A Humanitarian Mission by a Minority Group
AS soon as the bell signaling the end of school hours rings, around 60 elementary school children would run to the house of the chief of Keta village in East Seram Regency, Maluku. They pile up in one room filled with colorful books. Many will look for the book they were reading the day before, while others will swap theirs with friends in order to start reading a new story.
The reading room was initiated at the beginning of this year by a local youth, Ali Akbar Rumeon, who noticed the literacy rate of the children in his village was far below others in the city. "Kids here played more than they studied. So I tried to think something up for them," said Ali, who is currently a student at Darussalam University in Ambon.
July 12, 2016
AS soon as the bell signaling the end of school hours rings, around 60 elementary school children would run to the house of the chief of Keta village in East Seram Regency, Maluku. They pile up in one room filled with colorful books. Many will look for the book they were reading the day before, while others will swap theirs with friends in order to start reading a new story.
The reading room was initiated at the beginning of this year by a loca
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