Highlights: October-November 2020
Home learning
Our 250 students continue to receive home learning support from The Island Foundation while schools in Bintan Regency remain closed.
After nine months of closures, some schools have made improvements to student engagement, though others face ongoing challenges - access to formal learning is consistently low across all of our partner communities, with some missing out completely on school support.
As a community-based organisation, The Island Foundation has been able to adapt our approach depending on the local situation so that all students continue to learn during the disruptions, without overburdening parents and families.
Parent and household surveys
Throughout November, The Island Foundation carried out extensive parent and household surveys in our eight partner communities. The surveys were designed to establish a baseline understanding of parents' engagement in childhood learning, the barriers children face in accessing quality learning, and sustainable development challenges.
The survey responses will be analysed against global, national and provincial data and will inform our Learning for Sustainability curriculum and program design, community engagement work and impact measurement.
In the next newsletter we will share a summary of the key findings so our supporters can better understand the barriers, challenges and opportunities facing children, their families and communities.
Village and schools data collection
Complementing the parent and household surveys and to further inform our curriculum and program design, the team met with village offices and schools in each of our eight partner communities where we operate Learning Centres, plus an additional six potential locations, to source important enrolment and demographic data.
Community engagement
Mangrove planting
We marked National Heroes Day 2020 with mangrove planting in Pengudang, northern Bintan. Students, parents, local village leaders and our friends from Nikoi and Cempedak joined in the planting of 300 mangrove seedlings that were provided for free by the Bintan government - through this initiative we are supporting the government to achieve their SDGs targets.
Beach clean ups
During October and November, the team participated in beach clean ups organised and supported by Seven Clean Seas, Nikoi and Cempedak in Kelong, Air Glubi and Pulau Penyengat. Together, the clean up crews have removed 25 tonnes of waste from the environment this year!
Webinar
With so many activities during October and November, we had just one webinar session - but what a great session it was! Mas Dayu from Books for Papua Foundation provided fantastic insights and lessons about literacy issues in Indonesia, the importance of reading for improving children's learning outcomes, and the often-overlooked importance of cultural and linguistic relevance in children's books.
Our initial survey results indicate that reading at home is very low in our partner communities and that over 50 percent of children speak a language other than Bahasa Indonesia at home. These lessons will be at the core of our curriculum and program design.
Fundraising
WiT for Good
We are very grateful to Siew Hoon Yeoh, founder of Web in Travel (WiT), and friends of WiT for raising over SGD 36,000 in donations to The Island Foundation via the WiT Charity Auction! Our work would not be possible without the commitment of our long term supporters!
Gift e-Cards
All of our work is supported by charitable donations - it's generous individuals, businesses and organisations that make it all possible.
This festive season, surprise friends and family with a gift that keeps on giving! With seven tiers to choose from, our e-Cards start from just $10 and will help children living in remote small island and and coastal communities access quality learning.
To place an order, click on the image (left) and complete the form!