Titian Foundation has been partnering with ROTA for few years by now. Along those years, ROTA and Titian are actively developing and launching new programs to give best service to the community.
Initiated in 2006, ROTA brought volunteers to help Titian finished the construction of the school after it was devastated by earthquake earlier. It was a meaningful experience for both the volunteers and the local students. Both were sharing helping hands to finish the work so that their fellow students can soon enjoy learning at the school.
The second visit was in 2010, where ROTA sent students from many different universities to help in the new-built SMK. The second visit was intended to be more educational to help the newly operated school to be more aware of what skills are needed in the classroom.
The volunteers who came from Education City in Doha, Qatar are students and teachers from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), George Washington University, Cornell University and many others great schools. For five days they were at the school, giving classes to teachers and students of SMK, from fashion drawing, writing classes, personal hygiene to planting organic garden. It was the first time for the SMK students and teachers to host volunteers and the experience left teary eyes of feeling blessed from both volunteers and the students.
The most recent volunteers’ trip took place in May 2011. Titian and ROTA actively prepared each trip to give most benefit to both volunteer and the school, therefore this last visit focused only to the skills that the students and the volunteers need to support their learning and prepare their future.
Vodafone trip to the school earlier helped deciding what the teachers and the school needed the most. SMK has two departments that are closely related to arts, which is textiles and ceramics. In order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at the school, the volunteer trip should focus on improving students creativity and exposing them to opportunities to improve their talents. Among the activities are fashion drawing, logo drawing, sewing, Photoshop class for the students. The teachers had classes with VCU professors about teaching methods to encourage students’ creativity.
In order to make the most impact of the visit, the volunteer had classes with Arts teachers in Klaten and local women who produced ceramics in Bayat. The trip had benefited and touched more people in Klaten.