Word: herlina
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...women raising the boy hope he never learns about his mother - let alone his real father. The stigma of such a birth is so heinous that Yunus' mother gave him up to Normawati, 50, and her close friend Ibu Herlina, 53, who describe themselves as Yunus' adoptive grandmother and mother, respectively. However, the child's situation is not unique, and Normawati (who like many Indonesians goes by a single name) is not unused to it. Indeed, the campaigner for migrant-worker rights and her daughter are raising several children of half-foreign parentage who were abandoned by raped migrant mothers...
...even exclusive in his new home, which is not far from the airport. His adopted sister Nadia, who celebrated her first birthday on Nov. 1, was born following the rape of her mother in Kuwait. Both children were born in Jakarta and were almost immediately placed into Ibu Herlina's care. Their adopted mother points out that the children share "Arab" facial features, in contrast to most of their siblings, who have "Asian looks." Her home, consisting of a modest house and a dormitory-like shelter, is filled with 10 children who were abandoned by migrant workers. Only...
...explains, female migrant workers are raped and then dumped on the streets by their employers, who refuse to give them their passports after discovering that the women are pregnant. The women are then arrested by police and placed in jail. Sometimes they are deported before the child is born. Herlina claims that airport officials have called her to ask what to do with the babies who are left behind by mothers...
Normawati says there are dozens of children who were abandoned by migrant workers in homes throughout Jakarta and surrounding areas. "I'm in my house one or two days a week," she says. "I travel to see my grandchildren" - as she calls the abandoned infants. Normawati and Herlina sustain their wards by way of donations as well as assistance from the families of some of the children, who are nevertheless too ashamed to raise the children themselves...
While the abandonment of the children depresses her, Herlina thinks it is better that they stay in her care. Their biological mothers are often married and have other children, she says, and the husbands who stay in Indonesia while the women work abroad are often not the type to welcome another man's offspring. It is rare for a biological mother to contact Herlina after giving away her child. Normawati agrees that many men are "sensitive" about such issues. "If the migrant worker takes her baby [to raise herself], three things could happen," she says. The first is the most...
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