Help Promote Good Reading Habits in Kalimantan

Ever since the haze disaster in 2015, YUM has run several activities to prevent and counteract its adverse effects on the community. One of them is YUM's Fire & Haze Prevention campaign, which takes place either in the library room or schools in the area. By imparting good and healthy living habits to the children, we hope that they could be the first prevention factor related to the bush-fires.

The activities began from an explanation about the cause of fire and proceeded to steps taken for the prevention of Haze.  A short video played to provide information on how the fire had started and produced the haze. During the activity, the children, accompanied by staff at YUM, were divided into groups and given tools such as paper, stationery and colorful pencils to create posters for the campaign. They were also allowed to take these posters home or school. Students of 4th to 6th grade from one of the schools, SDN 3, Tangkiling, were invited to the library to be part of this campaign. Their activities were similar to the library member and at the end of activity everyone was offered a  free glass of milk.

For the last three years, there were almost no forest fires or haze in the area. Unfortunately, this year, due to a very long dry season and a still prevalent slash-and-burn activity among big plantations and local farmers, the fires started to create hazardous smoke and haze around the villages in Central Kalimantan. Because of bad air quality, many people began to suffer from respiratory problems. YUM will continue our commitment to assist our communities by providing essential items such as medicines, N 95 masks, oxygen and milk in order to reduce risks to their health due to the haze.

Thank you for your kind attention to YUM’s projects.