Global Courant 2023-05-26 12:25:00
His days of walking five miles to school – for two years now – are over.
After nearly passing out during a ride, an incident recorded by a TikTok user, Indonesians have rallied to help Viky, 16, a high school student who goes by only one name.
The video posted online also caught the attention of the Deputy Mayor of South Tangerang, Mr. Pilar Saga Ichsan. He visited the family in his constituency and gave Viky a bicycle and helmet.
Mr. Pilar said that the city education office had awarded Viky a scholarship so that he could complete his studies and graduate with a diploma.
The teenager was first captured on camera clutching his head in apparent distress as he sat by the side of a road in his school uniform, supplied with tea by a liquor vendor.
He told the TikTok content creator on camera that he was walking back to Ciputat where he lived, from his school in Bojongsari Lama, West Java. The 8 km journey takes more than 1 hour and 30 minutes on foot.
In a subsequent video from the same TikToker, Viky said that he often walked so that he could save the 10,000 rupiah (S$0.90) that his mother handed out daily for bus tickets and food at school.
His father is unemployed and recovering from a recent stroke while his mother is a housewife.
Viky, the eldest of four siblings, had to transfer from a private school near his home to his current school because his family could not afford the tuition and devices needed for engineering classes, such as a cell phone.
After school he sometimes worked as a parking attendant and earned about 15,000 rupiah a day, which he gave to his mother.
