ASA Foundation: Table Tennis-based Circular Economy, Health, Life Skills & Gender Equality Education Development

11. December 2022

ASA Foundation, one of the six recipients of the Dream Building Fund powered by GSD, targets four pillars of sustainability: human, social, economic, and environmental, in their initiative, Table Tennis for Education.

Poverty is a significant problem of development that hinders people from achieving prosperous conditions. According to the UN:

“Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in decision-making.”

High poverty rates worsen issues with access to education, raise unemployment that leads to increased crime, and other intercorrelated problems, such as health, hygiene, sanitation, and waste management – a crucial global issue. The waste problem brings various diseases and pollutes the environment, further deteriorating the quality of life. Poverty is a vicious cycle, and solving it requires comprehensive approaches. The ASA Foundation implements that in Pluit, North Jakarta, Indonesia.

With its Table Tennis for Education initiative, ASA Foundation aligns its objectives to UN Sustainable Development Goals 3: Good Health and Well-being, Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Situated on the border of Jakarta Bay in the North, Pluit is an administrative village in North Jakarta, the region that faced a sharp rise in poverty from 5,04% in 2019 to 7,24% in 2021. ASA Foundation uses table tennis as a tool to promote positive social change for school-aged children in some critical areas: health—hygiene, and sport activity to fight obesity; circular economy—through waste education; and gender equality—by including women (50%) in the programme to increase their decision making power and their access to opportunities and resources.

To date, they have trained 20 teachers who teach 4183 students, 49.6% of them are female. From table tennis training, they also include social marketing and organising table tennis events to generate income.

Table Tennis for Education, initiated by ASA foundation, also opens opportunities for children with good performance and passion for training the next batch of participants. In addition to opening jobs, the impact can be long-lasting.

Entering the rainy season did not dampen the participants’ enthusiasm to continue the table tennis training that can be done indoors. All participants were very excited to continue the table tennis training. We are delighted to follow their progress and accompany them on the journey to bring the positive social change their communities need.

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