Fighting Illiteracy in Indonesia

Aug. 25, 2008—Teaching literacy is Bahrul Ulumiyah Suheb’s driving passion. Though Indonesia has a high rate of literacy, in Bahrul’s town several thousand people cannot write, read or count. Sixty percent of those are women, she adds.

A teacher by profession, Bahrul makes her living by teaching elementary school students and also gives a great deal of her time and energy as a volunteer with Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia—a non-profit organization that focuses on women’s empowerment. The organization coordinates several different programs for women, but abolishing illiteracy is one of its main activities.

Bahrul says there are four literacy groups running with about 40 women participating this year. She particularly likes seeing older women learn to read, “even if it’s just one word.” She says that the grandchildren of these women often accompany them to class and may help them learn. “I like this program very much because, as a teacher, I have to implement my skills and it fits with my background. I like to teach them spelling one by one of the alphabet.”

Bahrul is also clearly excited about her work with women’s clubs. Since 2006, her volunteer organization has established four such clubs (with about 200 women participating) and there are plans to have three additional ones for those women now involved in the literacy program. These clubs provide a vehicle to help women access information, which Bahrul believes is central to giving women more of a voice in Indonesia.

Barhrul empowers the women in her community by teaching them how to read.

The women’s club members, who often meet in local homes, may participate in microcredit initiatives and also receive “hot news,” skills training, and small door prizes. She cited, for example, the information they disseminated for an upcoming governor’s election, such as “how to choose the best candidate with the best vision.”

Bahrul herself gained from the information sharing and interactions with others at CEDPA’s Summer 2008 Global Women in Management training program, which was supported through the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Educating Women and Girls Initiative. She says she has valued “know[ing] leaders from other countries, shar[ing] experience, and adapt[ing] experience for my organization.” Bahrul hopes to transfer the knowledge she gained at CEDPA’s training to the capacity building she is doing in local communities. “I have to transform my new knowledge to my members and to beneficiaries in some villages,” she says.

Most of Bahrul’s work as a volunteer is done on evenings and weekends. She often leaves home early and returns late, and is happy to report that her family supports her activities. In a family of seven siblings and with parents who are farmers, Bahrul is largely self-sufficient and had to pay her own way through college.

Bahrul says that most of the people in her village—about 20 km away from Tuban where the local office of Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia is based—are open-minded about what she does. But she says that being a single, working woman in Indonesia isn’t always easy, both because the culture there remains very male-dominated and women who have education are sometimes looked down upon.

Barhrul joined 25 other women from around the world for the July 2008 Global Women in Management workshop.

It can be an ongoing challenge. Bahrul mentioned that “in villager’s meetings in Tuban, for example, almost all the participants are men. Women in the village are not represented in decision making.” So, she tries “to change the monopoly of men in public.” Bahrul teaches members of the women’s clubs in the villages to become as informed as the men so they can contribute ideas. She also says that “gender training can help change minds,” and mentioned annual gender trainings that her organization holds for college students, housewives and farmers “to increase awareness of women’s skills and equality.”

Sponsoring a public dialogue on women’s empowerment and a seminar on medical insurance for the poor are other activities that her organization has spearheaded. Bahrul and her colleagues would certainly like to do more—like sponsoring a seminar on maternal health and launching voter education programs—but fundraising remains a challenge. The organization has some partnerships with other non-governmental organizations and the Ministry of National Education of Indonesia also provides limited funds to buy materials for the literacy program, but everyone recognizes the need for long-term donors.

At least with volunteers like Bahrul to help them, Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia has made great strides for the advancement of women in Indonesia.

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