Teach 3000 Indonesian Children to Read

Dear Friends of Yayasan Tunas Aksara / Saya Suka Membaca,

I hope this email finds you, your family and neighbours in good health and good spirits.

You're probably aware that this has been a really tough time for Indonesia and for Jakarta in particular, with hospitals stretched beyond capacity. Four of our team have been sick with Covid-19, and one of them was hospitalised. We're thankful that they all pulled through and are starting to recover, but two have lost a parent in this latest wave, and there is a lot for them to deal with.

Needless to say, schools will not be returning to face-to-face teaching any time soon. As the team recovers and the current lockdown restrictions loosen we continue to work hard to be ready for when schools do return, and to find other ways to support teachers, for example, by supplying 'libraries in a box' and other resources.

Before the Delta variant of Covid-19 hit us so hard, we had been having a good second-quarter:

• The team made further progress on improvements to our handbooks, teaching and training resources, which are the foundation of this project;
• We also made significant breakthroughs in automating data entry and analysis of test results, which will enable us to better support teachers to identify which children in their classes need additional support as they learn to read;
• We also began an exciting new partnership to train teachers in two primary schools in Kalimantan, with face-to-face training planned for July (now delayed until September).

In this context, we continue to be enormously grateful for your support of the project as we work to help thousands of children in communities across Indonesia to learn to read, and to love reading.

In partnership,

Stuart Patience
Jean Christensen

On behalf of the Yayasan Tunas Aksara team

P.S. If you're interested to learn more about literacy and education in Indonesia you may be interested to visit the 'Articles and Resources' section of our website (link opens in a new window), which features a collection of research and reports from various sources. We recently added an interesting piece on the history of literacy in Indonesia, which provides helpful context to the challenges we face today.

Links:

• Research and Articles about literacy and education in Indonesia