My Jakarta: Natalia Tjahja, Founder of the Maria Monique Foundation

Jakarta Globe, Aisyah Hamid | September 02, 2010

The Maria Monique Foundation has two main
 objectives: To help unfortunate children and to bring
 together people who want to help these children.
 (JG Photo)

After Natalia Tjahja lost her 7-year-old daughter to heart disease in 2006, she created the Maria Monique Foundation to grant last wishes to terminally ill children around the world.

Four years later, the foundation, named after Natalia’s daughter, has helped put a smile on the faces of more than 7,000 boys and girls all over the globe. 

Natalia tells us a little bit about what she does and why she can always use your help — and not just your credit card. 

What inspired you to establish the Maria Monique Last Wish Foundation?

One hundred days after my daughter passed away, I visited her tomb to pray and to bring some flowers. While I was praying, I could hear her talking to me in my heart, telling me to be at peace and give happiness to other children.

I realized that God wanted me to fight for the unfortunate children. Monique’s death was just the start.

What is the goal of the foundation and how do you try to achieve it?

There are two main objectives: We want to help unfortunate children and we want to bring together people who want to help these children.

Together we try to make critically ill children happy by fulfilling their last wishes. There’s nothing in the world that is more beautiful than seeing the smiles on those children’s faces.

What do you mean by bringing together people who want to help? How do you do that?

We do it through fund-raisers. We don’t accept online donations or anything. If people want to donate or contribute, I want them to know the children they’re helping; their story and their pain.

It’s not about just giving away your money to unfortunate children who you don’t even know. It’s so easy to swipe your card; it doesn’t make you special.

From time to time people around the world hold fund-raisers for us. That’s what we want to see.

Don’t you think that people would be more inclined to donate if they could use their credit card online?

People try to convince me all the time to accept online donations. But then again, my objective here is also to find people with sincere hearts.

I’m not saying that people who donate their money with their cards don’t have hearts, but I want them to know the children they’re helping.

That’s why we have our representatives around the world.

So if there is a wish you have to grant how do you let people know about it?

Thank God, I’ve built a worldwide network, which continues to grow by the day. I simply send them a message via BlackBerry, SMS or e-mail.

And if there is a child or children who need help, word-of-mouth helps to get people to react quickly.

How did your foundation end up being a global one?

It all started in Singapore when I took Maria Monique to be hospitalized there. I did everything; I struggled to get money for my daughter’s medication in a country where I didn’t know anybody.

A newspaper journalist heard about me and Maria Monique and wrote a moving story, which garnered attention and help from people in Singapore.

After Maria Monique died and I finally started the foundation, I’ve had media outlets from around the world help me tell the story.

Have there been any last wishes that you just couldn’t fulfill?

There was one that was pretty tough, but in the end we managed to fulfill it. There was a girl named Risma Anggraeni. She was 15, and she had her feet amputated because she had bone cancer.

Her last wish was to be able to walk again. We initially thought it was impossible, but we didn’t give up.

We spread the news through e-mail and SMS and one day the director of Ortopedi Hospital in Solo heard about what we were trying to do and told me that he would donate artificial legs he brought from Germany.

So we flew Risma to Solo to get the artificial legs and she was able to walk again, if only for a moment, before she died.

What’s the last wish you granted in Jakarta?

That was the case of a 17-year-old boy who was bed-ridden for almost a year because of a traffic accident. Unable to walk, talk or move his body, he ate and breathed through tubes.

So we gave him a wheelchair, because he wanted to go outside and feel the warmth of the sun.

And then there was a boy from Banjarnegara, Central Java, with brittle bone disease.

His father had to carry him everywhere to make sure he didn’t get hurt. They only had a handmade wheelchair, but we gave them a decent one.

Where can we find the foundation’s main office?

Don’t expect too much. Maria Monique doesn’t have some big office here. It’s 16 square meters and we only have three employees. All of our volunteers are spread across cities and areas around Indonesia and the world.

Even our representative offices in other cities and countries look much better than the headquarters [laughs].

How can we buy your book, ‘The Beautiful Journey — True Story of Maria Monique’?

The book is not for sale at any bookstore here in town, but we do use it as a way to raise money. It costs Rp 80,000 [$9], if people are interested.

What’s up next for the foundation?

We will make a musical based on Maria Monique’s story in Jakarta sometime in February 2011. This is a charity show dedicated to the unfortunate children as my VVIP guests. 

If you want to help, visit www.mariamonique.org