093 / Ensaid Panjang, Sintang, West Kalimantan
Pak Riyanto is an entrepreneur with a flexible schedule. He dedicates most of his time to Rumah Baca (community library), where he is teaching the kids.
The village is quite remote, it’s 40km to the nearest town. Books for children are difficult to get, currently only books for adults are available here, none of them with environmental topics.
The big issue, this village faces, is that palm oil companies try to influence the local people to sell their lands. Local people are poor and don’t have much knowledge about the environment and the consequence of palm oil farming.
Pak Riyanto says: “The books are our hope to make a change in the new generations, to open up their minds, to gain more knowledge and information about the environment and the issues in our area.”