End of Year E-Newsletter 2020
Dear Friends of Wisma Cheshire,
We are almost at the end of the year 2020, and what a challenging year it has been for most people in the world including us in Wisma Cheshire. We have had to make very strict protocols in order to protect the vulnerable residents from the virus. Residents are restricted to go out of the compound of wisma and no visitors have been allowed in until mid-October, including our manager, Fendo and shop manager, Deta, who worked from home. We also have had to make the difficult decision to reduce the number of visits of nurse and physiotherapist each week.
But thanks to God, our residents understand and follow the instructions well, and we are grateful that they all are in good condition and no one is affected by the virus.
And thanks to modern technology, the committee and staff are able to use zoom for meetings and coordination.
Improving Wisma Cheshire’s Market place
So, what have we done during this pandemic ? Usually we participate in various bazaars for Easter and Summer but no gathering have been allowed until now…. so we learnt something new that goes with the trend -producing batik face masks for individual and also for bulk special orders. Thank you to our kind friends who have ordered and bought them.
We also improved our look in the online shopping platforms: Tokopedia and Shopee by upgrading the photos and functions. Thank you to our dear volunteers, Michelle, Jackie, Nurul and Dessy who have given our residents photography lessons. So now, we have new pictures uploaded in Tokopedia under our shop’s name: “Red Feather Shop”. We hope it can reach out to more people, to introduce our products and to give more awareness about our yayasan. And of course to sell even more of our products during this pandemic period.
We participated in the first online bazaar on 1st November that was organized by IndoIndians Community. It was a good opportunity and new experience for us in e-bazaar. We appreciate the big effort that they put in and thank them for giving us such a great opportunity to display our products there.
Resident’s Update
Tying the knot!
Apart from being a training centre, Wisma Cheshire has also witnessed and celebrated some weddings in previous years, and this year, Anwar and Warni have tied their knot on 30th June 2020. Because of her disability from birth, Warni joined us 5 years ago and she has learnt sewing and attended basic tailoring course at Esmod Jakarta and continued with an alteration course with our expert volunteer, Nessy Jackson.
Anwar joined here 2 years ago. Previously he worked in a construction company until the unfortunate accident happened. With his willingness to learn, he quickly gained some skills in making woodwork handicraft such as wooden toys and puzzles. Anwar is a very talented sportman as well. He joins the Indonesian Amputee Football Club and became one of the best in the team.
We are very happy for them as they will start living independantly in the outskirts of Jakarta. We still support them time to time by giving them some works when we can’t handle some orders. Congratulations and good luck to both of them.
Goes to University:
Tisha’s dream came true when the India Embassy for Indonesia agreed to give a one year scholarship support to her. Thanks to Mrs Shruti Rawat, wife of India Ambassador for Indonesia, who has helped the process for Tisha to further her studies in Accounting . She has been accepted in University of Al-Azhar Indonesia, and in her first year, Tisha studied hard and achieved a good GPA grade of 3.69 out of 4. Congratulations and best wishes to her to keep up the good work.
Tisha also shows her gratitude to Wisma Cheshire by contributing her free time to assist the administration work in Wisma.
She still has 3 remaining years for completing her bachelor degree, and we really hope there will be somebody who could continue in sponsoring her university fee as the one year scholarship support from the Embassy of India has ended.
Self Physical Exercise Program for Residents
Due to this pandemic and the Covid protocols, we have to reduce the number of visits from the nurse and physiotherapist. Before the pandemic, the nurse and therapist came everyday and monitored the residents one by one. But now they come once a week only to prioritise the most needed residents. Thankfully that they are in good healthy condition until now. We also instructed the residents to do morning exercise twice a week to substitude the yoga exercise done by our volunteer before covid-19.
To prevent the virus spread in Wisma Cheshire, we spray with disinfectant once a week in all areas such as rooms, bathrooms, workshops, kitchen, laundry room and half way home. And we do body temperature checking, apply social distancing and make it cumpolsary to wear a mask for everyone who would come in from outside Wisma.
Support During Pandemic
During this pandemic, we have received much less donations than previous years – but we are grateful that we still received some support, especially from the Central Government known as the President Support Program thru the Social Ministry and from the National Police. The support consisted of staple foods such as rice, cooking oil, instant noodle, sugar, tea, coffee, milk, buiscuits, snack and some canned food. These donations were given directly to each resident in Wisma Cheshire.
Some individual donors have also donated personal daily care as shampoo, soap, tooth paste, and other cleaning materials that are very useful for both the residents and Wisma Cheshire in keeping the individual and place clean and hygienic.
In mid November, we were visited by 4 executive board members of India Club Jakarta, Mrs Shanti as The President, Mrs Gunjan as the executive board member as well as Mrs Rachna, Mr Ramesh and Mr Siddharth. Their visit was to hand some donation collected from their members. We are very grateful with the generosity of India Club Jakarta in supporting people with disabilities.
Wisma Cheshire Christmas Shop 2020
By this time of year, we usually have our End of Year Bazaar and Christmas bazaars that are organised by various International women associations and other organisations. But this year is different and sadly we can’t do it due to this pandemic. •
But as we mentioned above, our christmas collections are available online, so please visit Tokopedia ( under Red Feather Shop) and Shoppee (under Wisma Cheshire) to get some great gift ideas.
Or contact us at 021-7692059 to get information of your favourite handicrafts or woodwork products and we can deliver them to you.
Last but not least, on behalf of all the members of the committees, staff and the residents, we would like to thank you to our Friends of Wisma Cheshire, BWA and ANZA who have supported us over the years and also during this difficult year. Your kind attention, support and donations are so valuable to the residents and without you our mission wont be possible. And if your organisation or by individual would like to donate us, it would be much appreciated as due to this pandemic, the income from selling our products and also donations have been decreased a lot.
Our bank account details:
Yayasan Cheshire Indonesia
BCA – 0719972588
We wish you a merry Christmas and a very hopefull New Year! Please stay fit, healthy and happy always…
Barbara Janthy Speirs
President