Real Stories from the Children We’ve Helped
In a village in Cianjur, 3 hours from Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. Dili, an 11 year old student is an avid reader and one of the brightest child we have met. Being more fortunate than other children in her village, she was smart enough to enter one of the best primary schools in a nearby town. There, she got offered an Accelerated program and completed her primary school at the age of 11, a year earlier than usual. Although a year younger, she finished at 10th place in a school of 600 students.
As her father goes for business in Jakarta intermittently, she has a small collection of books in her room. Dili’s favourite is the set of Harry Porter in Indonesian language. She reads so much that her parents’ income could not keep up with her passion for reading. As a result, she has read each book from her collection 5 times – from end to end. Her parents have brought her books for her future enrollment into high school, books that are for 14 year olds. That too – she has read several times- from end to end. Out of books, she writes her own books from brown writing paper. She writes stories of children, fantasy and horror. She is also the Illustrator of her books, providing each chapter with drawings of her own. She is not only bright but entrepreneurial. She sells these self-made story books for Rupiah 5000 each (Rp 4000 if her buyers provide writing paper). That is USD 0.50 and USD 0.40 each. From her small book collection, she also rents books to her friends for Rupiah 500 per book for a period of 3 days. She hopes to be an English Teacher one day.
When she heard that Books for Hope is setting up a library in her village, she was thrilled! Now with 1000 bright and colorful books right in front of her house, Dili is busier than before. Reading several books a day, she is a glowing example to other children in the village. She also guides younger kids on reading and writing.
