Interview with our Indonesian Partner, Wonder Koding.
Sitting with our partner organization, Wonder Koding, Equilibrium Foundation brings to our audience the work of our partner and how we all strive to create a fairer world.
Mr Heri Hamdani, who works in a special institute that specializes in teaching the Deaf how to programme, chats with Equilibrium Foundation. Heri works as a teacher at Wonder Koding where he continually helps children with disabilities, especially the deaf, to learn programming. Wonder Koding is a nonprofit organization in Indonesia with the motto ‘coding for everyone’. Wonder Koding, one of the partners of Equilibrium Foundation, specializes in training deaf people into becoming software developers.
Heri’s motivation to work with physically disadvantaged people started a while ago. As a student, he wrote his thesis about teaching technique and until now, he works in a capacity that makes him connect with children with hearing impairment. He strongly holds that the role of sign language in the development of science should be well taught as this is a major language of communication as well. Not only does the understanding of this language fosters development, it also empowers an entire community.
“Both boys and girls they have the same right to get knowledge and in the future they also have the right to get a decent, especially children with hearing impairment who study in the wonder coding bootcamp” Heri says.
As an Indonesian working in the country, Heri recommends that the country, through the assistance of the Gerkatin community, invests in the training and learning of sign languages. He acknowledges the Gerkatin community as the only deaf disability organization in Indonesia, managed by deaf people and serves as a platform for learning and means of self-actualization for the deaf community.
Furthermore, investment in training people with disabilities prepares them to fit into the digital world of our present age. Using the Wonder Koding bootcamp as an example, the bootcamp empowers young people and prepares them for the digital world. Since 70% of physically challenged people graduating from senior high do not have jobs, learning opportunities that make them stand out gives them the opportunity to get decent jobs and fend for themselves. This bootcamp adjusts to the times with the advancement of industry 4.0 which is indispensable in the world we live in now.
As important as this learning is, training children with hearing impairments also comes with its own challenges. One of the challenges Heri states is the struggle to be independent and for proper learning to take place, enough materials are essential as well as a stable environment to ensure that children focus and not get distrated.
“The challenge I have faced over the past few years is that we are still trying to be independent from where we started because so far we have rented at a school, and to pay for IT instructors who work at Wonder Koding Bootcamp”, he says.
Most importantly, we should all know that special children are children who are equally worthy and able to do what every other person can. All we all need is a hand, ready to hold our hands and lift us up. In Heri’s exact words,
“The most important thing that the world should know from us is that children with special needs, especially those with hearing impairment, are capable and worthy of being able to advance the digital 4.0 world that is currently running. They also have the right to special education in the IT field so that they are equal to people in general”
Therefore, it is our duty to support deaf children to be able to work in the IT world in the future and create a bigger and equal world for everyone to thrive. At Equilibrium Foundation, we are happy to partner with organizations across different continents in order to bring equality and fairness to the world. We are grateful to all our donors and supporters. Thank you for driving change in your capacities!
