gather to select these leaders. These student leaders provide direction and leadership for activities such as Community Service and other leadership programmes. Students aren’t only understanding the Seven Habits, but they're implementing them in their daily lives. Moreover, our teachers and staff are role models living the Seven Habits.

What does it mean to be proactive? How to actively listen to another person? What are the actions of synergy, for example?

SPM daily recognises and addresses these through this foundation.

YC: Understand that the Seven Habits isn’t a written curriculum, not something students have to catch up with, but a philosophy – a way of becoming a more effective individual in society. Newly enrolled students, your child, who joins halfway in their academic journey, are immersed in this community, learning new skills, and growing in different ways.

Students keep a leadership notebook, a personal diary detailing the process of their leadership journey, for example, identifying their personal and academic goals. They keep track of their Wildly Important Goals and measure their achievements over time, whether it’s a success or they need to revisit their performance and how they can improve. This exercise allows our students, your child, to take charge of their leadership since young.

DR: The younger students need physical contact, interaction and problem-solving in person. But, I'm very impressed by how our community has stepped up stronger and become more creative. This adaptation is, of course, in line with the 21st-century skills, comprising the 4Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers have been on and off conducting face-to-face learning. How is the school ensuring the education's quality?

YC: We, SPM, have been running online learning since the beginning of the pandemic and have conducted face-to-face learning since September 2021. As an educator, I believe that the best learning experience is when students can learn, explore, and interact in person yet, due to the pandemic, we know there are limitations. That means we, as a school, have to innovate, change, and engage our students in new exciting ways.

Our community has adapted, grown, and learned through this process. We’re immensely proud of our students. Our students have overcome many obstacles exceptionally well and continue to excel in their learning. We’ve embraced the change, questioned our old practices, and developed to thrive in this new era.

DR: One of the basic foundations of the Seven Habits is the more challenging the situation is, the more effective the Seven Habits become. I’ve seen the students and the whole community adapting to the circumstances and uncertainty.

Leadership is within all of us, among our teachers and students. We’re taking the initiative, being proactive (as one of the habits), communicating, and finding ways to improve the quality of our education.

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Teaching and learning aren’t merely limited to the walls inside a classroom, but they could be anywhere. Teachers have found innovative and creative ways for students to grow and become more technologically advanced.

Speaking of community, briefly describe how community engagement is maintained at SPM despite the lost sense of it.

YC: With community engagement, we’re looking at how we synergise with one another. Thus, we identify our community as a whole. Several activities were held this year despite the ongoing situation.

First is our Community Service project led by our student lighthouse team. They organised "For a Cause" events, which raised funds to support the educational needs of children who are at risk. Second is the ASEAN Leadership Forum, an online collaborative forum for young leaders from various schools in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. They collaborated in ways to support causes, discuss global issues, etc.

The third is through the Parent Teacher Organisation (PTO). This highly involved community formed the Purple Run to fundraise for animal protection. We involve our community, reach out, and engage others in sport and exercise for a good cause.

Do you both have a message to convey, concerning education and family?

DR: Uncertainty revolves around our current lives. SPM's annual theme: persistence, perseverance, and prevail.

Through this theme, we would like everybody to be persistent despite the times we stumble. To rise, move forward, persevere, and believe that we shall prevail stronger through this troubling time.

YC: Schools, teachers, parents, and students have to change the way of learning and interaction with one another. We've seen how students and parents struggle. We've seen teachers elevate themselves and those around them. Facing constant change is inevitable.

Referring to Dr Stephen Covey, "There are three constants in life… change, choice, and principles." Everybody has their roles. This is a challenging situation for many people, yet we shall take charge and positively impact ourselves and the people we love. As a school, SPM strives to continue to provide the best possible education for all of our students alongside parents; hence students can benefit from their learning experience.

Mention a fun fact about yourself, Yenny.

I'm passionate about education and helping children in need. A couple of my friends and I are in a cause to support children without education. These children live in slums within our country, where they literally can't read although they are around 12 years old.

We provide basic teaching to these kids.

I'm happy to say some of these fantastic young people have enrolled at state schools, continuing their love of learning.

Where can our readers get in touch with you two and SPM? Feel free to write us at yenny.chandra@ spm.sch.id and ita.rajasa@spm.sch.id! Get in touch with SPM by emailing admin@ spm.sch.id, sending a WhatsApp message to Enrollment at 0816-1690-008 and Student Services at 0816-1690-005.

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eldercare

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Aged Care – Better Here than There?

B Y D U N C AN

G R AH AM

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They see neighbours readying kids for school, the mums checking uniforms and satchels. Be tidy, be polite. Never be ashamed.

That was the story in the years BC (Before COVID). It’s different now. The pandemic has exposed policy flaws – particularly with aged care.

In this mystical mix of ancient traditions, Indonesians show respect for age, the place where we’re all heading. A quarter of Australians are reported to be lonely.

Chances are there’d be only a few Indonesians suffering solitude.

ustralian politicians like to parade their nation’s welfare and medical credentials, claiming a world-class government-funded system ensures the disadvantaged get the attention they need.

If the quote “the measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members” often attributed to Indian statesman Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) remains apt, then Indonesia is doing better than its Ozzie neighbour.

Here in Indonesia, looking after retirees is not a big government responsibility.

Only former public servants, the military, and employees of major corporations get pensions, and they’re small. Just two percent of the national budget goes on social welfare, while Vietnam and Thailand allocate five percent. To fill the gap families are expected to protect, watch and provide, and to do so as their cultural duty.

Readers familiar with kampong and village life will know traditional communities are a mix of newborns, those soon to depart and everyone in-between, students, parents, workers, retirees – every cohort of humanity together.

About 40 percent of Indonesians live in rural desa (hamlets). Come dawn the old folk can be seen easing the younger generation’s workload with cleaning and cooking, washing and bathing, much of it in public.

They move slowly, can be forgetful and maybe need a stick for support. But they’re essential, wanted, not a nuisance. Those too weak to labour can nurse a babe and expand the littlie’s day with lullabies.

When the old-timers breathe no more, the houses they inherited are passed to the next generation. They’ll lie at the edge of the desa alongside those who’ve shared their lives, like Australians once did in village church graveyards, not a huge and distant impersonal urban cemetery run by a government department.

There are downsides. The elderly can get grumpy and annoying, especially when criticising young parents’ modern childcare techniques. The facilities are often substandard. Most desa have electricity but not potable piped water, leaving rivers to wash, bathe, and defecate, which is how President Joko Widodo spent his early years in Solo.

These villages are nothing like the newer suburbs Down Under where homes commonly house working parents and a couple of kids. So where are the Grans and Gramps?

In “clean, modern, well-super vised residential care”, more commonly known as Old Folks’ Homes (OFH). These began mid last century as a response to women entering the workforce, so no longer available to help ageing parents.

At first, the OFHs were small and run by non-profit organisations, often associated with churches and staffed by untrained volunteers.

Life is to be lived.

No matter how old we are, how frail or incapacitated we might be, how rich or poor, we all have the fundamental right to wellbeing, enjoyment and fulfilment as we age.

Then commercial operators moved in.

Eldercare has now become big business – and costly. Entry and exit fees, maintenance charges, and other imposts often drain savings despite government subsidies.

Now the dangers are physical. In one Queensland facility, 100 residents and 82 staff caught the virus. Although the Federal government says victims with other ills are dying “with COVID, not from COVID” the crisis is so bad Army medics have been called in to help with OFH staff shortages.

In Australia, Omicron has killed 566 old people and infected 30,000 OFH staff and residents since the first case last November.

More than 145,000 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in Indonesia since the pandemic began two years ago, but we don’t have age data.

We’re all living longer. The numbers of Indonesians over 60 increased from 4.5 percent in 1971 to 9.6 percent in 2019. World Bank stats show Indonesian women’s life expectancy is now 74 years and men’s 69.4.

Add a decade for the Australian figures.

The Medical Journal of Australia reports Australia has “the highest proportion of older people living in institutional care compared with 11 other nations.”

In Australian residential homes, the workers are a rapidly diminishing force. Many are migrants, carers from cultures vastly different from the cared, taking the low-paid jobs Australians reject. So the occupants are much the same age.

A few Indonesians who’ve lost contact with their families sometimes complete their span on earth in “nursing homes.” Sounds caring, but a 2020 report from Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University said the term has become “embedded in Indonesian society as a place to live for elderly who are poor, are neglected, and do not have families, so it shows unfavourable stigma.” In brief – putting elders in care is considered shameful in Indonesia.

Maybe this should happen in Australia as COVID reveals the wrongs. A twoyear Royal Commission found shocking deficiencies in residential aged care prompting Commissioner Lynelle Briggs to write: “Life is to be lived. No matter how old we are, how frail or incapacitated we might be, how rich or poor, we all have the fundamental right to wellbeing, enjoyment and fulfilment as we age. In order for this aspiration to become reality, our aged care system must be founded on the principles of unfailing compassion — care, dignity and respect.”

In Indonesia, these necessities are provided by families, not agencies. Maybe something Australians need to accept if their Lucky Country is to be fortunate for all.

