{"id":38879,"date":"2025-09-04T09:33:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/?p=38879"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:00:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:00:46","slug":"market-stalls-to-school-desks-rinas-journey-back-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/market-stalls-to-school-desks-rinas-journey-back-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Stalls to School Desks: Rina\u2019s Journey Back to School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At just 13 years old, Rina* has already carried responsibilities far beyond her years. As the eldest of four, she grew up in a family facing deep financial hardship. By the time she reached 4th grade, her parents could no longer afford to send her to school.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of sitting in a classroom, Rina spent almost a year in the bustling Jatinegara Market, collecting rice to help feed her family. Often, she carried her 5-year-old sibling along, since her mother was heavily pregnant and later caring for the newborn. It wasn\u2019t her parents\u2019 demand\u2014Rina made that choice herself, a brave but heartbreaking decision to ease her family\u2019s burden.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in March 2025, hope arrived.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yayasan Teman Baik encountered Rina and began to work on meeting the needs of her family. They provided immediate support for basic needs, but also something just as valuable: guidance for her parents on children\u2019s rights, protection, and even opportunities to improve their income. This holistic approach gave the family more stability; and gave Rina something she thought she had lost forever: a chance to return to school.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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And then, in August 2025, Rina buttoned up the school uniform and shouldered the backpack Teman Baik had provided and walked through the gates of a public elementary school\u2014officially starting 5th grade.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in years, Rina\u2019s days shifted from wandering the market to joining support classes, catching up on lessons, and holding a pencil over worksheets instead of hauling rice sacks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rina\u2019s story is not just hers alone\u2014it\u2019s the result of collaboration between her family, Yayasan Teman Baik, her school, and you, our caring supporters.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are many more children like Rina waiting for that same opportunity. This year, Friends-International needs help in supporting around 7,000 children across our programs in Southeast Asia to get back to school and stay in school. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOUBLE THEIR CHANCES, DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT – if you donate today, your donation will be doubled! A generous donor has pledged to match any donations within this campaign period up to the value of $50,000 for education. For more information on this campaign: https:\/\/friends-international.org\/donate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At just 13 years old, Rina* has already carried responsibilities far beyond her years. As the eldest of four, she grew up in a family facing deep financial hardship. By the time she reached...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,294,16,8],"tags":[706,890,102,626,628,141,299],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38879"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38892,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38879\/revisions\/38892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friends-international.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}