120 / Gondangan, Temanggung, Central Java
Abdurrohman was a teacher in a private school, but his concern about children education and environment awareness in his village encouraged him to go back to leave the career and go back to his village.
Altogether with 9 of other volunteers, he built and established Rumah Cagar Desa in 2013, a place where community members can connect to each other and develop their knowledge. His village is located on the side of Mount Sumbing, Central Java, far from urban city and library. The lack of access to books in his village encouraged him to have a library as part of the community centre.
The village is dominated by people with low financial income, some of the parents can’t afford their children to study in public formal school. For them, Rumah Cagar Desa is their only hope to get education. They got free basic education altogether environmental and cultural program. Abdurrohman also train the children and adults to master basic computer skills.
Education is not the only problem his village faces. Poor understanding and attitude about environment leads the village to have a be dirty and unhealthy. To tackle the problem, Abdurrohman created a waste bank, from which the children can get some extra money from selling recyclable materials. It doesn’t only reduce the trash significantly in the environment, but it also encourages the children to do weekly clean up and teaches them the importance of separating waste since the beginning.
He really hopes that he could contribute more to the community by providing more valuable knowledge. For him, books are the one of the most valuable resources, not only because it will help the children be more educated, but also inspire them to understand that self-motivation based learning is also important to have by anybody.