Quality Education for Children in Indonesia

Our organisation, Yayasan Usaha Mulia, is a non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged people in Indonesia since 1976. Our working areas of Cipanas, West Java and Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan involve a range of projects including Health, Education and Community Development, assisting people regardless of their race, religion, gender, age and ethnicity.

Because of our involvement with children, we created a Child Protection Policy a few years ago and a workshop was held recently to refresh and ensure that all our staff understands the policy, and what it involves. We want to avoid the harmful things that could occur during activities with the children, especially at YUM Community Library, where most of our educational activities are located.

Last week, the workshop was held in Cipanas. There were two main topics in this workshop, the rights of children and how it applies in the YUM environment. The workshop keynote speaker, Mr. Samsul Maarif, started by giving a detailed explanation about the rights of children. Then he continued by having a group discussion about several children’s rights violation cases.  There were some new ideas that came out as a result of the workshop, especially about how to promote this material to the community in the area.  At the end of the workshop, all of the staff got a copy of the YUM Child Protection Policy booklet, and signed the agreement as their commitment. 

It takes a village to raise a child and a child to inspire a village - Emma MacTaggart, Child Writes Foundation

International Read to Me Day, a global event held on March 19th, is aimed to raise awareness of the right for children to have adults read to them - especially their parents. The children’s right to be educated can be realized by teaching them how to read and reading to them. Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM) has been fortunate enough to be invited to participate in this event by Mr. Don Hall from Priscilla Hall Memorial Foundation, one of YUM’s long-term donors.  He is also the Ambassador for this program in Indonesia.

Through our educational programs, YUM wishes to expand the literacy ability and love of reading of the children in the area.  Therefore, we invited Paman Ganjar, a professional story teller, to perform at YUM Cipanas, West Java.  He read beautiful and appealing color book stories called “Big Giant”, “Strega Nona” and “The Selfish Man”. The reading session became more attractive when Paman Ganjar included his funny hat, glasses, puppets and other props. The children were incredibly driven by his performance. Most of them never had anyone to read for them at home. Even though it was raining hardon that day, it did not stop their enthusiasm in coming to YUM.

We hope this event could begin to fill the gap between good reading habits and a successful future. This event was an excellent step to increase the reading habit in the community. So have you read for the children that surround you today?

We hope that you too had a wonderful International Read to Me Day!