PHOTO BY DOMINIK LANGE (UNSPLASH)

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observation

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Families and Education: Through Adversity Comes Strength B YD

AV ID

N E S B IT

PHOTO BY CHRIS MONTGOMERY (UNSPLASH)

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ndonesia and the world in general is, and has been, facing challenges never before encountered in modern times and as a result society, in general, has spent the past two years reeling from one crisis to another. As soon as we dare to tell ourselves and each other that the end is in sight and that “things will soon be back to normal”, another brick comes at us from out of the crowd and smacks us square on the forehead, knocking us back to square one.

As a result, it has been hard to make any short or medium-term plans (let alone longterm ones), as industry after industry has been affected, almost always negatively.

Widespread adaptations and compromises have had to be made and “Work From Home” has become the norm in large swathes of the economy.

Whilst many companies and businesses have recently attempted to return to faceto-face working schedules, for some the resumption of offline working has been at best intermittent. A good example of this is the education sector.

Parents have been understandably the most anxious group in society when it comes to contracting the dreaded coronavirus. Quite naturally, there has been extreme reluctance to allow children to be placed in harm's way and so for the vast majority of the past twenty-four months, online schooling has reigned supreme.

With this seismic shift in the delivery of lessons and education in general, so too have attitudes, thought processes, and procedures altered, perhaps permanently. Teachers especially have been charged with making lessons both meaningful and fun whilst being all too acutely aware of the need to guard and nurture the child’s holistic as well as academic wellbeing.

On the face of it, some may be of the opinion that teaching online has many parallels with face-to-face tutoring. After all, education purely involves the imparting and obtaining of knowledge. Right?

assignments and forms of flipped-learning.

These require less intense study periods and more involvement in skill-based learning and are designed to help ease the children’s mental burdens.

Wrong. As any educator worth their salt will attest, the overall holistic and pastoral wellbeing of a child is at least just as important, if not more so, than developing their academic knowledge and prowess, and so teachers around the globe have been challenged to up their collective and individual games. Speaking from personal experience, I can safely state that teachers have had no choice but to become more innovative, creative and empathetic in their teaching.

Children are in the main adaptable souls and their thirst for knowledge and learning has not been diluted by any large degree throughout the pandemic. Naturally, at times most children have encountered bumps in the road and periods of frustration combined perhaps with bouts of loneliness, emptiness and even depression, but in the main, their collective defiance in the face of adversity has been stout and inspiring.

Children studying online have been presented with many obstacles and, indeed, threats. These threats have come to their mental and physical well-being as well as to their academic development due to the amount of time sitting in front of a computer screen deprived of real contact with friends and teachers alike. A whole generation has missed out on two years worth of social development and communication skills and the long-term consequences of these developmental alterations are not likely to be apparent for many years.

Teachers and educators have therefore had to step up to the plate in terms of looking after the children’s mental health and safety as much as possible. Expectations and targets academically are still as high as ever, but the learning process and demands on the students have continued to shift appropriately.

For example, homework in the traditional sense of reinforcement and further practice exercises being set by teachers has – by and large – given way to more summative

Children of different ages have faced difficulties in terms of sitting formal external examinations over the past two academic years, and as we approach the annual examination period once more, it seems increasingly likely that this year’s cohorts could also well be disrupted. Factors such as the type of examinations being sat and the examination boards involved have

Quite naturally, there has been extreme reluctance to allow children to be placed in harm's way and so for the vast majority of the past twentyfour months, online schooling has reigned supreme.

played a part in determining proceedings.

Some students have been evaluated and graded based on coursework and other contributions such as assignments or tasks given, while others have taken examinations at home under conditions that have been adapted to be as close to offline examination conditions as possible.

While education seems to be stuck in a constant state of flux at the moment, family life continues. The easing of restrictions to a certain degree has resulted in more businesses returning to at least partial face-to-face conditions, and this in turn has resulted in another shift in family dynamics. No longer are family members being forced to exist on top of one another thus running the risk of over-familiarity breeding contempt and annoyance.

In this sense, children’s family lives and relationships are perhaps returning to a semblance of normality at a faster rate than their school and social ones are. Dare we say that light is once again visible at the end of what has been a very long and bleak tunnel at the time?

With the government announcing plans to further reduce quarantine periods for those visiting or returning to Indonesia from overseas in March and April, travel may soon become more commonplace once again and families will be able to plan vacations and trips abroad once more should they wish.

It has been a long and bleak period in all our lives, but we have coped. We are still here and our children have done us proud by rising to the challenges faced and by staring down adversity along the way. While we are not collectively out of the woods yet, maybe, just maybe the future is looking just a tad bit rosier.

Empowering Students at Canggu Community School

Canggu Community School (CCS) offers an empowered education and a unique adventure, with a balanced and holistic focus. Our community follows shared values of learning, engagement, respect, and balance. CCS students are happy, feel valued and supported, and are confident to engage in a range of opportunities.

Our campus offers modern learning spaces as well as connections to the beauty and culture of Bali, including our new Primary Campus and Sports Facilities. CCS facilities meet the highest level of safety and health standards.

CCS students engage in world-class curriculum and programmes, including Cambridge IGCSE and the IB Diploma Programme, and we are fully accredited by the Council of International Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. CCS enrols students from 34 countries with expatriate teachers from the UK, Australia, Canada, USA, and others.

Graduates earn strong IB results and attend universities around the world. CCS is a community working together to live our values and support CCS learners.

14

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

tips

Filling the Void: How to Cope Missing Your Family While Overseas B Y S H AH ID N A S H AH D AN

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eing apart from family is one of the hardest things about being an expat. Everytime you miss a birthday, a family event, a funeral, or simply when you know your family needs you by their side, you get this ache in your heart and wish you could teleport over to them. Sadly, flying home frequently is not an option due to cost, distance, and visa issues.

In recent years, COVID has made it even harder to see your family and, as a result, there is an increase in the number of expats returning home for good because they want to be with family during this pandemic.

In this article, I will offer some suggestions for how to cope with missing your family when overseas, though I acknowledge that some of the suggestions would work better post-COVID. Missing important family events and celebrations You can try to be present despite being physically absent by using technology to bridge the gap. We are very lucky that now we have technology at our disposal. There are many video call applications that we can utilise such as Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, Telegram, and Google Meet. Make it a point to call your family members weekly and join in the celebrations via video call.

PHOTO BY BRUNO GOMIERO (UNSPLASH)

I remember the time when I started venturing overseas more than a decade ago; calling my family would involve going to the internet cafe or using expensive international calling cards that burn money by the minute. Thankfully, that is a bygone era.

Fly home when possible Of course, nothing matches being physically home with your family if you have the opportunity. Flying home should be a happy feeling but, unfortunately, I know all too well the divided and guilty feeling you get when you are home and suddenly everybody wants time with you. You start to wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day or that your trip was a little longer.

When you are home, friends will want to catch up with you. It is definitely tough to have to tell your friends that you have no time to meet them. I have learnt over the years to ask myself the main objective of flying home. If it is because of family, then family takes priority. If it is a trip back to see both family and friends, then making a schedule before you arrive home would ensure that you get to spend as much time as possible with both groups.

If you are only back for a short trip, you will need to prioritise whom you will meet. You will need to categorise your friends as close friends and just normal friends. Sometimes, you have to say “no” because your time at home is precious and you want to spend it

PHOTO BY HARRY CUNNINGHAM (UNSPLASH)

with those who matter. I had to schedule a meeting with my close friend between 11pm to 6am a number of times because that was the only available slot I had!

At times, I don’t post my return on social media when my trip back is short and I want to focus on my time with my family. I also acknowledge the fact that over the decade of being an expat, as a result of prioritising my family when I visit, I’ve lost a few friends over the years. I feel it is a worthy sacrifice as family is the most important to me.

Book flights in advance to get discounts Keep a lookout for discounts on f light tickets. Many flight companies offer cheaper f lights if you book in advance. When returning home over a festive period, it is important to book much earlier, not only to keep costs low but also because flights get booked out. A few times when I wanted to f ly home over Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr’) and the Chinese New Year period, f lights were double and sometimes even triple the normal price.

Host your family Invite your family over to visit you in the country you are working in. Sometimes, our working schedule may not permit us to fly home but if you have the means, you can fly your family over to spend time with you.

However, do plan to take time off from work when your family is visiting or at least plan that they visit over the weekend or during a less busy period at work. It would be sad if your family ended up flying over but you were too busy to host them.

My suggestion, if you are working and cannot take time off, would be to engage a tour agency to bring your family on day trips to visit interesting places in your city. At least your family can have fun while you are

You will need to categorise your friends as close friends and just normal friends.

Sometimes, you have to say “no” because your time at home is precious and you want to spend it with those who matter.

at work and you can have dinner together so that they can tell you about the fun day trip they had.

Plan a holiday with the family to another country Being away from home and free from work or school obligations will make everyone in the family more relaxed and you can have a fun family holiday together.

Many countries are making travel easier if you have the necessary COVID vaccinations.

Generally, you just need to test negative with a PCR or antigen test before you f ly but of course, the regulations in each country differ and you will need to research this before booking your family holiday.

However, do take note that due to the everchanging situation, travel restrictions and regulations may change overnight and this can lead to flight cancellations.

