Journal from the Ground
by Kelly Craft and Kari Krakow

Due to the timing of this event and the time in our life, we volunteered to go to Indonesia over the February break to help in any way that would be a benefit. Our reasons for volunteering were mainly to help with this tragedy and also see what kind of connection we could bring back to our classroom as the children are aware of this event and have been talking about it in one way or another.

We know that children learn best through meaningful experiences. One of our main goals in the early childhood curriculum is to help the children develop social and emotional skills, learn about others, come out of their naturally egocentric world, and learn to care about others in a larger community other than their families. Working through this type of event in a way that the children can understand is critical to all of the children. Children can understand that it is important to help others who are in need. At the same, we hope the children in Aceh will be happy to know that they have friends half way across the world who care and are ever willing to support them.

Our trip to Banda Aceh, will bring the outside world into the immediate lives of the children from both communities in a meaningful way. To the children in our school, we can show pictures of the site in Aceh, the people building the school, and the materials that we have delivered. To the children who we will be meeting in Aceh, we will bring messages of hope from our children in our school. We anticipate the children’s letters will begin a connection between them and with that, help to create better understanding with the people of Banda Aceh.

Finally, we would like to thank Aceh Relief Fund (ARF) for helping to organize the trip so we are safe, productive, and efficient. We will deliver much needed school supplies to support the school that ARF is helping to rehabilitate. In addition, this visit will be a way to build relationships and make connections between communities in Aceh and Central New York. The building of a people-to-people connection in a meaningful and respectful manner is an important ingredient for a long-term relationship which is crucial to the process of rebuilding Aceh.

Kelly (left) and Kari posing with the donated school supplies and toys. Picture by ARF, Feb 17th.