Muharram Charity 2022; A Moment to Cultivate Emphaty in Students

Tuesday August 9th 2022

On August 9, 2022, Al Azhar Islamic Primary School 55, Yogyakarta, held an annual event, Muharram Charity. If in the previous year, Muharram Charity was only in the form of collecting donations and handing them over to an orphanage, this year, we held three events; Talk Show, collecting donations, and decorating and coloring competitions for students of grade one and two.

The talk show held at the Student Center was attended by students from grade three to six and also by some Jamiyyah representatives. The talkshow entitled “The Unspoken Qur’an” with its tag line “If We Can, Why Can’t You?” presented the founder of Pesantren Tuna Rungu Jamhariyah, Sleman, Ustadz Randy Pranarelza, S.Kom who was coming with some of his disabled students. He shared many stories about how the students, who are all deaf, struggled to memorize the Qur’an even though they could neither hear nor speak. He also taught the students of Al Azhar 55 about sign language and how to practice it. All students were excited to learn the sign language even some of them had the chance to come on the stage to practice it with Ustadz Randy. The goal of this event is to motivate the students of Al Azhar 55 Islamic Primary School in memorizing Qur’an by learning from the disabled students of Pesantren Tuna Rungu Jamhariyah.

As for the donation which was collected from parents, carried out for less than 7 days, reached a very big number, Rp.32.300.000,00. In addition, basic daily needs such as rice, cooking oil, instant noodles, sugar, coffee, soap and others were also provided by parents. This charity act is meant to teach the students to share with people in need because it is important to cultivate empathy in children as early as possible.

Coloring and decorating competition are held in the classrooms. Every student of grade one and two is obligated to join the competition. They were all excited and tried their best to win. Hopefully, Muharram Charity in the next year will be far better and meaningful to students.

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Testimony

Prof. Dra. Hj. Suwarsih Madya, M.A., Ph.D.

Amidst the globalized situation which poses challenges of which one is a possible threat to identity, yet provides ample opportunities to excel for those who possess the prerequisites, we need to equip our children as the continuing generation with necessary competencies—affective, cognitive, psychomotor and interactive. In other words, we need to help them grow and develop into total persons and this can be achieved through the whole-child development approach which ensures the development of all potentials. In addition to this is the need for developing some competence which enables the children to communicate globally. All of this will ensure that the children will develop their citizenships both at the national and global levels. How can this ideal development be realized?

If you want to find out about how efforts are made to develop children’s whole potentials, you can come to SD Islam Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta. Here you can see how the four-year old school has grown fast due to the stakeholders’ trust to send their children to study here. With only 54 children in the first year, this school now has 185 students. These students are educated to respect and preserve the social-cultural environment by learning the local language (Javanese, including the script) and arts (dance). Simultaneously, they certainly learn the national language (Bahasa Indonesia) and national content, which is unquestionable since it is compulsory, and English, which has now become a global lingua franca; thus, a prerequisite for successful global communication. More importantly, children in this school also learn to practise their religion consistently. So, in this school children’s identity is rooted in the local culture, with nationalism and global awareness being inherently developed together with reliogiosity.

Does the whole-child development approach at SD Islam Al Azhar still give room for children to excel? In my belief, when all their potentials are developed, children will have a greater chance to excel and I can see the truth in my belief in this primary school. In the last two years, the students have made great achievements in various competitions held at the local and national levels–gold medals in English, math and science competitions (national), silver and bronze medals in IT competitions (national), silver and bronze medals at colouring and swimming competitions (local) to mention some.

In conclusion, SD Islam Al Azhar has given evidence of the right efforts of true education to develop both intelligence and character.

Prof. DR. Budi S. Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.

Testimoni Sebagai Orang tua menyekolahkan anak Di Al-Azhar 55

Sudah menjadi kewajiban bagi orang tua untuk memberikan pendidikan yang terbaik bagi putra putrinya. Tantangan untuk mendidik anak di Era Global dan Digital pun semakin besar, kita tidak bisa lagi membendung segala perubahan yang begitu cepat terjadi, dan harus mempersiapkan anak-anak supaya bisa survive dan sholeh/sholehah tentunya. Saat ini dunia bagaikan kampung, dimana tidak ada batas-batas untuk melakukan transaksi kehidupan, untuk itu anak harus bisa berkomunikasi dengan bahasa universal sebagai modal utama. Disamping itu, pendidikah Ahlak dan Aqidah harus diberikan secara dini sebagai dasar anak dalam menghadapi gejolak gelombang kehidupan. Atas pertimbangan tersebutlah, kami selaku orang tua memilih untuk menyekolahkan putra kami tercinta Hikari di Sekolah Islam, yang menggunakan dua bahasa pengantar, yaitu Al-Azhar 55.

Prof. DR. Budi S.Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.