Tzu Chi Primary School wouldn’t let the last week of school go to waste by enriching students’ life skills learning and experiences through the ‘Life Skill Training’ from 2 to 4 March 2020. These training consisted of fire safety training from Pantai Indah Kapuk’s Fire Station, swimming safety training from our school’s lifeguards, and entrepreneurship skill training through a school bazaar on the last day. 

The bazaar was held for one day across all grades. As you enter the school building, P1 students were seen gathering and selling coloured pens and pencils, notebooks, and other stationery items. Other grades were seen selling food and snacks, from chocolate to chips to handmade donuts and cakes. 

P5 classes were taking this bazaar seriously and into another level by creating their own versions of ‘arcade games’ you found outside schools. By reusing recyclable wastes such as drink cans, cardboard boxes, and plastic waste, these kids came up with some fun games to play that even teachers were seen playing during their breaks. 

One of the games was Nerf Gun game created by P5 Joy class. Cardboard boxes were stacked on top of each other with hung drink cans as targets. It was Marvella Aureline Prayitno who came with this idea. She initiated this game since she knows everyone will enjoy this. “We love nerf guns, so we adapted it and made it more fun with recycled cans and cardboards.”

Marvella thinks using recyclable materials was a wise choice for everyone, “First of all, they’re easy to find and they are cheap. By making this game using such cheap materials, means we can get more money to be given to the orphanages-we can help more,”

Ms Zhang Ting, Tzu Chi Primary School Mandarin teacher who’s in charge of the event said this bazaar is hoped to not only teach the children to train their skills but to also practice and demonstrate Tzu Chi values of respect and love for others, and for the environment. “We hope that in many events, hopefully not only this bazaar, our children will understand to care for the environment by using recycle materials and bringing their own bottles, box, and bag when they want to go shopping in the bazaar. Hopefully they can bring these traits with them wherever they go.”

All the money raised from this bazaar will be distributed to help three orphanages across Jakarta and Tangerang.