The visit of Yayasan Literasi Anak Indonesia (YLAI) team to Tanah Papua for a week-long monitoring and support of children-friendly libraries to schools spread over 6 districts has ended. There were so many unforgettable experiences on this visit. The location to some of these schools was quite challenging. It took a couple of hours to travel overland through valleys and hills and sometimes unpaved roads that often the car driven by YLAI team and UNICEF Papua got mired down. However, the long overland journey in quite challenging geographical conditions did not really matter because throughout the journey, our eyes were spoiled by the natural beauty of Papua.
Awe was increasingly felt when we arrived at school and entered the library room. It was easy to find child-friendly library rooms in these schools. These rooms are different from the atmosphere of other classrooms, and the colorful wall paint makes the atmosphere feel good. A well designed layout makes the rooms comfortable. Shelves are arranged in such a way to facilitate space, several small tables arranged in groups in a corner, and there is also a large area covered with mats/carpets prepared as a place to read together. In some schools there are even colorful cushions that make the rooms feel warmer. The room becomes rich and dynamic with the display of some reading sources such as educational posters, library rules, student work, and the most interesting is the large number of quality books on display.
Displaying books becomes interesting and very different in this child-friendly library. Books with various genres are displayed neatly with a full cover facing forward, so that once entering the library room, we can directly see various interesting images from the cover of those books on display. They were very tempting to read. Each book is pasted with a sticker that marks its level and thus, this enables students to select books that suit their readiness.
It was easy to spend hours in this room talking to the librarian and the friendly teachers, sharing the vision and mission of the school library and being accompanied by a very supportive headmaster. So many success stories were shared related with child-friendly library programs. Mr. Agus, one of the teachers from the pilot school in Manokwari, said that the enthusiasm of students coming to the library to read increased sharply after they had child-friendly library.
“Formerly students were lazy to go to the library, now they themselves are asking to go to the library. In fact, since morning kids have come to my house to open the library “, said Mr. Agus. “Have you gotten up, Teacher? Can you open the library? We want to read,” said Pak Agus imitating what was usually asked by the students in the morning.
A different story from Ibu Betty, one of the librarians from the pilot school in Sorong. “Since the existence of this child-friendly library, the library is always crowded by students. Even on free hours they come to the library and this library is full of students and sometimes they do not want to go home,” said Ibu Betty with eyes shining with enthusiasm. It is hoped that by the cooperation of various components, the vision to foster reading interest for children in Papua will always come true.
One of the pleasing things during the visit was to see the commitment and effort of all the personnel involved, who have to go through uneasy travel each day and have succeeded in developing child-friendly libraries as a favorite place for children in schools and communities around the school.
The results of this visit makes Yayasan Literasi Anak Indonesia more excited to develop libraries in other areas and foster reading interest for thousands of other Indonesian children.