Making A Difference

My Vocation…..The Difference

Having established myself as an educator I can’t help but to look back to where I started from and how I am led into this career.

After graduating from high school, I wanted to pursue into the medical world…I wanted to be a Pediatrician but somewhere along the way it ricocheted into the education world. Spending years to complete the bachelor degree in Education won’t suffice for someone to be called a true educator.

After completing my bachelor degree at the age of 19, I received a lot of offers to teach in this school and that school. Like any other fresh graduate, I was too excited to be employed and in my case all I had to do was to choose which school…but again my path was plummeted.

THE DAY OF CHARITY OF LAKESIDE MONTESSORI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL AT SDN JEJALEN JAYA 02 BEKASI

Being one of the best Montessori Schools in Jakarta (you all have to agree on this statement because at the back of your mind…it is TRUE) we always adhere to the teachings of Maria Montessori. Helping other people is one of these teachings.


Helping other people is very abstract in its sense. Who do we help? How do we help? When do we help? For how long do we help? These are the questions most of us would be asking.


It was in the year 2005 when Lakeside Montessori School started its outreach program a.k.a. CHARITY. I remember so well that our first recipients were the poor school children on Cibubur. From that year on, together with the help of parents, we have committed in reaching out to the poor children and their families.

August 31, 2010, when we as a community set forth to bring the gifts of LOVE to the children and their families together with teachers and staffs of SDN JEJALAN JAYA 02 TAMBUM, BEKASI and upon our arrival we were welcome warmly by them.


I can’t help but observe our Lakeside Montessori children. I wanted to see their reactions and hear their comments. I was so amazed by what I saw in them when they met the children of that school. I saw humility and piety in them. One of the children in grade 5 in a pitiful voice told me…”their ceilings have holes…what if it rains….the children will get wet when they are studying.” We stayed there for almost 2 hours and most of our children were also fasting. The heat was intolerable….they sweated but no complaints were heard from our children.

Enthusiasm was at its height…inspired despite the heat…the children headed by the Junior High School distributed the gifts. Children of SDN JEJALAN JAYA 02 were so happy to receive them…even though most of them had difficulty carrying 2 gifts…they were very heavy though.


A day of bringing HAPPINESS to these children and their families cannot be replaced by any wealth that this world could offer.


There is no specific Academic Subject to learn….SENSITIVITY towards the need of other people and APPRECIATION of what we have. Inculcating these values can only be done by doing them. Involving our Lakeside Montessori children in this valuable program sets them apart from the rest for they learn by doing and setting an example.

My own thoughts of Charity is giving and sharing what we have and not because we have an EXCESS as such when we help…we don’t just reach out our hand but we need to willingly extend our arm as well.



Supportive Parents who were with us during the outreach program and that's me in their midst

The Lakeside Montessori International School Faculty together with SDN Jejalan Jaya 02 Faculty

The recipient of the outreach program