Written by At a certain time, Nickie and his girlfriend were sleeping on plastic chairs in front of a store and neither of them had a job. Nickie’s family did not support him in any way.
October – 2022: Honestly, I was devastated. Ever since I said I’m not a believer three years ago, my parents and I lost contact. I never heard from them anymore and they didn’t try to find me to know how I’m doing, or even if I’m still alive. I’ve seen many parents doing everything they can to support their children. But it seems like my parents don’t even care and only think about themselves. My biggest regret is that my parents didn’t send me to college. My relationship with my parents has not changed since.
It’s really hard to overcome the pandemic, but I keep looking for a way to make some money.
I heard Nickie and his girlfriend broke up
“It still quite hard, my friends tell me to consult to psychiatrist, since it makes me so depressed.”
But now the wind has changed a bit and Nickie is getting back on his own two feet again. SUN phased out support when Nickie and Vina both found opportunities to get back on their feet.
“One friend asked me to join him and help with his projects and commissions. He was planning to expand his studios and workshop, since he had a lot of commissions, but he still lacked some equipment and tools for a big project. Then last month my sister suddenly contacted me, though we haven’t communicated for years. She helped me buying the train ticket to visit my friend. Right now I’m trying to rebuild my art from scratch with his help. I live in a cheap dormitory room as big as 2,5 x 3 meters for $20 per month.
So now I’m get advice from my friend and help him with his ongoing projects. I also make money with some bonuses from an exchange application for crypto trading and sometimes my friend provides me with some food. Hopefully he will get investors for his studio and workshop and I can work with him permanently. My plan is to pick up my own art in addition, since my friend has encouraged me to do so.”
For Nicky and Marina 2021 was a tough year – episode 3
The long journey from living on the streets to becoming self-supporting
February – 2022: For the past year, Nicky and Marina have been mostly surviving, looking for a better future. They have not yet managed to find a job, but they have received help for their daily needs such as food and a roof over their heads: “We are grateful for the help we have received.”
Age works against you when looking for work in Indonesia
“It is very difficult for us to get jobs at the moment because in the current situation there are too many people who need work. We are just looking for a decent job. However, companies in Indonesia prefer young people aged 25 to 35 and people who have just graduated, because they are cheaper than people with work experience. I know this because they have hired people I know, like my neighbor and a friend from our dorm, both in their twenties. That’s our obstacle, because I (Nicky) am 35 and Marina is 44. There are large companies that do accept experienced workers, but the job requirements are extremely high and you actually need a connection within the company to get a job there.
Marina has had many job interviews with no results and has always been rejected without explanation. I have also applied for staff positions and at courier companies, but it seems that they only accept young people. For motorcycle taxi driver you are only hired, if you pay money to the broker first.
Moreover, now that it is almost the end of the year, most companies are not hiring. Some wait until February or even the second quarter. So far, we don’t see a bright spot.”
Our dream for the future: Owning our own business
“Now that it is so hard to find a job, we think we might want to start a small business, like an online store. But for that we don’t have enough capital and there are many other obstacles.
We know Fivver [where you can offer online web design and other online services, CvW] and we are thinking hard what can we do as a service. However, most design programs are too heavy for our laptop; we are still looking for programs that can run on it. One time Marina had an assignment for photo editing, but after that project she didn’t get another assignment.
What we are thinking about now is an online store, there are many platforms in Indonesia like shopee.co.id, tokopedia.com, facebook market, OLX and many more. We were planning to sell cat food there because we see that people are looking for that a lot and that demand is not affected by the pandemic…. We just need to sell it at a higher price than we buy it for. But we still have to make a plan and do market research. Here, however, is the problem that most distributors require a minimum purchase amount.
My sculpture takes too much time to produce because I use clay and not a digital program, like zbrush or blender. It was a hobby and such collectibles do not interest the people here, especially in this bad economic situation since the pandemic.”
Nick is sculpting Ricky Gervais – episode 2
November – 2021 Life has been turned upside down for Nick, ever since he realized he no longer believed in any gods. His family has cursed him, many of his loved ones have simply walked away from him, and others have relentlessly harassed him. His art business has gone bankrupt, his wife has lost her job, and the pandemic has only made things worse. What used to be his support system now tells him his woes are a punishment from god. Some assign him blame, and others just tell him they’ll pray for him. It got to the point where Nick felt so despondent, he tried to end it all.
In his country, religion is the most important aspect of social life. Even securing a place to rent comes with the religious test. After being evicted multiple times, Nick and his wife found themselves homeless and begging on the streets, having to sleep in the torrential downpours that come with the rainy season. He just wants a chance to quietly start over, hoping to find a way to start a new business and get some kind of a roof over their heads. He is asking for our help to do that in this trying time.
Since they have been kicked out in the streets, there was no income. SUN supported them with rent and living costs. We sent them some money to start there own businesses: Marina bought a laptop to do some online graphic design and data entry. Nick bought a motocycle so he can start doing delivery. To pay of the debts they have, Nick also picked up his sculpting. The first project will be a statue of the iconic picture of Ricky Gervais. You can win the statue by buying a ticket in the lottery of $ 10. When we reach the amount of $ 1000 we will draw a winner.