If you feel that planning a family holiday together during this pandemic is too risky, you can shelf this suggestion for another time in the future when it is much safer.

Life with COVID-19 Sadly, some of the suggestions in this article may not be possible due to the pandemic, travel restrictions, and the health safety of family members. Hopefully, post-COVID, when the day finally dawns upon us, we can be with our families again.

16

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

psychology

Parents, Here’s How to Help Your Overwhelmed Children B Y MIR E L L A P AN D J AIT AN

Aside from that, other issues include being unable to understand the lesson well and more frequent exposure to gadgets. “This will indirectly, of course, have a bad impact on those who later can become addicted.

If children’s gadget usage isn’t supervised, they’ll be affected by other negative impacts from gadgets such as pornography, online games, etc,” she explained.

I

don’t have a child, yet. I don’t plan on having one anytime soon. Yet, I’m surrounded by friends, associates, and family members who are going through the turmoil of raising their children amidst the pandemic. “As if having a child isn’t challenging enough, now this pandemic isn’t fading away anytime soon, I notice my son being more overwhelmed than usual,” a friend once poured her heart to me about her 10-year-old bundle of joy. Nothing I could say would help her struggles, nor anyone's.

It makes me wonder, though, what solutions can help ease this overwhelming sensation parents and children are both facing nowadays?

Meet Dr Anggia Hapsari, SpKJ, SubSp.AR (K), a Psychiatrist Specialist and Consultant for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Pondok Indah Hospital, Bintaro Jaya.

Having 17 years of experience in child and adolescent psychiatry and consultancy in hospitals and institutions across Jakarta, as well as being a lecturer at a couple of Indonesia’s top universities, Dr Hapsari shared her insights on how parents can help their overwhelmed children in this period.

Get to know your child’s mental condition “Paying attention to the mental condition of children is as important as paying attention to their physical condition. Conditions like stress, depression, and hopelessness are prone to be experienced by children.

Although the symptoms are different for each age, parents need to know them to prevent the condition from getting worse,” she expressed.

The pandemic has undoubtedly impacted adults, yet children are also vulnerable to the pandemic’s effects. Dr Hapsari stated

Wondering how you can prevent your children from being overwhelmed?

Here are several activities and actions you can try: • Build children's relationships with their friends. Parents can use video calls to keep their children connected to their peers.

• Encourage children to do light exercise every day. Light physical movement can actually help improve mood and reduce the stress experienced by children.

• Invite children to enjoy their favourite music. Parents can also add fun dance moves so that the child's mood improves again.

• Entertain children by giving them free time and invite them to explore their favourite activities. Also, spare time to regularly do things together.

• Parents can invite children to help with activities at home. This way, parents receive an extra hand in completing housework, too.

• Gardening is an interesting activity that can be done together with children.

• Meet the needs of rest, vitamins, and nutrients that children require.

• Encourage children's spirituality. Parents can invite children to pray or show gratitude for their current situation.

• Avoid gadgets or information on social media about the pandemic.

that one of them is stress because the changes make children experience fear, worry, and experience anxiety disorders.

Symptoms of an overwhelmed child are: • Difficulty sleeping and eating • Having nightmares • Being withdrawn or aggressive • Experiencing physical complaints without a clear cause • Fearing being left alone • Always wanting to be near parents or becoming very dependent • Having a new fear, for example, a new fear of the dark • Losing interest in playing or doing hobbies • Being sad and crying more than usual for no reason

DR ANGGIA HAPSARI

as well as addiction to the internet, games, and gadgets. “There are many problems with speech delay and tantrums in younger children, too,” she added.

Of course, it isn’t easy for children to understand the situation. Parents should stay calm and not panic so that their children feel safe.

Do you notice changes in your children?

Most common changes in school-age children during the pandemic affect their moods. These, according to Dr Hapsari, are related to the problem of limited interaction between peers, online learning with limited explanations from the teacher along with being given plenty of assignments, social anxiety when dealing with groups of people,

The changes Dr Hapsari noted seemingly correlate with our lives shifting online.

Indeed, hybrid learning was recently introduced – apparently, it remains a hazy concept, similar to how the rest of our future plans are. I often hear complaints from parents regarding when their children will resume face-to-face learning, like their good old days. However, online learning is something that children must apparently come to terms with, though negative impacts arise from the prolonged situation.

“Whether we realise it or not, online schools make students much lazier than before.

One of the most obvious examples is about getting up early. Children following through the face-to-face school model have to get up early, whereas, in the online school method, they tend to be more f lexible to wake up later,” said the Surabaya-born doctor.

These tips allow families to cultivate deeper bonding relationships, especially during a time of uncertainties and major changes.

Perhaps one day, when I do have a mini-me, I can follow these tips.

“If parents notice a change in behaviour that leads to symptoms of stress and overwhelm, you should immediately ask a professional about your child's mental health condition, such as a child psychiatrist or child clinical psychologist, so that the children's mental wellbeing is maintained,” concluded Dr Hapsari.

Dr Hapsari is available for consultation on Wednesdays to Saturdays at 9am-1pm and Thursdays at 4-6pm in Pondok Indah Hospital, Bintaro Jaya. You can also find her at Eka Hospital, BSD on Tuesdays at 5-7pm and Thursdays at 1-3pm. Or visit Smartkid Klinik, Tanjung Duren on Wednesdays and Fridays between 2:30 and 6:30pm.

18

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

education

JIS Students Mobilise Vaccine Drive Two Grade 11 students from Jakarta Intercultural School team up with a West Java Puskesmas to help curb the spread of COVID-19

Conversations with local public health officials revealed that the provision sembako (staple food packages) would act as an effective incentive to overcome hesitancy and low vaccination rates among Tanjung Sari’s population. While people still needed to give up a day’s worth of wages to get the shot, the sembako could ensure they would not have to purchase more food supplies without that day’s income. This method has been proven to encourage individuals to go to vaccination centres in other regions of Indonesia.

Despite our initial worries over vaccine hesitancy, over the course of the day on 15th November, families and large groups of people who had not even preregistered began to arrive. At one point, we had to quickly rush to a nearby grocery store to purchase additional sembako. Bogor Regent Ade Yasin also visited our clinic to see the rapid distribution of vaccines; an important feat, she noted, as the region has long struggled with low vaccination rates.

C

OVID-19 cases in Indonesia peaked in July 2021, with upwards of 30,000 new infections a day. With alarmingly high rates of COVID-19 cases and low vaccination rates, Indonesia was bound to face economic and public health issues. And the most disproportionately affected, rural communities with even lower vaccination rates, would face the most adverse consequences.

Many people in rural areas do not have the means to get paid leave or take a day off without worrying about whether or not they will be able to provide food for their families.

Overall, the clinic successfully vaccinated people with varying vaccine statuses. Some had been vaccinated previously and attended the clinic to receive their second dose, while others were first-time recipients. In all, 1,251 people were vaccinated that day, the highest single-day total since Tanjung Sari began its vaccination efforts.

As Grade 11 students at Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS), we found ourselves increasingly interested in how interconnected our nation’s healthcare system and its economy are and quickly recognised the urgency of increasing vaccination rates in Indonesia. So, on 15th November 2021, in collaboration with the local community health centre (Puskesmas), we launched a vaccine clinic in Tanjung Sari, West Java.

The increasingly high risk of contracting the virus, especially with the surge of the Omicron variant, remains a problem for everybody — especially rural residents. By driving up vaccine rates and eliminating vaccine hesitancy, Indonesia will gradually recover from the pandemic. The clinic showed us that more specific solutions, such as vaccine drives with the provision of basic groceries as compensation, could be implemented to incentivise Indonesians to get vaccinated.

Vaccine hesitancy and mistrust toward science continue to exacerbate Indonesia’s struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. While cosmopolitan cities such as Surabaya in East Java, Medan in North Sumatra and Jakarta continue to have soaring vaccination rates, rural provinces and isolated regions are left behind. Multiple factors, including hesitancy, lack of urgency and accessibility, continue to challenge vaccination rates. Only when efforts directly address these three issues can vaccination rates begin to rise.

While issues surrounding famine, poverty, domestic violence, inequality, and sustaining quality education are imperative, we must consider how the pandemic exacerbates these issues. Higher vaccinations will result in a healthier community, bringing us one step closer to the pre-pandemic way of life. With a more stable economy and a safer, healthier population, we can mitigate other underlying issues in Indonesia.

Tanjung Sari district also struggled with these issues. When we reached out to its regional leaders, they explained that residents were not exactly scared to take the shot, but simply could not afford to. It became clear that the underlying issue with low vaccine rates was not mistrust; it was accessibility. We learned of many possible changes that Indonesia’s multifaceted healthcare system could make in order to increase vaccination rates, as most of the people we encountered were not inherently against vaccines.

The district only had one Puskesmas that accommodated 10 surrounding villages, making it inconvenient for residents to obtain the vaccine. Considering that workers in rural areas generally do not have the privilege of working remotely, vaccines could be an important layer of protection against the coronavirus. Due to vaccine clinics being in far proximity, giving up a day’s salary of work was on the line for anyone who wanted to get a shot. In order to get fully vaccinated, recipients would have to give up at least two days’ worth of salary for both shots, which is vital to making a living.

