Origins and aims of Fajar Baru

In 2011, the Belgian Sister Gaudentia stayed in a monastery in Cimanggis, a suburb of Jakarta (Indonesia). She saw a lot of poverty in Indonesia and noticed how the monastery had to make an effort with few resources to take care of orphans and abandoned children. According to Sister Gaudentia, this problem urgently needed to be solved. Back in Belgium, Sister Gaudentia founded the non-profit organization Fajar Baru in June 2012 with the help of the Belgian Koen Vondenbusch. Fajar Baru is Indonesian and means "New Dawn".

Sister Gaudentia also sought support in Indonesia and was able to set up another npo (non-profit organization) there in 2012 with the name Yayasan Fajar Baru (Yayasan is Indonesian for non-profit organization). Both associations aim to improve the fate of the children who are taken care of in the monastery in Cimanggis. Their first concern was to provide a decent place to live for the children. While the girls and toddlers initially stayed in the convent, a house was soon rented for the boys in the vicinity of the convent.

For the development of a shelter, Fajar Baru immediately started collecting money in Belgium to go directly to the project in Indonesia. In this way there would be no unnecessary expenses and all the money raised could be fully spent on the project. Even today, all the members of Fajar Baru work entirely on a voluntary basis without any compensation or fee.

Gradually, Fajar Baru also got attention for Bekasi. Bekasi is another suburb of Jakarta, is located about fifty kilometers from Cimanggis and there is also another monastery of the same Sister order. A school is connected to that monastery where the children of Fajar Baru receive their primary education. Unfortunately, the children stay in uncomfortable and unhealthy buildings. There, too, Fajar Baru wants to work on better housing for the children.

‍ The Children 

At the time of the foundation of the Belgian npo Fajar Baru (2012), there were about forty children in the convent of Cimanggis. In 2016 there were about eighty children, in June 2022 their number had risen to 102 and in August 2022 even to 134.

Not all children, who are taken care of by Fajar Baru in the monastery of Cimanggis, are orphans. Most children come from poor families whose parents are unable to support their children themselves. Most of the children are Catholic, but there are also children of other religions.