Help Build a School for Underprivileged Children

Building a School That Directly Serves the Needs of Poor Rural Communities

Since 2023, Punthuk Sewu Learning Centre in Bantul, Yogyakarta, has been a space of hope for children from low-income families. What began as a modest grassroots learning initiative has evolved into a structured mission to bridge educational gaps through academic tutoring, character formation, and vocational exposure in agribusiness and livestock.

Through mentoring more than 50 students, we have witnessed transformation—improved academic confidence, stronger discipline, and renewed aspiration. Yet this journey has revealed a critical truth:

Informal support, while impactful, is not enough to dismantle structural poverty.

Rural poverty is not only about low income. It is about limited access—access to quality, affordable, and relevant education that responds directly to the realities faced by low-income families.

Many schools exist administratively, but they do not fully address the lived conditions of vulnerable households. Education costs remain burdensome. Curricula are often disconnected from local economic opportunities. Children face the risk of dropping out due to financial pressure or insufficient academic supervision at home.

If education does not intentionally respond to poverty, inequality will continue to reproduce itself.

Punthuk Sewu’s Commitment: A School That Serves the Most Vulnerable

To address this structural challenge, Yayasan INFEST is preparing to transform Punthuk Sewu Learning Center into:

• A Formal Junior Secondary School (SMP)
• A Vocational Training Center (LPK)

This transformation is planned for 2026–2028, with a target to serve up to 400 students from underprivileged families across Yogyakarta.

We will adopt a boarding school (pesantren) model, providing a safe, structured, and nurturing 24-hour learning environment that integrates academic excellence, vocational competence, and strong humanitarian and Islamic values.

This school is intentionally designedto directly serve poor rural communities through:

• Affordable and inclusive education access
• Integration of STEM, literacy, and numeracy foundations
• Practical vocational training in agribusiness and livestock industries
• Character development and leadership formation
• Dormitory facilities for students from vulnerable households
• Direct connection between education and sustainable livelihood pathways

We are not simply building classrooms.

We are building a relevant and responsive education ecosystem.

Why This Matters

Most of the children we serve come from households characterized by:

• Irregular income from informal or agricultural labor
• Limited access to books and digital learning tools
• Minimal parental academic support
• High vulnerability to school dropout

Without targeted, structured educational intervention, these conditions perpetuate intergenerational poverty.

By establishing a formal vocational school at Punthuk Sewu, we ensure that graduates leave not only with certificates—but with:

• Practical skills
• Market-relevant competencies
• Entrepreneurial capacity
• Confidence and dignity

Education must not only transfer knowledge.

It must expand opportunity.

Education with Intention and Equity

This school is not designed for the already privileged.

It is built for those who need it most.

Building a school that directly addresses the needs of poor rural communities means:

• Breaking intergenerational poverty cycles
• Strengthening rural household resilience
• Expanding equitable access to opportunity

At Punthuk Sewu, we believe education is not charity—it is structural transformation.

And meaningful transformation begins with the intentional inclusion of the most vulnerable.

When rural education becomes accessible and relevant,

entire communities rise with it.