Over the course of the clinic, we also learned the power of building trust within communities. After successful vaccinations and providing sembako, more and more people started coming. The local health officials and district leaders theorised that people would return home and talk to family or neighbours about the benefits of being vaccinated at the clinic. This cycle continued and defied all our initial expectations. After seeing that the vaccine did not harm them in any way, the community established a stronger sense of trust in their local health facilities and a stronger belief in listening to science.

Vaccine hesitancy and mistrust toward science continue to exacerbate Indonesia’s struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corporations and governments that have the means could make a huge difference. If they took the initiative to fund vaccine clinics and provide sembako, the vaccination rate in Indonesia will significantly increase. Taking a single shot might seem like a small step, but doing so reaps many benefits. Recipients’ perspectives on vaccines can be changed, which is vital for future vaccinations for themselves or their children. More importantly, these vaccine clinics strengthen the sense of trust between people and local health communities. Vaccines are the boost that Indonesia needs to lift itself out of the pandemic.

Written by Darryl and Alexandra. Both are Grade 11 students at Jakarta Intercultural School.

Do you remember when you were 12 years old?

In 2013, when Melati Wijsen was 12 years old, she started Bye Bye Plastic Bags; an NGO with the goal of making Bali plastic-bag free. Through the years of activism, in government meetings, TED stages, awards after awards, Melati’s biggest audience was amongst youth. Melati spent more time in other students' classrooms than in her own, sharing the story about change, sustainability and youth empowerment. No matter where she went, there was always one question: “How can I do what you do?”

After the ban on single-use plastic bags in Bali, answering this question became Melati’s next mission. The idea of YOUTHTOPIA was born.

YOUTHTOPIA is the go-to platform to learn how to become a young changemaker. The mission at YOUTHTOPIA is to provide space that brings young people together, ignites their passions and grows their skills to become active changemakers. After nearly 10 years on the frontlines, starting her change-making journey at the age of 12 years old, Melati has learned a lot. Her first NGO, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, has 60 global teams and played a big role in implementing the ban on single-use plastic bags in Bali alongside other organisations.

As a young changemaker herself, Melati has seen the power of her generation to accelerate change. She has been on the frontlines and seen what is possible!

The online learning platform of YOUTHTOPIA hosts a diverse set of programmes from masterclasses, workshops, mentorships, and more. All programs are created by young changemakers part of YOUTHTOPIA’s Circle of Youth network, nearly 200 changemakers from 40 countries with the aim of bringing frontline knowledge onto the screens of thousands of youth globally. What will you learn? Noting that is in a traditional or normal curriculum of a school.

YOUTHTOPIA does not offer any topics like literate or mathematics. YOUTHTOPIA offers skills that accelerate and activate youth to become a changemaker. Skills like critical thinking, asking the difficult questions and all you want to know about the sustainability goals, leadership, how to start your own NGO, how to create your own campaign, budgeting, confidence in public speaking and much more.

YOUTHTOPIA programs are perfect for any middle and high school student.

Aside from the learning platform that is already live on the website; www.youthtopia.world – YOUTHTOPIA also offers tailor-made reverse mentoring programs for the corporate world.

22

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

education

A School Year of Transitions Nevertheless, the social benefits from being at school are recognised and longed for by many students. A place where students can see their friends again, and work in a group setting on projects makes learning on campus a lot more exciting for most students. The encouraging learning environment that the classrooms bring, and the hands-on tools and activities which are lacking in a virtual world are priceless. Being surrounded by the competitiveness of their peers might also motivate students to do their utmost best.

(Virtual) classroom anxiety Online learning in a virtual classroom setting has posed some challenges for students. In the midst of online schooling, many students came to A for Effort with the concern that they were falling behind in class. Being in a virtual classroom with several dozens of students they often felt uneasy to pose the necessary questions, through private tutoring they felt they had a comfortable place to ask for any clarification they needed.

Some of our students have expressed that they are missing out on a big part of the learning process during their online learning phase. Particularly Science, a hands-on subject that involves a lot of experiments and lab work, has become a difficult subject for students to thoroughly grasp in an online setting.

T

he 2021-2022 school year was a year of transition.

A year where students, after over 18 months of online learning, finally had the chance to transition gradually into the normality of school life on campus.

Must have been exciting for all students, right? Something they sure have all looked forward to since early 2019 when the pandemic first broke out. Finally, face-to-face lessons in a classroom environment, hands-on learning activities, extra-curricular activities - everything was slowly coming back to normal for students this school year.

However, the online lessons did provide students with online resources that they could refer to during their studies. For example, online lessons were usually recorded and students could replay them to review the material when preparing for quizzes and tests, or to get a better comprehension of the material in general.

However, transitioning back to in-person classes has brought a new type of anxiety for students, who have mostly gotten used to class behind a screen for 1.5 years. Without the possibility to replay their Zoom lessons as often as needed, and without the option to hide behind a screen, students are now dependent on their knowledge of the subject matter and level of confidence to ease their way back to the classroom.

However, were all students happy to return to campus?

We at A for Effort, a Math & Science tutoring centre in Jakarta, have spent a great deal of time guiding students with their online learning and their transition back to campus. And given the many different learning types and personalities of our students, we have noticed that while many students are excited to leave their online learning days far behind them, some are hesitant. Why? You might ask.

Uncertainty remains Back to school has not consistently been back to school.

COVID-19 has brought to all of us many uncertainties.

With each new variant comes the potential of another lockdown, which often leads to new school closures and back to online learning. Therefore, some students preferred the more predictable online school environment which came with less surprises than they might be experiencing now.

While dealing with the uncertainties of going back to school, students at A for Effort find that their tutoring lessons bring a sense of routine and predictability in the midst of this, knowing that it is a place they can consistently turn to for guided support.

Self-paced learning with fewer distractions Being at school often brings a variety of social pressures for students, social pressures which often have a tremendous impact on a student’s academic performance. Online learning takes away many of these factors as the student can choose to fully focus on their studies. Therefore, some students, in particular those who are more sensitive to social pressures, might prefer a focused learning environment at home over the social benefits that being on campus brings.

At A for Effort, we place a strong emphasis on enhancing students’ confidence in Math or Science. This is attained by ensuring the student has a thorough understanding of the subject matter, simplifying the material, using real-life examples and rewarding and crediting the student for their accomplishments. This enhanced self-confidence has played a big role in easing the transition for students back to the classroom. We also place a strong focus on test-taking skills as this took a different form during online schooling and is an area students are struggling with since they have gone back to school.

Tutoring - online or offline, which way to go?

A for Effort continues to play a big role in helping students transition back to school life on campus. Enhancing their understanding of Math and Science and hence increasing their confidence in these subjects has aided them during this adjustment and the uncertainties that come with it.

A for Effort is a Math and Science tutoring centre specialised in international curriculums. Open to students of all ages, tutoring sessions can be held at our own classrooms in South Jakarta or online on the Zoom platform. Sign up for a free trial today!

A for Effort info@aforeffort.org www.aforeffort.org +62-(0)819-1100-1203

24

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

insight

Should You be Planning for an IPO? B YR

ID W

AN

J AS IN

Z AC H R IE ( C F O , S E V E N

S T O N E S IN D O N E S IA) A N D

AN D R Z E J B AR S K I ( C O - F O U N D E R , S E V E N

S T O N E S IN D O N E S IA)

M

ost people are under the impression that IPOs and public listings on stock exchanges are only for large limited liability, multi-national conglomerates. Detik recently reported that 54-companies conducted Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (PT Bursa Efek Indonesia, BEI) in 2021with a funding value of IDR 62.61 trillion. And thirty more are lined up for 2022. That’s a serious amount of money in anybody’s books, but the government is also encouraging Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with fewer financial resources to also go public.

Ridwan Jasin Zachrie, CFO of Seven Stones Indonesia and one of Indonesia’s most reputable financial authorities, supports this move saying that “companies with an asset value of just IDR 5-billion with a good prospect for growth, either in an organic or un-organic way, can start the journey to go public in a concrete time frame, starting with corporate actions such as pre-IPO and later apply to make public offerings.” And that’s a paradigm shift, not just because of the huge potential to obtain long-term sources of funding, but also because of the opportunities that present themselves.

And the opportunities are growing The Jakarta Post are reporting that the Indonesia Stock Exchange has “launched two new indexes that are based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores, catering to growing investor interest in the performance of companies beyond their corporate financials.”

So what’s an IPO? Investopedia defines an Initial Public Offering, as the “process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance,” which then allows a company to raise capital from public investors. “The transition from a private to a public company can be an important time for private investors to fully realize gains from their investment as it typically includes a share premium for current private investors. Meanwhile, it also allows public investors to participate in the offering.”

It’s worth noting here, that there are risks involved, both for investors and the company. Zachrie recently wrote in a recent blog on the Seven Stones Indonesia website that “risk is a condition that emerges due to uncertainties. In the business world, uncertainties do occur and should be expected and that’s why it’s crucial for companies to better understand how to manage them in such a way that leads to beneficial future outcomes.”

