KARANGASEM, Bali (BPN) – Rotary as a world organization that was founded more than 110 years ago, has launched various programs to improve the quality of life of people throughout the world. Bali is one of the areas that has benefited from rotary programs. From literacy, sanitation, and peace to health.
At the beginning of this year, several Bali rotary clubs such as Rotary Club Legian, Rotary Club Denpasar, and Rotary Club Bali Taman together with Young Generation Rotary and Interact Bali Wiguna Selat initiated literacy activities to encourage equal distribution of education.
This literacy activity began with building a learning house, library renovation, and children’s empowerment activities through literacy.
All of these activities started with one of the members of the Bali Denpasar Rotary Club who visited Selat Village.
The Bali Denpasar Rotary Club, which has initiated a Foster Children’s Project called the Bali School Kids Program since 1999, sees literacy as an important aspect of equalizing education. Unfortunately, literacy problems in Karangasem, especially in Selat Village, are not yet solved.
This can be seen from the fact that several elementary schools in the village do not have proper libraries. Some teachers and school principals also still perceive literacy as just reading and reading.
Even though literacy is more than that. Children should be able to work in the literacy process. Apart from that, access to learning English, which plays an important role in the current era of globalization, is not available in schools.
However, the administrators and members of the Bali Denpasar Rotary Club questioned how literacy in English could improve if literacy in Indonesian is still low. It motivates Rotary members to increase children’s literacy in both Indonesian and English.
With that enthusiasm that ultimately encouraged this club to inform other Rotary clubs. In response, several clubs such as the Legian Rotary Club and the Bali Taman Rotary Club provided great support.
They agreed to create a literacy movement that was different, more varied, and capable of having an impact on the literacy movement in general. Support does not only come from domestic clubs.
Support from Rotary Club Tokyo Ebisu and Rotary Club Ibaraki came with funding for literacy improvement activities for equitable education in Selat Village, Karangasem.
To achieve this goal, the Rotary Learning House was established first. Thus, children have a place to learn English.
At the same time, the library at SDN 3 Duda began to be improved by Young Generation Rotary and Interact Bali Wiguna with the support of Rotary clubs. Shelves were arranged and books were added.
Of course, that books won’t do any good if they just sit on the shelf. To be able to make the book usable by children, they must get information about the benefits of the book.
Therefore, Rotary is collaborating with the Adya Foundation to implement the One Child, One Book activity at the library launch on Saturday, January 20, 2024.
With the One Child, One Book activity which is the flagship of the Adya Foundation, children are not only taught about the benefits of books. They are also encouraged to work.
The One Child, One Book activity invites children to do fun things with books. First, they were invited to choose the book Adya, a contextual storybook about Balinese society which was their favorite. Then, learn to recognize themselves by choosing one of the three activities they like most. They can choose writing, drawing, and speaking.
In an activity held in conjunction with Interact Bali Wiguna Selat’s birthday, children who like writing were given short training on writing stories.
Meanwhile, children who like to draw are given lessons on creating characters from basic shapes. Lastly, children who like to talk are given the freedom to act out dramas from Adya’s storybooks.
The children enjoy the activities. Even though some of the children were shy, they finally dared to come forward to present their work.
Especially children who like to talk, seem to have fun acting out dramas from Adya’s books. What caught their attention the most was the contextual picture book published by the Adya Foundation which was distributed by Rotary. The book they previously chose as their favorite book can be theirs and taken home.
The book immediately caught their attention. Some children even seemed impatient to read it. Moreover, in the book, there are games and coloring sheets that make children even more enthusiastic.
Teachers are also enthusiastic about getting premium Adya Foundation books which offer various interesting facilities such as physical Indonesian language books that can be crossed out and erased, English digital books, Balinese language videos, and coloring sheets that teachers can download and share as learning companions. These books are the work of village youth.
However, even though it is the work of young people, one of the books entitled Adventures of Looking for Cemcem, which is the work of an 18-year-old child, has received a decree from the Ministry of Education as a non-textbook to accompany early childhood and elementary school learning.
The hope is that by distributing books to 158 children in schools and learning homes, enthusiasm for improving literacy will continue to burn in the hearts of every child and teacher. They can also develop literacy activities that are not limited to just reading and writing. They can work according to their respective interests.
