Highlights: January 2021
Learning
We have hit the ground running in 2021..!
The program team are all back together in Bintan and have kicked off the year with meetings with village offices and schools to clarify our options for student learning during the ongoing school closures and uncertainty around Covid-19 in the program area.
We have obtained permissions to hold semi-regular, outdoor, face-to-face sessions with small groups of students, and the team has been designing a range of Covid-19 safe activities that will be rolled out across all Learning Centre locations beginning next month.
This is fantastic news for our students who had been tasked with home learning throughout most of 2020 - above is a photo of Muhammad with his Certificate of Participation for his dedication to learning in 2020. All of our 248 students received certificates at the end of last year as recognition of their hard work, and as a symbol of our ongoing commitment.
The program team has commenced the creation of content for our new and improved Learning Units, generously and aptly guided by long-term adviser Mary Van Der Heijden, and Alison Schwartz. We hope to create a suite of materials that cover each Learning Unit to launch at the beginning of the next Indonesian school year in July.
Community engagement
The farm in Malang Rapat has been battered and bruised by not only flooding, but wild fire too..! Farming in Bintan Regency is extremely challenging - the soil is laden with bauxite and the weather is increasingly extreme and unpredictable, just to name a few. We are keen to crack the code to farming in Bintan to help improve food security and access to local produce in the area.
Photo: The planters we used to protect the soil and plants from extreme rain and flooding were damaged by wild fire just two weeks later.
Throughout January we continued to participate in beach clean ups organised and supported by Nikoi and Cempedak Islands and Seven Clean Seas. Public interest in the clean ups has grown, with The Island Foundation's Teacher Dani looking to form a clean up group of young people in his village on Kelong Island.
Team recognition
Teacher Dani has been elected to the Badan Permusyawaratan Desa (BPD) for a six year term. The role of the BPD is to listen to, understand and support the aspirations of the community regarding development and empowerment based on common interests. Congratulations and all the best to Dani (far left )!
Tintin has been selected as head of fisherman in Berakit district. Tintin is the leader of Orang Suku Laut - an indigenous nomadic fishing community - in Panglong, and is a keen seafarer. Tintin is passionate about and committed to improving the lives of Orang Suku Laut children and we are excited to support Tintin in all of his endeavours. Congratulations to Tintin.!
Parent and household surveys
As mentioned in the last newsletter, late last year The Island Foundation carried out surveys with parents and households. The surveys were designed to understand the barriers parents face in supporting their children's learning, to gain an insight into sustainable development challenges present in communities, and to ascertain the level of parent support for and alignment with The Island Foundation learning program. The findings from the surveys will inform our program design and implementation, and will help us to identify other ways we can work to support students, families and their communities in the future.
Below is a snapshot of the results - click the arrow to the right for more!
Program overview
If you would like to know more about our new and improved Learning for Sustainability program, the rationale behind it and what guides our work, we have created an overview document that is available for download via the website.
Click on the image to read and download!