Entis and Heni: debt, school fees, and the challenge of finding work after 40

Entis and his wife Heni both worked at the Kizone factory until it closed. Heni worked there for eleven years, and Entis for about the same. They have three children: an eighteen-year-old boy, a fourteen-year-old girl, and a five-year-old girl.

Their oldest son, Chandra, recently graduated from a technical high school with a focus on automotive skills. Entis and Heni struggled to find money to pay for their son’s graduation; without this fee, he would not have received the diploma he needed to seek work. Ultimately, they were able to pay for the diploma thanks to the funds paid by Nike in lieu of a portion of the severance.

Now, Entis and Heni are facing their next trial. Next month, their daughter Carlina will take her final exam for middle school, and have to either advance or leave school. Entis and Heni don’t know where they will find the Rp 3 million they need to pay for high school registration fees – or the Rp 200,000 per month they will need to pay in tuition. For many years, Carlina has lived with her widowed grandmother in a rural area, where school fees and living expenses are cheaper. Before Kizone closed, Entis and Heni could send money each month to support Carlina and her grandmother. Now, they are struggling to pay rent on the one room they share with their other two children.

Entis and Heni estimate that they owe about Rp 6 million to relatives, their landlady, and the person who sells them their rice and other basic needs at a small neighbourhood store. They are grateful for the generosity of their landlady and neighbours.

Entis and Heni are in their forties, which makes it hard for them to find work. Heni is a skilled sewing machine operator, so she has been able to pick up some work, although she wears glasses and is concerned that if her eyes continue to deteriorate, she will no longer be employable. Entis worked in the cutting department, and has few hopes of finding another full-time job. He finds what work he can doing physical labor, such as unloading trucks of gravel for a few dollars a day. They have sold all the possessions that they can, and their motorbike (the family’s transportation) has been repossessed.

 

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