What are the benefits of an IPO? So, you’ve identified the potential risks and you still want to go public or invest in a small-medium sized business that’s announced its plans to go public; the numbers look good and the future looks promising. Exciting times! What should

PHOTO BY RUBEN SUKATENDEL (UNSPLASH)

you do? Zachrie believes that based on his experience as a practitioner and as someone often referred to in a number of corporate sources on the matter, that “an IPO provides access to markets for additional capital with a relatively low cost. There are other benefits too,” he explains. “An IPO can also accelerate a company’s growth, have tax incentives and increase the company’s value as well as improving a company’s reputation and that’s something that should appeal to a range of MSMEs.” VOI are reporting “the Ministry of Finance will accelerate the necessary regulations, including synchronizing regulations,” to support this. “The Special Staff of the Minister of Finance for Strategic Communications, Yustinus Prastowo, said that this step was in line with President Joko Widodo's direction, so that MSMEs that meet the requirements can enter the capital market … and develop. However, it does need careful planning so that later it does not become a burden to MSMEs. This scenario is very possible to do. It should be a best practice that is applied in order to help MSMEs. It needs regulation, it needs synchronization, coordination, and harmonization so that it really is not a burden.”

IPOs are the new Gold Rush Regional newswires, including Nikkei Asia are buzzing about how BEI is easing rules to draw more IPOs, especially for tech listings, in what’s being described as the next ‘Gold Rush.’ In fact Indonesia is planning to list 14 state-owned companies on the stock exchange by 2023 “to both improve management and replenish public coffers drained by the coronavirus response,” say Nikkei Asia.

The Financial Times recently commented about Indonesia’s booming potential, saying that “in a country where about half of the

270-million population remains unbanked, a million people invested in stocks for the first time this year, according to the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Retail investors accounted for 59-percent of trading value, it said, compared with only 37-percent in 2019… (but) while the exchange has always wanted more retail investors to increase liquidity, the surge poses risks to the exchange – and to popular new trading platforms – as they try to balance nurturing the country’s capital markets with educating novice investors about the risks involved in trading.”

And that’s where Seven Stones Indonesia and our IPO Portfolio Team of Ridwan Zachrie and Umar Abdullah can help; both prominent practitioners in the Capital Markets in the region with extensive experience and impressive success, who can advise and guide you through the entire process. We consider our clients as partners and we believe it’s our mission to help our partners grow and be profitable. This is the motivation behind our most recent initiative to encourage PMA companies established in Indonesia to have a long-term goal to go public. And we believe our timing is perfect!

Hereʼs how we can help you go public A successful IPO journey is a process, a story, which begins with us walking you through the Pre-IPO Phase. This is basically a restructuring phase, which sets the groundwork for becoming publiclytraded and encourages you to ask some serious questions of your business and in so doing, adds a great deal of value to your company. For example: • Transparency of information to the public – can your clients trust you?

• Dilution of control and reduced autonomy – are you doing what’s best for long-term growth?

• Pressure for (short term) performance – are you reaching your targets?

• Ongoing expenses to comply with listed company obligations – are your systems in place?

• Financial readiness – have you built a sustainable business position?

• Growth story – have you established a robust and strong business plan?

• Governance and accounting – have you established a sustainable governance and financial reporting infrastructure?

• Structure – have you achieved an optimum shareholding and corporate structure?

• Tax – have you obtained the most efficient tax planning and identified historical tax health?

If you can answer these questions and address any outstanding issues, we will support you in conducting the all-important IPO Execution Phase, which dives deeper into your company’s structure, financials and positioning to achieve goals geared to enhance the initial valuation of your company and maximise investor confidence and credibility.

But we don’t stop there. Remember, our mission is to be your partner in growth and that means we’re also there for your PostIPO Phase, to help you keep your company on track not just to meet expectations but to beat them!

If you’d like more information on IPOs or want to discuss how your company can go public, please feel free to contact Ridwan via ridwan@sevenstonesindonesia.com

Sources: Nikkei Asia, Jakarta Globe, Media Indonesia, Investopedia, Financial Times, VOI, Detik, The Jakarta Post, Gapura Bali

26

meet the expat

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Education, Family and Career Switch – Let’s Meet Nick Biblis who is in the industry you want to get into or emailing people with questions about potential opportunities. No conversation is too small to have. I think I emailed and met with over a dozen people when I first moved to Indonesia and was looking for my next job. Almost all of those meetings ended without going any further than the initial conversation. I think that’s normal, but all you need is one to turn into something.

I

ndonesia may have been the first overseas country for Nick Biblis to resettle in, but he admits the country has been a great introduction to expat life.

Indonesia Expat chatted with him, the Advancement and Communications Advisor at JIS, regarding his sports activities and insights on education and family life here.

Hi Nick! We’d like to know more about you.

Hi! I’m originally from the USA. I grew up outside of New York City and have lived in a few different places in the USA, like Baltimore and Boston. Indonesia is the first place that I’ve lived internationally and it’s been a great introduction to expat life. I’ve been able to keep up with hobbies here, like jiu-jitsu, and pick up some new hobbies like scuba diving. Before the pandemic, I was even able to volunteer as a jiu-jitsu instructor for students at the Roshan Learning Center.

I’ve been happy to find great opportunities like that here.

As someone who likes to work in a culturally rich environment, did you find that essence from your move to Jakarta?

How has the capital served you?

Definitely. Jakarta has been a great place to be. I moved here with my wife almost four years ago and it feels like every day we learn something new about the city. There are new bits of culture to see at every turn and there’s so much in the city to explore.

From learning about batik and gamelan to sampling different sambals and coffees, the options of what kind of culture you can engage with feel endless.

I think you could spend a lifetime here and still be pleasantly surprised by what you find. It truly feels like there’s something for everyone here as long as you know where to look and aren’t afraid to put yourself out there and have an adventure.

As I said before, I was able to keep up with some of the things that I loved doing back in the USA and that really helped my transition.

As did finding impactful organisations to be a part of, like Roshan Learning Center.

It’s an awesome organisation that supports

refugee education right here in Jakarta, everyone should check them out and volunteer, join their coffee club, or donate if you can!

That’s one thing that’s great about Jakarta; there are plenty of organisations doing important work that you can support and be a part of. I think it’s important to give back and support causes if you have the means.

You could help organisations feed and sterilise street cats or join larger efforts like coral reef restoration projects. If you can, I’d also consider adopting a cat or a dog there are so many that need homes and I can speak from experience when I say they’re a great addition to the family!

As a former travel blogger backpacking Southeast Asia, describe your favourite memory you’ve experienced.

That was such a long time ago! It feels like a lifetime since I did that. As a travel blogger, I travelled through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. It was great, it was just me, my backpack, and whoever I met along the way.

When it comes to talking about my favourite memory, I have to say it comes from my time in Indonesia and the people I’ve gotten to share it with. Every adventure here seems to be the best adventure I’ve ever been on.

But I think what stands out the most are the small moments like renting motorbikes with friends and riding to an empty beach on Lombok or finding the perfect bowl of bubur ayam on a Sunday morning. I’ve had the chance to do a lot of exploring with my wife and the friends we’ve made, and I think those will always be my favourite memories.

You’ve engaged in different industries prior to working at Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS). Say someone wants to embark on a different career path, what would you tell them?

It’s going to sound cliché, but my advice would be to put in the work and do all you can to put yourself in situations to say yes to a new opportunity. This might mean meeting for coffee with a friend of a friend

I’ve also found it helpful to learn as much as I can about what I want to do next. I spend time thinking about my current skills and experiences and see how they’re transferrable. You need to be prepared to say yes when something that you’re interested in comes up. If you wait for the timing to be perfect and for serendipity to kick in, you’ll probably never make that career switch. There’s a writer I like, Shea Serrano, who has a line about working to create the opportunity that I think sums all of this up perfectly, “someone is going to do it, so it may as well be you.” In other words, decide what you want to be and go be it.

Any updates you can share with us about JIS? Things at JIS are going really well! As with many institutions, since the start of COVID, there have been plenty of challenges but we’ve been fortunate to be able to continue moving forward. We recently held a series of Virtual Open House events for parents looking for a new school for their children and saw over 400 people attend. It was an incredible turnout.

We also received a record number of applications for our BTI Scholarship - 478!

This is a fully-funded scholarship available to Indonesian students that attend a state school. It’s one of the ways that JIS can directly support education for individual students in Indonesia. We currently have six scholars at JIS and we had our first two BTI scholars graduate last year. It’s been great to watch the interest in the scholarship grow and even better to see the BTI scholars succeeding at JIS.

The best way for kids to learn is for them to have space and opportunities to fail, then pick themselves back up and try again!

In line with this month’s theme, Education and Family, why do you think it’s fundamental to have a strong foundation within the school walls as well as at home, regarding a child’s future?

The two places that children spend the most time growing up are at home and school.

Each needs a strong foundation to provide a safe and successful environment for children. Kids need to be able to experiment and take healthy risks as they learn about themselves.

In my opinion, the best way for kids to learn is for them to have space and opportunities to fail, then pick themselves back up and try again! One of the best parts of childhood is trying different things and seeing what you’re interested in. This could be trying out a new hairstyle, joining a science club, listening to a new genre of music, or trying their hand at poetry. Many of our students might not even yet realise how lucky they are to be attending a school that supports and believes in them. Hopefully, as they continue to grow, they look back on their years at JIS fondly and think – “How lucky was I!” Having a similar environment at home helps in all of the same ways, if not more.

