Help Promote Good Reading Habits in Kalimantan

Our English Club has been a popular activity amongst the children who come to the library. Right now, 63 children are actively part of this program. They are divided based on their grades: Grades 1 to 3 and grades 4 to 6. The activity runs every Tuesday and Friday. 

The children first learn the basics of English, such as the alphabet and numbers. Then they start learning vocabulary such as body parts, animals, fruits and so on. For the older children, they start practicing daily conversation, like self-introduction and asking about what they like and dislike. Our tutor gives the lesson using fun and interactive games; singing and watching in English are also part of the activities. To support this, your donations are used to purchase flash cards, dictionaries, movies, and CDs.

In July, the English club members practiced singing “It Is a Beautiful Day” and “You are My Sunshine” for their performance during the Creativity Day. After this performance, more parents came to our library and signed their children up to join the club! One of the parents said:

“My son is now in 6th grade.  At secondary school, he will start learning English. Therefore, I think it would be great if he can start learning basic English before he starts his next grade. “

2023 has been a wonderful year for the library, filled with many activities and events. These are only possible because of your continued support of this project. As we approach the end of the year, we would like to invite you to continue supporting us by sending a donation, or even better, by transforming your donation into a recurring one. Thank you in advance!

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday!

As we look into the future, employment no longer entails working in an office or a factory, but also the possibility of creating our own business. With this in mind, we want to give the children of Bukit Batu a head start by creating a new activity in our community library: entrepreneurship for kids, a program designed to engage 6th grade students and train them problem solving skills, improve their self-confidence, inspire them to be innovative & creative, and encourage their growth mindset.

10 children participated in this first batch; all of them are active library members and have good grades in math.  The workshop ran for 5 days. In the first four days, the participants learned about the characteristics and terms used in entrepreneurship, as well as an introduction to writing a business plan. The participants also did practical activities such as visiting small local businesses nearby and worked on their teamwork skills. Their last day of workshop coincided with the YUM Creativity Day, which we took advantage of so that the participants could practice their entrepreneurship skills by selling their “business ideas”, mostly snacks and drinks, which they made the day before. Instead of money, those who attended Creativity Day were given a free coupon to exchange for their snack/drink of choice.

Let’s hear what AA and AD said about this program, both of them are our future entrepreneurs:

“The activities are fun and full of joy. When Ms. Yolanda assigned us to purchase the materials from the shop, we were a bit afraid. But fortunately, we were in a group. Our group was the second winner to accomplish the challenge. We learned to be more confident, by practicing talking with older people through interviews with small business owners. Our favorite activity was when we prepared snacks for the Creativity Day.”

Before we ran the workshop, we asked the parents’ permission. And after the workshop, we asked their opinions about it. This is what  Mrs. LU, NO’s mother  said:

“We are thankful to YUM for choosing our son to be one of the participants.  This type of activity is completely new to him. He was so excited to go and do the workshop. Our house is a bit far (10 km) from the library and because there is no public transportation, his father drove and picked him to and from the library every afternoon. We believe it will have a good impact on our son’s future.”

The results of this first “Kidspreneurship” program were very satisfying and we are already looking forward to our next workshop! Your donations are making all of this possible. Please consider transforming your one time donation into monthly giving, which would provide us with a more sustainable source of funds that we can use to plan our programs, create budgets, and expand our services. Thank you once again for your support and generosity!