The village-based reading house helps accelerate the development of human resources in West Papua Indonesia

The village-based reading house helps accelerate the development of human resources in West Papua Indonesia

Despite their educational diploma education background, Lamek Dowansiba has succeeded in establishing eight reading houses for children in villages in West Papua. So that indigenous Papuans do not lag behind in the field of literacy.
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A step forward has been shown by Lamek Dowansiba, Arfak youth in Manokwari, because in a year he has opened eight reading houses in four districts in West Papua.
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Dowansiba said efforts to increase literacy and the eradication of literacy for Papuan children, particularly in the West Papua region, were not solely the responsibility of the government through the Department of Education and private educational institutions through formal education.
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"But the moral responsibility of all parties, especially Papuan children who have stock of knowledge and big dreams for saving their generation," he said.
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He started in his neighborhood in Kampung Masiepi, South Manokwari District, Manokwari Regency in May 2019. Dowansiba was moved to open a reading house named 'Tuh Tebej' or Bintang Reading House (in Indonesian). Tuh Tebej is the language of the Sough tribe, one of the large sub-tribes of Arfak in West Papua.
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"I started from Masiepi Village, then in Kampung Nuni, Mandopi and Urondopi in North Manokwari District, then in Tanah Merah Village in Warmare District and three others in Mansel, Bintuni and Sorong Regencies," he said.
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Dowansiba assesses that there is a lost opportunity when Papuan children are only forged through formal education in schools with a scheduled curriculum and time.
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In formal education Papuan children are required to receive reading lessons or recognize letters to be fluent in reading, but that condition is applied literacy.
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Meanwhile, native Papuan children are still in the position of basic literacy or recognize letters. So that the opportunity is not lost, then in the community environment (outside school hours), children who are close to the mother tongue or local language can be given space and time to learn to recognize letters (basic literacy) through the reading house formed.
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"I was motivated because I once went to school in the interior, it was difficult to get access to reading books and subject books, this is what underlies me to be determined in the literacy movement," he said.