Turning Plastic Waste into Safe Classrooms

When you helped Happy Hearts Indonesia rebuild PAUD Lsandy, the impact went far beyond concrete and mortar. In a neighborhood where most parents work grueling shifts as construction workers and manual laborers, providing a safe, vibrant sanctuary for their children was a total game-changer.

Trust grew rapidly. Driven by the beautiful new facility and the relentless door-to-door outreach of dedicated teachers, families flocked to the school. Student enrollment quickly skyrocketed by 22%, allowing the school to welcome additional teachers to ensure every child received the care they deserved.

With this rock-solid foundation in place, PAUD Lsandy stepped up to fight a severe hidden crisis. Local healthcare (Posyandu) and urban village (Kelurahan) data revealed that an alarming 75% of children in the area suffered from stunting.

Recognizing the school's unique position of trust, the Education Office appointed PAUD Lsandy as a PAUD HI (Holistic Integrative Center). Teachers were trained to weave health, nutrition, and child protection directly into daily school life, turning the campus into a vital survival hub for vulnerable families.

Because of your support, the school now provides life-saving supplementary feeding (Pemberian Makanan Tambahan) and targeted nutrition guidance to aggressively combat the 75% stunting rate. The school also hosts routine immunizations and growth check-ups, actively works to secure legal identity documents for every child, and launches parenting classes to keep families strong and united.

As the school stabilized, the principal, Ms. Norince, set her sights on a new challenge: literacy. In 2024, she launched a modest reading corner with just a few picture books. At first, the children—who grew up in homes without books—ignored them completely.

But the teachers persisted. Through specialized literacy training, weekly read-aloud sessions, and monthly reading circles that brought parents into the classrooms, they sparked a love for words. The breakthrough was staggering: today, 80% of PAUD Lsandy students can confidently read and recognize letters.

PAUD Lsandy proves that rebuilding a school does more than repair a roof—it rescues a community's future. None of this would have been possible without the incredible generosity of our donors. Thank you for believing in these children, investing in their future, and making this lasting transformation possible!

Help Us Widen Our Impact!

If this update inspired you, please consider sharing it with your friends, family, or colleagues. By spreading the word, you help us connect with more kind people like you to bring education, nutrition, and dignity to even more schools.

*In Indonesia, PAUD stands for Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED).

As we move into 2026, we’d love to reconnect with you and take a moment to reflect on our shared journey in 2025—a year shaped by care, commitment, and a shared purpose.

Thanks to your continued support, alongside many others who care just as deeply, together we were able to build 47 schools, install 4 borewells, and support 9,000 children and 28,000 community members. These milestones are more than numbers—they represent safer classrooms, stronger communities, and more children given the chance to learn and grow.

If you’d like to explore the stories behind this impact, our full report is attached.  

If this journey means something to you, you’re always welcome to share it with friends—every share helps us reach more children and communities.

Thank you for walking this journey with us. We’re truly grateful to keep moving forward together.

Warmly,
Mel
on behalf of the Happy Hearts Indonesia community

• Impact Report 2025 (PDF)