Quality Education for Children in Indonesia

Thanks to your kind support, we are able to continue delivering boxes of books to schools in Cipanas, West Java, where Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM)’s project is located.

The program is part of YUM’s Community Library activities, where we want to impart good reading habits and experience for the children, especially students.  The Box of Books (BOB) program is fueled by the fact that there was limited access to educational facilities providing books for them.  Not many parents can afford to buy books because fulfilling their daily needs is still a priority. This is aggravated by the absence of public or school libraries. More than 30% of schools in Indonesia don’t have libraries. Even if they have a library, around 75% of them do not function optimally in terms of book collections and available supporting facilities.  

This mobile library system provides a box  with various books to several schools in the area.  Then every three months, the box will be returned to the Community Library and a different set of books will be circulated to the schools. Last semester, from January to June, there were almost 750 elementary school students from 3 different schools, who had access to these quality books.  

Let’s hear what the Bakom Elementary school principal has to say:

“For years, our school education report showed only 50% of our students reached the minimum competency in literacy skills.  To improve this, we need to find and retrieve quality reading sources. Sadly, we do not have a proper library as well as updated literacy sources. Therefore, when I heard about the BOB program from YUM, I sought more information on how to be part of it.  Since last year our school has been participating in this program, which has been proven effective for our students.  In the latest  report in mid- 2024, our students' literacy skills have improved to 94,4%. What a significant increase!”

And here is what a  4th grader from the school had to say:

“My friends and I enjoy the books that are sent by YUM to our school very much. I want to read all of the books, because all of them have  interesting  titles and covers.  At this moment, I read books about Indonesian national heroes.”

We thank you for making this activity possible! The Community Library strives to offer educational activities that otherwise would not be possible for the children living in the area. We hope you continue to support the project, and hope that one day you may be able to come visit us!

Warmly,

Yolanda Utami Nilasari