Today, we established our new library on Alor Island, East Nusa Tenggara! Woohooo!

The library is located at SD GMIT Pitungbang, Otvai Village, Alor. When we arrive, the kids greet us right away at the front gate, with big smiles on their faces. They even help us carry boxes of books to the library room. The kids from Grade 6th help organise the books and put them nicely on the bookshelves. When the bookshelves are ready, a girl steps back, looking at the shelves and she mumbles, “Wowww.. it’s so nice..”. Hearing this cute girl’s comment, we can’t help not to smile :). Over 800 title of books are ready to be read by the kids in this village. And more are coming!

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The kids can’t wait to read the books. Even when they try to put the books into the shelves, some of them end up reading and don’t even move an inch from where they sit. So cute. Sometimes they also show off a book to their friends, and when their friends try to grab the book, they try hard to hold it tight. It’s so nice to see how they get all excited seeing the books we bring!

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Pak Samuel, the School Principal, asks us to gather in the big room with all the kids. He gives a speech, thanking Taman Bacaan Pelangi for the collaboration and for setting up a library in his school. He also tells the kids the importance of reading. “Book is a teacher that never gets mad at you”, he says. What a nice quote! It is so true. Book teaches you everything. And it never gets mad at you :).

Nila Tanzil, our founder, greets the kids by introducing our team who joins the today’s celebration: Metta Anggriani, Eva Muchtar and Hasna Pradityas. Each of us shares about our professions to inspire the kids. Metta, apart of pursuing her career in a big multinational company, is also fond of yoga. She then shows some of the yoga movements to the kids and they all have fun together! Eva, tells the kids that she loves to write and now she’s a professional writer. While, Tyas shares her stories that since she was a little girl, she always loved drawing and now it becomes her job — drawing, but using computer! How cool is that? Nila, our founder, shares about her passion in traveling and that she gets to be on TV, visiting beautiful places in Indonesia and get paid. “Who wants to be on TV and travel for free?”, Nila asks. Everyone raises their little hands with sparks on their eyes. How cute.

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We tell them that now every Saturday they can go to the library of Taman Bacaan Pelangi and read for free. As much as they want. Yeayyyy!!! Everyone claps their hands. We also tell them that the books in Taman Bacaan Pelangi are the types of books that their friends in the big cities read. So, in the future, when they have friends from the big cities, they can have a chat about their childhood and say, “Oh.. I also read that book when I was  a kid. Even though I come from a small village in Alor, I have access to the same books you read in the cities!”. They start to smile, showing their white teeth with sparks on their eyes. Lovely.

Ibu Wati, the teacher who is in charge in managing the library, is very excited as well. She can’t stop smiling.

Thank you for everyone for the book donations! You guys make this happen! You make the kids smile, big time! Also to Nusantara Beta and Guerrilla Dive Ind for an awesome collaboration. Without your collaboration, we won’t be able to set up a library in Alor.

And last but not least,  big thanks to our individual donors who have been very generous in supporting our initiatives. Thank you for the kindness. Your support really means a lot to the kids in Eastern Indonesia.

With this new library in Alor, now Taman Bacaan Pelangi is operating in 12 islands in Indonesia! Yeayyy!!! Thanks to YOU all!

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