Has it been hard for you to be away from your family in the US? Do you have any tips for fellow expats working away from their families?

It’s been really hard at times. I’m lucky that I moved here with my wife, she’s a rock star and the reason that I’m in Jakarta. She was hired as a teacher at JIS and why we moved here, so without her I wouldn’t even be talking with you now.

Doing this together has made being away from the rest of our family a little bit easier but we miss them all the time. I do my best to be the one that texts or calls regularly.

Technology makes it easy to see each other and to keep in touch. I would say, be the one that makes the effort and picks up the phone or hits the send button. Any time that you’re really feeling homesick and a call or a chat won’t solve it, plan a trip – that always seems to take my mind off of things!

Complete this sentence: “Education and family amidst a massive change are…” “in a position to work together, try new things, and create an environment that sets their children up for success.”

What’s next for you, Nick?

Who knows! I never know where the road will take me, but I’m open to any adventure.

During my first year in Jakarta, I studied for and took the law school entrance exam, so there’s a good chance that’ll be the next challenge for me.

How can our readers get in touch with you and JIS? If anyone wants to get in touch, they can reach me at nbiblis@jisedu.or.id. If they have any questions about JIS, they can visit www.jisedu.or.id.

28

education

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Sampoerna Academy, Indonesia’s Pioneer in STEAM Education excel, and succeed in their higher education and life outside school,” expressed Guvercin.

Sampoerna Academy strives for students from elementary and beyond to solve and analyse problems as they’re equipped with technological tools and collaborative learning strategies across its curriculum.

One method is through Project-Based L ear ning (PBL), a constr uc tiv ist instructional approach where students engage in a meaningful inquiry of their personal interest as well as having a stronghold in collaboration and personalised learning. Furthermore, PBL on STEAM subjects is proven to develop 21st-century skills.

“We do strive to cultivate 21st-century skills from a young age through STEAM Education,” said Guvercin. Personal accountability and the development of interpersonal skills are fostered in students since teachers facilitate learning through group projects and real-life learning scenarios derived from hands-on tasks given at all grade levels. Students are then given the opportunity to research, collaborate, be creative, and apply their knowledge and skills.

E

ducation is no stranger to change.

Schools have innovated into creative and innovative measures to ensure top-notch quality for students to benefit from.

Students have much more awaiting in their lives. However, the present is a core aspect to navigate them into their individual excellence. This comes down to choosing the right school, regardless of which grade they’re enrolling in. Be it starting from scratch in their primary school years or nearing the end of secondary school level, a school determines their mindsets, both academically and personally.

With change comes a new approach. You’ve probably heard of STEAM Education beforehand. What is it actually? In short, STEAM Education is designed to prepare students to learn how to think by reinforcing five critical components called the 5Cs: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Character. These vital skills enable students to solve problems and encourage them to become future innovators. Interesting – who wouldn’t want their children to flourish into their authenticity?

Introducing Sampoerna Academy, a pioneer in STEAM Education in Indonesia.

Sampoerna Academy is an intercultural school committed to giving the best international standard education from early learning to grade 12, by applying a holistic method, none other than the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) approach.

According to Dr Mustafa Guvercin, the School Director of Sampoerna Academy, the school helms a philosophy that encourages students to inquire, explore, innovate, and communicate, thus providing vital skills required for leadership anywhere they seek to be in. “Coupled with internationallyrecognised academic credentials, we are equipping our students to compete and succeed at every stage of life. With the advent of the information age available at our fingertips, our job as a school is to teach our students ‘to learn how to learn’,” Guvercin added.

A STEAM-focused education integrates and applies knowledge across multiple disciplines with hands-on and mindson lessons, which makes the students see holistically. Therefore, Guvercin continued, a STEAM-integrated curriculum provides students with the opportunities to explore STEAM-related concepts and see how they apply to everyday life.

We are equipping our students to compete and succeed at every stage of life.

Besides being a pioneer in STEAM Education, Sampoerna Academy has an environment designed to encourage a culture of innovation and collaboration.

Having the integration of communication, multiple language prof iciency, and collaboration in team projects differentiates the school from other schools in the Southeast Asian region. There are currently five Sampoerna Academy campuses located in Indonesia; L’Avenue Jakarta, Sentul, BSD Tangerang, Medan, as well as Surabaya.

Sampoerna Academy has a studentcentred educational foundation that strongly emphasises STEAM. This entitles students to prosper as mature, confident global citizens who have passionate and determined purposes in this world – as bright young individuals enriched with ample education for further endeavours.

“Sampoerna Academy offers parents who want their children to have the best international education using STEAM method learning focus on the 5C competencies: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Character while also upholding IGNITE values,” concluded Guvercin.

“As we are the pioneer of STEAM in Indonesia, we are using STEAM-focused education and a philosophy that guides students to become lifelong learners, to ensure our graduates are futureproofed,

Parents, this is your sign to explore more on STEAM Education at no better place to guide you and your children other than Sampoerna Academy. It’s never too late to make a change.

30

education

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Nature, Our Greatest Teacher Imagine having the space to breathe, play, and learn in the world's most stunning natural landscapes. This is Green School.

Never has the gap between what education offers and what the world needs been greater. For our children to prosper and humankind to flourish, we need a new kind of education. The "Green School Way" is a way to look at education with a progressive lens. We educate children from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12, with a "living" curriculum that embraces the principles and methodologies of education conventions, and around them, builds a new model of education.

For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic made all too clear how the environments in which many people spend most of their time do not encourage connection. We all crave connection – to each other and the outdoors. The impact of the natural world on both our mental and physical wellbeing is one of the many reasons why learning in nature is a core principle of Green School.

Think of all the parents and children constantly online and socially distanced this past year. The condition of the world today has reinforced the importance of the Green School way of education and why, more than ever, what we need is “a ruthlessly relevant education.”

(Chris Edwards, Founding Head of School, Green School New Zealand). An education that involves getting back to the lessons found in nature and focused on building and caring for communities.

A look at the Latin root of the word “bewilderment” – parted from the wild – reveals how a lack of connection to nature can leave us feeling confused and anxious.

As our living and schooling spaces have become increasingly disconnected from the wilderness, we’ve

also experienced a collective rise in people suffering from anxiety and depression. We think it is time to do some “rewilding” and harvest the benefits of studies that show the numerous benefits of learning in nature, including: • Increasing a child’s daily physical activity • Enhanced confidence and a stronger sense of self • Supporting the development of fine motor skills as well as decision-making and problem-solving skills • Increasing students’ enthusiasm for learning • Decrease in symptoms of ADHD and lower levels of stress in both students and teachers

“It’s not natural to be completely isolated from our planet and our weather, the wind and the rain, it’s not really a way to live. It certainly is not a way to learn about our world,” says Green School co-founder, John Hardy.

“When it rains our students can not only look out and see the rain, but they can also hear the rain and smell the rain. I think the opportunity to experience our environment so deeply and intimately is really important because managing our climate and protecting the natural world will be the single biggest challenge of our students’ time.”

Green School was built according to the principles of Biophilia, the innate human instinct to connect with nature and other living things. Biophilic Design is a concept used within the world of architecture to increase a building’s connectivity to the natural

environment. Rather than looking at a destination and building a property that dominates the local ecosystem, Green School was intentionally built to work in harmony with nature – allowing our local wildlife to suffuse with the buildings themselves.

Because of this, our students don’t have to go out of their way to experience the natural world – and get all the health benefits associated with doing so – because the natural world is directly under their feet and around them.

Rugged, hot and muddy… soothing, adventurous and stunning – these are not words usually associated with a school campus, but this is Green School.

When students interact with nature, they develop a relationship with it. When students have a relationship with nature, they care for it – caring for the wellbeing of our planet and, by extension, future generations of humans at the same time.

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online learning

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Learning through the Pandemic B Y P R AMO D

K AN AK AT H

numbers, and one of the best ways to not get affected by it is to stop obsessively checking the statistics. Read the news, get a clear idea of the situation worldwide and in your country, but do not count the numbers daily.

This should help let you off the COVID hook as should an educated individual expects to do. This can also serve as one of the first steps toward moving toward more informed and wiser approaches to dealing with a difficult situation.

UNICEF remarks that: while it is important to acknowledge the scale of what is happening globally, make sure to emphasise all the efforts made and precautions taken to reduce risks in the school reopening plans’ in its advice to teachers. The keywords are “efforts” and “precautions to reduce risks.”

PHOTO BY GIOVANNI GAGLIARDI (UNSPLASH)

E

ver since classrooms shifted to computers and smartphones, our attitude to work and study has been showing consistent variations.

Admit the fact that we were not ready for such an apocalyptic unleashing of home learning conundrum. Though this tough phase has been sticky for only two years, it has managed to delve deep into everyone’s psyche, and students are probably the hardest hit in terms of growing up, learning new skills and being assessed. To the extent that it is able to wipe out the sweet memories of mingling, playing and interacting in various other ways with classmates and teachers. Even the lucky ones who had opportunities of returning to school had to be content with a turn-taking system with numerable restrictions in place. As we talk about this, Omicron is still dancing out there and many schools are still cautious about returning to a full-fledged daily lesson scenario.

