Along rivers and muddy roads: Bible Society literacy program reaches remote villages

INDONESIA — Three times a week, Yeny Susiana would leave her little house early in the morning to walk for three hours to the village of Sungai Pelaik. When she arrived, flushed from her long journey, she was greeted warmly by a group of people who had been anxiously awaiting her arrival.

Susiana was one of 146 tutors leading literacy classes in 146 villages in the Sintang Regency of West Kalimantan last year. The program, run by LAI in co-operation with 11 churches of different denominations, began in May 2005 and ended in January 2006, helping more than 1,600 people in the Sintang area learn to read and write. Each participant received a Bible after they completed the program.

LAI has been running a literacy program and a Scripture New Reader program for 10 years in various parts of the country. But this was the first time it had been done in Sintang. The program is church-based, largely involving church members, although a small number of participants are not Christians.

“Some of the participants could not continue taking part for the duration of the course because they had to go and make a living, such as working as rubber tappers… Many were farmers, who practise slash-and-burn farming, periodically moving to find new farmland. Sometimes the locations where they moved were completely inaccessible.”

Nevertheless, most of the participants persevered and the Bible Society made every effort to ensure that progress was being made – a difficult task due to poor transport and communication links. Milka Manguma, the Program Field Officer in Sintang, made many long and tiring journeys to visit the learning groups. The report describes some of the challenges she faced:

“There were locations that could only be reached by river transportation, while others could only be reached on foot. Access to all the locations depended on the weather: during the dry season, you could no longer use the river as it was too shallow, and during the rainy season, the dirt roads turned into mud holes large enough for water buffaloes to wallow in.”

The report also describes a particularly difficult trip made in September by Ms Manguma and H. Duta Pranowo, LAI General Secretary, along with two other Bible Society staff, to two learning groups in villages in the Nangah Mau region. Although the villages are only 90km (56 miles) away from Sintang city, it took more than half a day to travel there in a jeep along hazardous, potholed roads, followed by a 45-minute boat journey. Despite the gruelling trip, the Bible Society team were inspired by what they found. Most of the participants in the two groups were women who spent nearly every evening in literacy lessons, determined to learn to read and write so that they could teach their children.

Catch a lift

The journey back to Sintang was not straightforward, however. “We left for Sintang at 5pm but the rear axle of our jeep broke, so we ended up blocking other vehicles on the road,” the team reported. “Soon a bus appeared and the driver and passengers helped us to move the jeep off the road. We were hoping to be able to catch a lift on another public transport vehicle but as evening fell there were fewer vehicles on the road.

“We heard that a convoy of trucks carrying food would be passing by soon, and that we could catch a lift with them to Sintang. But an hour passed and word came that the trucks were stuck in muddy potholes. Often, people end up spending the night on the road, but the General Secretary had to fly back to Jakarta the next day, so we decided to return to Sintang using motorcycle taxis.

Motorbikes roared

“And so, each of us perched on the back seat of a motorbike, we zigzagged around the large stones and muddy potholes. Now and then we had to get off and help push the bikes through very thick mud, and sometimes we stopped just to stretch our legs and have a break from the constant jolting and shaking. Finally, at 10pm, our motorbikes roared into Sintang city.”

The LAI’s Literacy and New Reader Program was well received by churches and local authorities alike, both of whom have pledged to continue to develop literacy work in the Sintang Regency.