A delighted family watch as Holy Cross Brother Petrus Partono, director of the Catholic social service center Atmabrata, greets their disabled child. (Photo supplied)
Brother Petrus Partono is busy doing what he does every day, serving the elderly and entertaining guests and donors who regularly visit Atmabrata, a sanctuary for the poor and homeless around Indonesia’s busiest port, Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.
Established in 1979 by a Vincentian priest, the home was closed for a while but in 2010 it was reopened by Vincentian Father Antonius Wahyuliana, the parish priest of Holy Cross Church in North Jakarta, who appointed Brother Partono as its director.
The Holy Cross brother was tasked with seeking donors to support the center, which has sustained more than a thousand poor and elderly people in the coastal area, the most crowded slum in the national capital.
Brother Partono told ucanews.com that reviving the center was a response to the fact that so many people lived in acute poverty around the port.
“The mission of Atmabrata is to help the poor, particularly elderly people who have been neglected by their relatives,” said Partono, 39. “Fortunately, many people welcome and support us.”
He said the home has 30 displaced elderly women who previously lived under highway bridges and along roadsides. It also provides support to more than 200 elderly people who still live with their poor families. The staff regularly visit them to distribute basic commodities such as rice, sugar, cooking oil, milk and eggs; once a fortnight they provide them with lunch, too.
Brother Partono said elderly people have earned the right to enjoy their twilight years but due to their relatives’ poverty, many are neglected, not only in Jakarta, but throughout Indonesia.
The center has a mission to reach out to as many people as possible. “Next year we will build another home that can accommodate 30 elderly women,” he said.
People’s education and health
Brother Partono’s joy lies in the fact that his group does not only pay attention to the elderly but also the education and health care of local people in the area.
For that purpose, a clinic, schools, job training and shop have been established as well as three kindergartens, which now have a total of 535 students.
“It’s practically free as parents only need to pay less than a cent monthly,” he said.
They also provide after-school tutorials for 200 secondary students who need extra classes and provide tuition fees for university students.
“Through job training, we prepare teenagers who have dropped out and those who did not have a formal education to acquire basic skills in computer, English, management, and entrepreneurship,” he said, adding that this work was done in cooperation with the job providers.
“Some foreign volunteers also help teach them, at the invitation of Indonesian bishops,” he said.
Meanwhile, through the health clinic, Brother Partono and his team offer free treatment for poor patients and occasionally cooperate with doctors to organize surgery for children and free cataract surgery.
“Besides, we also renovate people’s houses and so far more than 20 houses have been renovated,” he said.
His group also organizes bazaars where people can daily buy basic commodities at the cheapest price.
Meeting point of interfaith help
Atmabrata’s charity work has attracted good Samaritans in other religions; Muslims, Buddhists and other Christian denominations have also helped out. Each month it receives a ton of rice and the equivalent of US$900 from St. James Church in North Jakarta.
Brother Partono said there was a time local people accused them of Christianization but things were now going much more smoothly as many poor people benefited from the charity.
He said one of the keys was personal communication — every day he goes around to visit and interact with the people so they understand the sincerity of what he is doing to help people in need.
To make people believe in the service, he said, it had to be “honest, reliable and responsible, and maintain good relationships with people.”
“These are also the values that nuns or seminarians learn when they are here to study on the spirituality of the poor,” he said.
Joy as children of God
Brother Partono said the elderly people living at the center learn how to remain hopeful and joyous as children of God.
The center organizes various activities for them in order to keep them healthy, physically and spiritually, through gymnastics, prayer, social work and recreation.
Muna, a 70-year-old Muslim woman from North Jakarta, told ucanews.com that since her husband and children died many years ago, nobody took care of her until, luckily, her neighbor brought her to the home two years ago. “Here I have many friends and I don’t feel lonely anymore,” she said.
She praised Brother Partono for the “tremendous service” he had provided to her and other beneficiaries, adding: “Now we feel like one big family.”
Similarly, Marsela, 60, a Protestant, said she and her husband used to sell food together but after he died five years ago, she felt that part of her had died with him. “I suffer from diabetes but thank God I was brought here,” she told ucanews.com.
Marsela arrived at Armabrata four years ago and receives healthy food and medicine for her illness.
Joice Mamahit, 59, a Catholic member of staff, said she enjoyed working with the elderly. “They don’t have children, a family or a house to live and were neglected. But here they are happy with us,” she said.
She said Brother Partono had “inspired me to serve other people with humility and treat them as a family.”