Emotional wellbeing is an expression you may have heard being used in the many months when we were gripped by fear and anxiety. Here in Indonesia, elsewhere in Asia and other parts of the world, educators, universities, and NGOs have been offering workshops and webinars in order to provide support to the workforce during these difficult times. Students have been receiving this too, in the forms of school-conducted workshops and counselling sessions. There is definitely a huge difference between adults and children when we discuss the effects of home-bound activities and the impact of lockdown situations. Common factors such as laziness and feeling of lack of freedom apart, both view and perceive the pandemic blues in different ways.

Students probably started feeling the burden well after many adults started struggling with the situation. The role of higher responsibility that rests with the adults and the seemingly easier ways of dealing with things that characterise students’ age could have been factors that caused the difference in this timeline. Nevertheless, it seems that after about two years of being on Zoom and MS Teams, the bigger losers are students as theirs is a time to get into the life of things, to experience the wide world in a miniature form inside classrooms and to practise skills with hands-on activities.

As we talk about reopening schools, there are certain things students can do to better prepare themselves for a strong comeback and achieve a stable mental to make the retransition smooth.

1. Stop Counting In the early days of COVID-19, everyone developed a habit of counting the number of positive cases on a daily basis. The media still keep their routine of publishing the

There is definitely a huge difference between adults and children when we discuss the effects of home-bound activities and the impact of lockdown situations.

2. Get into Action You will return to schools following strict safety procedures under guidance from your teachers. While it is still necessary to follow rules and regulations, there are many things you can still do at home. It is time to deck the classroom boards and walls that have been left colourless for a prolonged time. Spend a weekend doing some work on a flip chart, drawing or writing down something fun.

Or, draw some colourful pictures related to some of the subjects. Haven’t you been missing these activities, sitting together on the classroom floor in groups? Well, those days will return, but do this at home, and bring them to school when it reopens.

3. Rein in the Gadgets You have been in front of screens throughout this online season, adding extra pressure on your eyes that was inevitable. If you have not managed to reduce the use of your smartphones for other purposes such as browsing, chatting, watching films and playing games, make sure to do that with a self-promise at this moment. Your eyes need longevity, as does your body. Surveys indicate that wearing spectacles among Gen-Z students is much higher compared to people who did their schooling until around the end of the 90s. This has direct connections to the spread and popularity of smartphones in the noughties. So, next time you beam the bright light of your phone up close to your face in the dark bedroom before dozing off, think.

4. Write, not Type You have been typing your way through assignments and assessments all this while.

When was the last time you held a pen in your hands? Remember that schools have not completely switched over to the online system, and will not do so in future. Though it has been quite some time we have been in the typing practice, it was the call of a natural force. When we get back, we will get back to all the things we had been doing in the pre-pandemic times. So, get ready for the final examinations and international assessments such as IB and Cambridge. Let the pen and paper stage a comeback too.

PHOTO BY MIKE TINNION (UNSPLASH)

New to Jakarta? Look for a Doctor!

a plan for the regular follow ups. Your family doctor can facilitate the communication with your specialist. Monitoring your condition on behalf of the specialist can also be done by a good family physician.

You and your family might be in good health, but in general everyone needs some medical input at some point in time. I think it is very important that you at least identify a clinic that you are comfortable with.

Look for a group of medical professionals who you can turn to, with any concerns. I would like to share some information to make life a bit easier.

Discuss any concerns with your trusted medical practitioner. It I important that you identify a clinic that you are comfortable with.

GOOD PRACTICE provides house calls and COVID-19 testing (we can also come to your house for testing).

Common health problems for expats living in Jakarta There are three things to expect when you are living in Jakarta; infectious diseases, non-infectious diseases and accidents/injuries.

Infectious diseases, like foodborne, air borne, or even body fluid transmitted diseases are common to get in Indonesia. Non-infectious diseases, or chronic diseases are sometimes unavoidable depending on your risk profile. Accidents and injuries can happen anywhere.

Rhesus negative blood is very rare in Indonesia. Join our registry: Rhesusnegative@goodpractice.co.id What to do when you are sick Feeling unwell can be a challenge for someone who is new to Jakarta. First advice would be to seek an opinion if you are unsure about your condition. You may use Dr Google, talk to friend or even a medical professional back home. If possible, visit a clinic that you are comfortable with. In an ideal world you should have an assessment by a trusted medical practitioner. Your medical practitioner will give a possible diagnosis. A management plan needs to be mutually agreed upon. You need to voice your expectations and ask for possible options. (Are you expecting a referral? Do you think further treatment should be done abroad?)

Preventive actions To avoid diseases from happening, you need to know how to manage avoidable risks. For infectious diseases, there are lots of

HOUSE CALLS ARE PROVIDED FOR EVERY CONDITION INCLUDING VACCINATIONS AND CHILDHOOD IMMUNISATIONS.

vaccinations available to protect you, including vaccinations against Covid-19. Food prepared under unclear circumstances, tap water, and mosquitos should be avoided. Identify a clinic that you are comfortable with! You can discuss your own your risk profile with your trusted physician.

In a tropical country like Indonesia, there are a lot of infectious diseases. Infectious diseases can be spread by water and/or by food such as traveler’s diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever and amoebic dysentery. Insect bites can spread diseases like malaria, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, zika and chikungunya.

Tuberculosis, influenza and also Covid are transmitted by coughing and sneezing. Body fluid transmitted diseases like STI’s, HIV/ AIDS, Hepatitis B & C are also common in Indonesia. There are possibilities of getting Rabies and Avian influenza if you are exposed to certain animals.

Best of all is that you now can have a consultation with anyone of our medical team from whatever location. We have introduced TELECONSULTATIONS. Now, you can connect with us directly.

Good Practice Clinic has patients from 73 countries. We have added Mauritius and Trinidad Tobago to our list. Our English speaking staff implements International guidelines.

We provide highly personalized care. Try us!

Chronic disease management If you are suffering from a chronic disease, we advise you to have a list of your regular medication. You should identify a doctor who can regularly check upon your condition and someone who can advise which (specialist) doctor you should see. Make

Dr Steven Graaff, MD, MRCGP, the founder of Good Practice Clinic is a graduate of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Before completing his formal training in General Practice in the UK, he worked in several hospitals, occupational health and general practice in the Netherlands and the UK. As a medical professional with international experience,Steven decided to start his own clinic – Good Practice, in Jakarta

Jl. Bangka Raya #106B Jakarta 12730 Tel. +62-21-7183140 info@goodpractice.co.id

www.goodpractice.co.id

34

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

JAKARTA

11 Archipelago Hotels Awarded by Trip.com Archipelago International, Southeast Asia’s largest private and independent hotel management group, is delighted to announce that 11 of their multiaward-winning hotels across Indonesia have added yet another award to its name. This year, eight hotels received “Member’s Choice of Preferred Hotels” and three hotels received “Most Recommended Hotels Award” from Trip.com. Each year, Trip.com selects hotels that are “stellar examples” of the exceptional level of customer review and top room nights production.

Trip.com is a sub-brand of Trip.com Group (Nasdaq: TCOM; HKEX: 9961), a global travel services provider that also has Skyscanner, Ctrip and Qunar under its umbrella. With over 1.2 million hotels in over 200 countries and regions, Trip.com has an extensive hotel network providing customers with a fantastic choice of accommodation.

“This is a truly tremendous accolade for our hotels and I would like to dedicate it to our highly efficient

and committed staff who are willing to go the extra mile and stop at nothing to ensure that every guest feels cared for. Most of all, our heartfelt thanks to the many loyal and supportive guests who took the time to vote for us,” expressed CEO and President of Archipelago, John Flood.

Member’s Choice of Preferred Hotels: • ASTON Anyer Beach Hotel • ASTON Batam Hotel & Residence • ASTON Kemayoran City Hotel • ASTON Pluit Hotel & Residence • favehotel LTC Glodok • favehotel Sidoarjo • Harper Cikarang • The Grove Suites Most Recommended Hotels Award: • ASTON Inn Batu • ASTON Kartika Grogol Hotel & Conference Center • ASTON Sidoarjo City Hotel & Conference Center

JAKARTA

Navigate your Business Venture in Indonesia with Business Mixer

Indonesia attracts business people from all around the world. Whether it’s an investment, distribution, service, property, or a range of other sectors, doing business legally in a foreign country requires a comprehensive understanding. You can always read about it, but with Indonesia’s ever-changing policies couched in extensive detail, it’s remarkably helpful to have someone, or an institution, to talk to.

Enter the Business Mixer. This mini-seminar and networking event is organised

by Seven Stones Indonesia in collaboration with Indonesia Expat. Entrepreneurs, investors, and other business service providers gather to share and network over drinks and snacks.

The first-ever Business Mixer took place at Seven Stones Indonesia’s office at Noble House, South Jakarta on 17th February, 6-7:30pm. Speakers on the night were Terje H. Nilsen of Seven Stones Indonesia, who covered how expats can purchase property in Indonesia, as well as Gede Udik Apriadi of LMATS Consulting who laid down the Voluntary Disclosure Program, or the tax amnesty. Each speaker held a Q&A session after their presentations. Afterwards, all participants got the chance to network.

