Educators seminar in Kupang, Indonesia

Family Care Indonesia (FCI) had been invited to Kupang, a city in the east of Indonesia, to conduct a seminar on how to use the Treasure Attic educational series in pre-schools. This was our first time conducting this sort of seminar so we spent a good deal of time preparing the material before leaving Jakarta. The seminar was to be held in the local language so all materials had to be translated. We translated five Treasure Attic activity books, a teacher’s guide on how to use the activity books as well as the seminar program itself – all of which were to be given for free to each of the 200 preschool representatives attending the seminar.

On June 13, 2009, our team of five FCI volunteers left from Jakarta to Kupang. Our seminar package included five different bilingual VCDs to accompany the activity books and teachers guides. This meant bringing along 1,000 VCDs and 200 sets of all the printed material which all together made up about 200 kilos of overweight check-in luggage. Thankfully the airline agreed to only charge us a small minimal fee. We arrived in Kupang in the evening after a three hour flight.

Our seminar was scheduled for the 15th of June, so we had one day to finalize and prepare the hall where the seminar was to be held. Upon arriving, we found out that the hall we had planned to use would no longer be available. Much to our relief, the Governor’s wife invited us to hold the seminar in the Governors hall at his official residence.

The seminar was a great success. The Governor’s wife gave some opening remarks at the beginning of our presentation and all of the attendees were very excited to receive our materials. Fivi, one of our friends from Jakarta, came along with us to help with the translating of the material. In fact, she was still working on some of the final seminar material during our first lunch break and miraculously everything was translated and ready just in the nick of time. We couldn’t have done without dear Fivi, who presented the main part of the seminar by introducing the Treasure Attic VCD’s and explaining how to use the activity pages.

The following Saturday after the seminar, there was a graduation for all the preschools in Kupang; 1,500 children were graduating from preschool and starting Elementary school. We received a personal invitation from the Governor’s wife to celebrate with them. This memorable event gave us an opportunity to meet and talk with all those who had attended the seminar the week before.

We wanted to say a special “thank you” to Activated Ministries for sponsoring all the VCD’s and printed material for the seminar. This entire seminar was given for free and all made possible through the sponsorship of Activated Ministries and local Indonesian sponsors.