Dear

    My friends from Rumah Kenari and I (we’ve been published in Jakarta Post) get many emails and interesting discussion in the mailing list we’ve joined after our communities were reported in that newspaper. (for those who haven’t read the news article, here this the link: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/30/helping-society-one-s-own-way.html )

   From the discussion we’ve conducted, we realized that there are many community libraries out there in the remote areas of Indonesia that need to be supported. Their problem are the limited access to books and the obstacles they face in gaining the fund. The people who live in remote areas are hard to add the collection of their books, so that the readers get bored with the old books the library has which  make the community libraries stuck. Besides, the funding is still independently raised only from the activists budget.

    As the consideration, Reza, Ayu (from Rumah Kenari), and me have agreed to form an organization called BACA YUK! Our core objective is to support community libraries in areas all over Indonesia. We will conduct the fundraising, then will buy books based on their needs to be delivered to their libraries. We launch this program because we are staying in Jakarta which make it easier for us to do the fundraising. In addition, staying in this city, we can access the books a lot easier, books are everywhere. Due to those reasons, we want to make use of the advantage we have to support other.

    The steps we take areas follow: (1) We collect IDR 100K from our salary every month. (2) we look for a sustainable donor, since we consider that if everyone donates IDR 100K per month and there will be 10 people, we got IDR 1 million to support community libraries. If the donations are combined with our sustainable fee, the sum will be almost IDR 2 million. In our opinion, that IDR 1 million we get every month will be used for book hunting and the rest as saving for Baca Yuk!

   We know that we don’t have enough money, we just own the idea hehehe. However, at least we try to do what we can do. We got several community libraries listed as ‘need support’ ranging from Aceh, Ternate, Gorontalo, Central Java, Bogor, etc. So we are triggered to look for the donation.

    By this opportunity, we would like to offer you to be our sustainable donors. Please do not worry about the amount of money you have to donate, it is all up to you. No matter how much money you give, it will be very useful for us and for the community libraries needed the donation. It will be a huge step, since if you donate IDR 20K, the money can be allocated for 2 children books. Then if 1 book is read by 1 child a day, in a month you will have helped 60 children with your IDR 20K.

    So, we hope that you can participate. You can spread out this email to your friends and family that care about the development of community libraries.

You can call me at 085326648845 or bacayukbaca@gmail.com

salam