“Anyone can come but we do focus more on an expat market to build opportunities and hold presentations on Indonesian taxation, regulations, and so on. While at other times it could be based on case studies or someone who wants to present on their business,” explained Nilsen. “We want to do this at least once a month, where we have discussions but we also want to have social events where there’s no topic; just meet up and have nice food.”

The Business Mixer appoints speakers from various business backgrounds to engage with the event's attendees, discussing relatable and informative topics that will be beneficial for expats and Indonesians alike to navigate their business ventures in Indonesia. Stay tuned for news on the next Business Mixer by following @indonesiabusinessmixer and @sevenstonesindonesia both on Instagram and Facebook!

35

Indonesia E xpat Issue 282 | March 3 – April 6, 2022

Expat Advertiser

Send your classifieds to: info@indonesiaexpat.biz Next Deadline: March 30, 2022

JAKARTA Automotives Hyundai H1 Royale. 2012.

Outstanding condition. Only one owner. All maintenance done on t ime a nd a s recommended by Hyundai.

Only 36,000km. Rides like new. All original paperwork, documents and maintenance papers included. Rp399 m i l l ion. r ela xd n h appy@ yahoo.com or WhatsApp: +6281337715255.

Jobs Available Hello, we are looking for a video editor. The task is to shoot and edit video for social media. We will shoot how the villas are being built, Interview the builder. Footage project construction. Video length 7 to 10 minutes for YouTube, 1 minute for Instagram. We will need 4 videos per month. Salary Rp2 million. If you don’t have equipment, we can provide it.

For mor e i n f or m a t ion please contact us via WA +6281238677243.

ART TEACHER Jogjakarta Community School Salary: very competitive and dependent upon qualifications and experience. To include other benefits Job benefit Highlights: • BPJS Kesehatan, BPJS TK • Maternity • Other benefits to be discussed with candidates Job Description Job Requirement: • Must possess at least a bachelor degree majoring in Fine Art with min GPA. 3.00 • Have a minimum of 5 years’ teaching experience • Able to communicate fluently and write in English to a high professional level.

• Have a passion for teaching and enjoy working w ith children & teenagers • Must be familiar with the Cambridge Curriculum (CIPP, CHECK POINT, IGCSE and ‘AS’ level) or have equivalent experience that is transferrable • To possess good interpersonal skills and confidence • Has a pleasant personality and is keen on life-long learning • Is computer literate. Ability to teach virtually is an advantage Job Responsibilities: • Clear vision and is able to focus on students' achievement • Constantly monitors and supports all students' progress and be accountable for their progress through timely and suitable interventions

• Is able to write good lesson plans and deliver lessons to a range of classes of various age groups • Is able to adopt the given scheme of work – using and producing appropriate teaching materials, audio and visual resources etc. for effective teaching • Responsible for ba sic administrative work such as preparing report books, class register and attendance records.

• Possess the skills of good a nd ef fec tive cla ssroom management • To conduct remedial lessons for weaker students, as and when needed • To design appropriate student worksheets, tests and examinations as in formative and summative assessments • To mark and provide timely and appropriate feedback on oral and written assignments • To assist in after-school class duties, usually for extracurricular activities • To be involved in activities such as sports competitions, school events, excursions, as and when instructed by the school leaders • To maintain good classroom discipline through appropriate b e h av iou r mo d i f ic a t ion st rat eg ie s (no c or pora l punishment, etc) • To ensure the safety and security of the students in the class and within the school premise • To continually broaden and deepen subject matter mastery and syllabi to be applied in teaching and learning process • To per for m work in accordance with the school rules (work on time, dress properly, keep professional image, attend morning briefing etc) For more information about Jo g j a k a r t a C o m mu n i t y School, plea se v isit jog jacommunit yschool.org.

For the right candidate there is the potential for a leadership position as the Director of Campus arts. This is a whole school, cross campus additional role that is additionally salaried.

Property

Fo r rent: Apar tment Kempinski Private Residence, 16th f loor, fully furnished.

Price negotiable. Include : tax & service charge. Exclude : water, electricity & internet.

Contact:+6281318920663 / +6285711363663.

New in Indonesia? Keen to learn the language and speak like a local? Weekend classes only. For more information & appointment: bahasaprivate@ gmail.com

For rent : fully furnished, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 storey, join pool , 24-hr security, in a complex, South Jakarta. For lease inquiry. Please contact direct owner by email ; pitra@ alied.co.id or +62811180605.

For Sale Suvarna Golf Club Jakarta: Jl. Skadron Halim Perda na k usuma , Ja k a r t a Timur 13610 Indonesia. Valid until 4 October 2045. Benefit: • Unlimited free green fee • Accompanied guests who come to the Golf Club with the Gold Member will receive Gold Member prize on any given days • Dedicated locker access • Special price for the usage of Penthouse room, VIP room, and Ballroom • Special price for the usage of Driving Range • Special price at Suvarna Golf Academy and Suvarna Junior Golf Academy Membership price : Rp292,050,000 (nett) Contact to +6281586080999.

2 gas burner Cordon Bleu Deluxe stainless steel BBQ. At 9 years old she’s hosted a few BBQs, but is still going strong. This BBQ includes a v iew ing w indow a nd thermometer, as well as two side tables to rest food trays, and your beer! For only IDR 2.5mio this family favourite could be yours! Message me at +6281197704056 for photos (of the BBQ) Services Drum lessons at your home?

Please contact Pak Ading at +6281291001984. 35 years of experience, English speaking, beginners-advanced, electronic or regular drum kit. References available upon request. Email: nmstewart@cbn.net.id I am a NCSF & ISSA certified strength & conditioning coach, specializing in Fat loss, sports injury rehabilitation, strength training and general fitness, please contact me if you or someone around you is looking for a Personal Trainer who can visit your home/apartment. If you are based near or around west Jakarta we can also use my training studio, Thank you.

WA: +6281808087322.

Hello my name is Dahlia. I'm a swimming instructor since 2015. I was a water polo athlete.

I can teach all ages and strokes.

Not only a swimming instructor but also I can teach math for elementary school. I was teaching math since 2019. Now, I was teaching some schools in Jakarta. Please contact Dahlia +6283875214710.

A Qualified French and Bahasa Teacher for expatriates and students at international schools. Conduct the class online.

Contac t Nov i +62816704370.

Personal Trainer For Fitness & Fat Loss After 35. Hi, I'm Andri. I’m an NASM certified personal trainer and Precision Nutrition Lv. 1 cer tif ied nutrition coach with close to 10 years of coaching experience.

I’m looking for men and women ages 35 and up who are looking to lose weight, feel great and boost their immune systems in safest and most enjoyable manner from their homes.

If you’re struggling to keep up with regular exercise and healthy eating habits during the pandemic, or you’d like to optimize your current health and fitness regime while living in Indonesia, then I might be able to help you. I offer both virtual and in-person coaching.

Rate starts from Rp. 250K for a 30-minute 1-on-1 virtual coaching session. For more information about my services and booking a free consultation (or trial lesson,) go to: https:// www.jakartafitnesscoach.com Household Staff Available Looking for weekend nanny in SCBD. We are looking for a nanny to take care of our babies every weekend from Saturday afternoon to Sunday 9pm. (Stay in for one night) We have another helper with another baby, so we just need to take care of one baby at a time. Salary is 500K IDR for 1.5 day. English speaking is preferred. Stability is our priority (can stably come every weekend, on time). If you or you have any recommendation, please contact me Tiffany +6282147216612.

Very reliable, kind, and hardworking driver: Our driver (3 years of service) is available as we have left Indonesia.

His driving style is careful and smooth (no car sickness), he is always willing to work (weekends etc), he is reliable, trustworthy, punctual (always 15 minutes early), and very

Serviced Office • Virtual Office • Meeting Facilities • Company Incorporation Located in Kuningan Business District, integrated with shopping mall and residential enable you for a more convenient and easier way of doing business in Jakarta. With flexible lease terms, ready to use office suites, immediate office setup, daily receptionist and maintenance services, 88 Service Office leaves you free to run your businenss without the day to day hassles of managing a conventional office space. "At 88 Service Office, we enable you to focus on your core business with friendly professionalism and affordability flexibility."

Jl. Raya Casablanca Kav88 | Phone: 021-29631688 Email: sales@88office.co.id | Web: www.88office.co.id

kind and friendly. He earns the legal minimum wage (about IDR 4 million per month plus overtime.) Please contact me for a reference (whatsapp +33 5141 6735) or him directly: Uki: +6281298174467.

BALI Property

Reduced in price! Bungalow of 100 sqm located on a plot of land of 740 sqm with an

additional 770 sqm of empty land, ready to be built on. The bungalow is located in Jasri , in the province of Karangasem, Bali. Reduced price from EUR249,000 to now only EUR125,000. All inclusive with permits, conveniently located just off the main road in Jasri, that connects with Amed and Lovina. For more information www.bungalowtengahsawah. c om or c ont a c t T he o (+6281239159228) for viewing and appointment.