Olipianti sat on the grass in Kaliamok Village, Malinau district, North Kalimantan, and read a storybook to the children sitting all around her. The children enthusiastically followed along, enjoying the story and laughing occasionally.
Activities such as this are carried out by Olipianti in collaboration with the Malinau Reading Family Association (Ikatan Keluarga Baca Malinau, or IKBM), to help promote the culture of reading.
As a member of the Lundayeh Dayak tribe, Olipianti’s love for Kaliamok Village, where she was born, has prompted her to become a literacy activist. The INOVASI partnership program, the Litara Foundation, and the OPOB (One Person One Book) Community introduced Olipianti and other Malinau youths to fun reading activities. They have been trained in the stages of reading, techniques of reading out loud, and mentoring children so that they can read fluently. Having been equipped through this training, Olipianti and other young people established the Rumah Mileh Community Reading Garden. In the Dayak language, Rumah Mileh means Smart House.
Together with the TBM activists and the Village Library (Perpustakaan Desa, or Perpusdes) in Malinau, Olipianti encouraged the establishment of IKBM at the end of 2019. Through IKBM, literacy activists seek to encourage the development of a reading culture in Malinau. Collaboration between TBM, the Village Library, and the schools in Malinau has continued to strengthen, especially since receiving support from the Village Fund.
“The activities at TBM include storytelling, playing games, storybook reading, and reading assistance for students who cannot read fluently,” explained Olipianti, the first head of IKBM.
IKBM activities practically stopped during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The government closed schools, implemented social restrictions, and limited the residents’ movements among villages. The residents were asked to stay at home to break the COVID-19 chain of infection. The TBM and the Village Library were also closed.
As the number of people infected with COVID-19 decreased in Malinau, IKBM began to resume activities. Even though they were not fully operational, some of the TBMs started to lend out books. For example, in TBM Rumah Mileh, the children are able to go out and borrow books. They can also order books, which are delivered to their homes by the TBM administrator.
In October 2020, IKBM collaborated with the Litara Foundation and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to run a literacy program during the pandemic. This program encouraged collaboration between TBM and the schools by involving 12 activists and 60 students from six elementary schools. To help them learn to read quickly, students who were identified as having difficulty in reading, received learning assistance from the TBM activists through the use of the literacy module from the Ministry of Education and Culture.
TBM Rumah Mileh cooperates with SDN 012 state elementary school, Kaliamok Village, in assisting students from grades one through five who have been recommended by the school. From each grade, the homeroom teacher chooses two children. The criteria for selecting the children include a lack of reading ability and parents who do not have time to accompany their children with their studies at home.
Olipianti and other activists read storybooks and help the students to read using various learning media. Although the sessions are now shorter, the mentoring method remains as it was before the pandemic with the exception of following a strict 3M health protocol (wear a mask, keep your distance, and wash your hands). Olipianti realizes that the children are happy to receive learning assistance. Icha, a grade five elementary school student, has attended all of the TBM activities. Initially, Icha could not read fluently, but now, after having received assistance, she can read with ease.
“Initially we conducted the mentoring activity twice a week, but after a while, we started doing the activity every day because the children enjoy it so much,” Olipianti said.
Olipianti hopes that collaboration between TBM and the schools will continue; she is optimistic that IKBM’s vision to develop an intelligent, creative, and innovative Malinau community will be realized.