<![CDATA[No silence please: is this open-air park in Indonesia the world's most quirky library?]>

The Kolong Community Reading Park in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta must be one of the most quirky libraries in the world.

Loud noises and laughing are normal " and in fact encouraged. That's because this open-air park is located directly under a towering flyover and sandwiched between two large roads where vehicles and motorcycles honk, rev their engines and emit exhaust fumes " very unlibrary-like.

"Oh yeah. That is our challenge. Any kind of sounds " traffics, smell, exhaust " we have to deal with it and carry on," said Victoria, the reading park's director.

But there is a method to the madness of the library, which also organises sports games and arts and craft classes in a small but beautiful patch of artificial grass, trees and plants, and a quaint brick building that houses the books: the park caters solely to children, including homeless kids.

There's another, even more important, point to the library: Indonesians " adults and children alike " have an obscure aversion to reading.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's 2018 International Student Assessment showed that Indonesia ranked 72 out of 77 countries surveyed in reading proficiency, just behind Kazakhstan, Georgia and Panama.

With Indonesian Ministry of Education policies on reading seemingly ineffectual, the group running the park, opened in 2016, is one of a number of non-governmental organisations starting community libraries, and holding seminars and reading programmes specifically targeting children to embrace reading at a young age.

A bookstore in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia's reading proficiency levels are relatively low. Photo: AFP

"Our first audience is not schools. It's not classrooms," said Morgan Belveal, a programme specialist with The Asia Foundation, which is working with several groups in Jakarta, a nd in East and West Java provinces through its "Let's Read" initiative. "We want to create books that are beautiful, creative and engaging, so the habit will stick."

He added: "While it is hard to know how many informal community libraries there are in Indonesia, it is easy to see that there are thousands of these libraries that are opened and managed by passionate volunteers who are building reading movements in their communities."

While the reading park, seminars to train reading ambassadors, and various reading programmes have been put on temporary hold because of social restrictions in Jakarta and other regions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the results so far have been encouraging and creative.

Litara Foundation publishes online and print books targeting young girls, led by its "Mighty Girls" collection, a series of illustrated picture books about female Indonesian super heroes, as well about historical female Indonesian figures.

"We thought that children rarely see female protagonists in children's books. They are mostly male protagonists, so it's important for them to see heroines so there is more balance in gender for protagonists," said Sofie Dewayani, the foundation's director. "If you look at international surveys, the understanding level among Indonesian children is not good. Studies show that reading habits are not high."

The same goes for Indonesian adults, she said.

"Maybe it's a lack of quality and diversity in reading materials. Bookstores only sell new books that are commercially popular," Dewayani said, adding that older Indonesians, as children, "were linked to old oral stories, traditional stories. It will take some time to get them to be introduced to reading. It's the culture here."

The 'chick lit' section of a book store in Jakarta. Advocates hope that by encouraging children to read early on they will take the habit over into adult life. Photo: Reuters

Roosie Setiawan is the founder and director of Reading Bugs, and is a "read aloud" expert. In recent months, her organisation has trained more than 850 "Let's Read" ambassadors.

"The first purpose of our community is to ask parents and teachers to read aloud. Why? Through reading aloud, kids want to read," she said. "The benefit of parents and teachers reading aloud is the children have the experience of a good example of good reading, and the children will then find a way to read by themselves."

She added: "The reading level is terrible in Indonesia, especially with adults. So we target children. If we go directly to target adults, it's difficult to get them to read. At our seminars, parents ask: 'Can we use comics?' Comics are not books. In comics, we find they are visual language, not reading. If you want children to read, they have to read a book."

But that presents another problem: the lack of quality libraries in Indonesian primary schools. Many primary schools nationwide don't even have libraries considered as functional, and only one-third are considered to be in good structural condition, according to the Australia Indonesia Youth Association.

"The school libraries only provide text books. They don't have books to read for pleasure. So what we are doing is providing better book alternatives," Dewayani said.

Her Litara Foundation's strategy of creating online children's books enables primary schoolteachers from rural areas to go into towns with internet access and download, photocopy and distribute the books on A4 paper to students.

Yanti, a 31-year-old mother of two who still finds time to volunteer at the reading park as well as be a reading ambassador, said the national government still had a major role to play in improving Indonesia's lacklustre culture of reading.

"I hope the ministry can do something to make Indonesian children study more, and read, and not just play video games," she said. "I have learned through my volunteering that children love to learn about tales."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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