Nick & Marina are struggling to get back on their feet again after being thrown out by their families – episode 1
May 2021 – My name is Nick, I was born in Papua and I live on Java in Indonesia. I used to have a pretty good life: I worked in a coal and gas mining company, worked as a marketer for a magazine, and I worked for a company that sold mattresses, among other things. Since 2014 I have been an artist and for my own company I make toys, figurines and merchandise for companies.
Pentecostal Church
My whole family is a member of the Pentecostal Church. My grandfather was an evangelist, my grandmother preacher, my mother preacher, and my stepfather wants to go to theological school. So basically I have been a Christian from the day I was born. My family thinks I should give 10% of my income to God and go to church every week. They also think I should get a job in an office, or else go to theological school. They don’t like my business.
Since I was a child, whenever I have a problem, my family says, “Pray to God and let him solve your problem.” I have to give my life to God, then God will help. It doesn’t matter if it’s about fulfilling my dreams, my job or my business.
One day I had enough of the way my family professed faith. I didn’t say directly that I am an atheist, because that is dangerous in this country, but I did say that I no longer believe in God.
Marina
Meanwhile, I have been with my girlfriend Marina for 11 years, but we are not married. For our families, as for most Indonesians, it is a sin to live together without marriage. But getting married has to be done in church for my family, and Marina comes from a Chinese family, which means we have to celebrate very elaborately. Besides, our families do not have the means to support us financially.
Problems
In 2019, I was scammed by a customer. The customer asked for faster production: two hundred figurines in two weeks. During production, the customer suddenly dropped out and demanded that I pay back the advance. I had to sell my stuff to cover the costs, but it wasn’t enough. I lost about three thousand dollars – that’s a year’s worth of living expenses here. My parents don’t like my business anyway, so they didn’t want to help; I just had to pray to God again. They kept repeating that, without making any effort to really help me. I became so depressed by that situation that I finally attempted suicide. Their response was that I would go to hell for that.
The worst was my mother: she sent Whatsapp messages to Marina (not directly to me) and kept scolding both of us, first because we were not married and then because of my suicide attempt. It was full of curses, condemnation, God’s wrath and hell. Honestly, to this day I can’t read it, it’s Marina who told me what she wrote. It makes me so furious, but it also makes me so sad.
Evicted from our home
Then we were evicted from our rented house because we couldn’t afford it anymore – we had to pay the rent by the year. Again I looked for help and a place to stay with my family, but again they turned me down and said, “You’re a grown man, go find a place for yourself.” Or they told Marina to go to her family and I should come back to Papua to work for God. But I can’t accept that, because I’ve already been disappointed too much in the Pentecostal Church.
So Marina and I started wandering from rental house to rental house, but most of the affordable houses you can pay per month are in Muslim neighborhoods. And whenever we did find something we kept getting kicked out because of our marital status and once because we have cats. Then our money ran out. Desperate, I asked my uncle if I could store my stuff in his house. He agreed and even offered us to come live with him and his family. But after a few days my cousin kicked us out because they are Muslim and we are not. My uncle said I could leave my things there, but we had to leave his house. In the worst case, they could turn us in and we would end up in jail or they would have us beaten up.
Wandering
As a homeless person, it is difficult to carry out my work and even to find work. Without money, with only a backpack, we now sleep wherever we can: at a gas station, at a security post and sometimes on a bench on a side street. If we have a little money, we go to the 24-hour mini-market, buy a bottle of water to use the terrace and sleep in the terrace chairs. Now we are also afraid of being arrested because of the pandemic – there is a general lockdown here and every morning they pick up people who do not comply.
Applying for jobs
Right now we are both applying for jobs. I think we have approached hundreds of companies, we only got a few interviews and all without results. We think it’s because of our age; I’m 35 and Marina is 44. Most companies only want younger candidates, because they can pay them less.
Dreams
We would like to start a business again, Marina wants an online store to sell cat food – cats are her passion and her dream is to set up a shelter for cats. Besides, we noticed that in the pandemic, the demand for cat food remained stable or even increased. But she is also good at designing with Photoshop and Illustrator.
I myself am only skilled in sculpture and would like to start over with my business. In this country, most people don’t really appreciate art by local artists, so I want to make products that are useful so I can sell them better. But I can’t afford a computer, so for now I’m just using cheap clay. That takes more time to process and more effort to get the details and likeness right. I would love to get back into woodworking, but for that I need expensive woodworking tools.
Future
For the distant future, we dream of saving money to move out of this country to where we are accepted as we are, without being rejected and deported again and again. We both hope to get a decent job, with that we can then start over step by step. If we have a bit of money, we might even marry in a legal capacity first – for our own safety. But in the meantime, we are applying like crazy and sending our resumes to companies through a platform for job seekers, because we have to survive first.
