Help Promote Good Reading Habits in Kalimantan

Dear kind donors,

We hope that this newsletter finds you well.

Life in Central Kalimantan since the pandemic is still far from normal, however, life must go on. Besides our daily tutoring sessions with primary school students, as well as the regular children who come to read books at the library, last December, we decided to reopen the dance club. The Dance Club has always been a big part of the Community Library. The dance club members have even performed in several local and national official ceremonies. Before the pandemic, once a week around 30 children would come to practice traditional dances as well as traditional musical instruments. 

The decision to reopen the Dance Club was taken with great consideration and responsibility. Since this activity takes place outside the library, with enough space between the dancers, we thought it would be safe for children to come and dance again. We believe that this class can provide a recreational and relaxing activity for the children who have gone through so much this past year. The classes are also great for the children's physical and mental well-being, especially during this pandemic. Many positive impacts come from learning dancing, such as a healthier body, learning about discipline, teamwork, and an increase in children's self-confidence. Hopefully soon, we will be able to reopen other activities at our library. 

We have a special surprise for you this month: check out a video of the Kalimantan library activities " YUM Community Library in Kalimantan " we hope through this video that you will be able to transport yourself to Central Kalimantan!

On another note, we had the honor to be interviewed by GlobalGiving for their recent article called  "Education in COVID-19 era" in which YUM’s Executive Director, Vanessa Reksodipoetro, was one of the contributors. Read the article to find out the challenges that students are facing around the world and how we, as nonprofits on the ground, are helping students bridge the gaps.

Dear friends and supporters,

Happy New Year!

We wish you a new year filled with peace, joy, and prosperity! We survived 2020 and thrived because of your continued support. We were able to exceed our goals and expand our services because of the generosity and commitment of people like you.

As we begin this New Year, we are thrilled to inform you that this project, Help Promote Good Reading Habits in Kalimantan, has been chosen as GlobalGiving's Project of the month for January 2021! Our project to enhance the quality of literacy and education in Central Kalimantan was duly selected from a pool of more than 5,000 nonprofit projects in 170+ countries. Nearly 3,000 donors come together and make monthly donations to keep the Project of the Month going. This extra support means the world to us—and to the children living in Bukit Batu, Central Kalimantan.

In Indonesia, schools have been closed for almost 10 months now creating an enormous learning loss for children since most of them have to learn on their own. YUM learned of this information through conversations with parents, teachers, and the students themselves. In the area where the YUM Community Library is located, small groups of people are allowed to gather with special permits, adhering to strict COVID-19 protocols. Therefore we applied for this permit and took this opportunity to facilitate small group learning sessions and provide tutoring activities for primary school students who struggle with reading, writing, and math. The tutoring classes run with a maximum of ten students taught by one tutor. They attend classes once a week and the lesson lasts for one and a half hours. All of the participants have attained permission from their parents to come to our premises. We hope that this small initiative will help keep the kids in Bukit Batu, not only learning but also be excited by it.

We look forward to continuing our efforts and reaching out for more children to help this year and we can only do so with your continued compassion and generous support. 

Sincerely,

Yolanda

Project Leader