Welcome to CERDAS! The Children's Education Relief and Development Assistance of Seattle (CERDAS) is a non-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington that was founded to serve the twin purposes of providing financial aid for education to underprivileged children and offering relief assistance in the event of a natural disaster or national emergency in Indonesia.
Our assistance comes in the form of direct financial aid to students or through collaboration with local non-profit organizations in Indonesia with a similar mission. Our Mission Who We Are CERDAS is a volunteer-based organization. None of our officers or members receives compensation for their work. Every dollar of all financial contributions goes to our activities and scholarship program, since there is no paid staff and no fixed costs like rent. This allows us to keep our overheads very low. Our Brief History Given the informal structure our organization, we recognized that the demand for our scholarship grew beyond our ability to manage. In 2006, recognizing that the program was too valuable to shut down because of the serious needs of the students, but was also becoming more and more difficult to keep open, we decided to move beyond the current organization. Supported by more diverse volunteers, we then formed a bigger and more formal organization called CERDAS Foundation. By November 2007, CERDAS had received the certificate of corporation as a non-profit organization in the State of Washington and about a year later in January 2009 we acquired 501(c)3 status, a tax exempt status from the federal government. By the end of 2009, a total of 107 students are in our scholarship program. Our Scholarship Program
The scholarship is carried out for one year. Program evaluation is conducted every year to determine the funding. As a program intended to respond to the community’s needs, one important element of our scholarship program is community involvement. In our program, we require a community member to work as our volunteer program coordinator – a person who is willing to donate time, labor and money to the program. As our partners, program coordinators work closely with the students, their families, teachers and school administrators to identify those who are in need and most at risk of dropping out of school due to economic or other hardships in the community. Our program coordinators also work with us on the funding distribution and program administration. To ensure our program is of the highest quality and meets the needs of the students, we conduct regular monitoring and evaluations of the program in Indonesia and make everything transparent for our supporters to follow our activities. If you are interested in nominating students or becoming our partner in Indonesia, please see our program guidelines. You will be required to sign a contract agreement and fill out program forms. Results To Date Currently, a total of 107 students (55 elementary, 20 middle school, 54 high school) are in our 2009/2010 program. These students came from various parts of Indonesia. A total of 52 students come from West Java (Bekasi, Bandung, Cianjur, and Cimahi), 25 students from Central Java (Purwokerto, Bantul and Jogjakarta), 26 students from East Java (Surabaya, Madiun, and Madura), and 4 students from Bali. About 52% of our students are girls and 48% are boys. Most of their parents work as manual laborers or petty traders (78%), and 22% are unemployed. To support these 107 students, approximately IDR 188 millions ($ 21,000) scholarships have been distributed in the 2009/2010 school year. Highlights of our scholarship program this year came from two of our students, Andien Diana and Firdha Hanifah, who graduated from high school and have been accepted in two prestigious universities in Indonesia. Andien Diana, who graduated from high school in Bandung has been accepted at the Bandung Institute of Technology, and Firdha Hanifah who graduated from high school in Bogor has been accepted at the Padjadjaran University in Bandung. There are many eligible hopefuls. As much as we would like to, we are able to sponsor only a fraction of the staggering numbers that indicate an interest in our program. This is why sponsorships and donations are central to the sustainability of CERDAS Foundation. If you are interested in contributing to our program, please send your donation via Paypal on this site or by mail. Details on how you can send your donation can be found in the Donation section of this website.
Loading...
Check our blog
for the latest news and events!Public Documents Internal Links (Password Protected) Support our students! Due to overwhelming demand, we have many disadvantaged children on a growing waitlist. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. We need your help to make their dreams a reality.
Donate Donate to this important cause. Help us keep these deserving children in school and offer even more the chance of a brighter future. Paypal
You will receive notification and a US tax receipt for your donation via email. Note: Paypal applies a transaction fee for every donation made through Paypal. For the details of their fee schedule, please visit here. Checks Mail to: CERDAS Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. All donations are U.S. income tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Our tax ID is 26-1640702. |
