Marking 10 years of change in Indonesia

Earlier this month, Room to Read celebrated a decade of change in Indonesia —10 years of advancing literacy, building a culture of reading and strengthening education systems across the country.

Over the past decade, we have celebrated remarkable success:

• Partnered with 11 publishers, building the capacity of 70 local authors, 67 local illustrators, 10 local editors and eight local art directors.
• Co-created 127 original children’s books that reflect Indonesia’s diverse stories and cultures.
• Distributed more than 620,000 copies of these books. In addition, the Ministry of Education has distributed 2.15 million copies.
• Collaborated with five library partners to establish 584 school libraries across 17 districts in seven provinces, using the Room to Read library model, while training more than 4,000 teachers and librarians on library best practices and essential reading activities.

Together, this decade of work has benefited more than 1 MILLION children across Indonesia.

To commemorate this milestone in the country and Room to Read's 25th anniversary year, we held a two-day celebration of literacy and learning in Jakarta, bringing together government partners, literacy experts, educators, authors, illustrators, publishers and community members to honor these achievements and look ahead to our next chapter of accelerating change. We also unveiled 14 beautiful new Room to Read children's book titles, thoughtfully developed by local creatives through our 2024 and 2025 editor and art director workshops!




"Although this celebration takes place in Jakarta, we want the joy of reading to spread to every home, school and community throughout Indonesia," said Sabrina Sarmili, program manager for Room to Read in Indonesia.

Guests explored displays of all 127 Room to Read titles in Bahasa Indonesia, engaged with publishers in a special showcase on book creation and connected with our library implementing partners, including  ProVisi Education. Families also enjoyed hands-on activities in an interactive room filled with games, puzzles and coloring stations, and experienced a model child-friendly library, pictured below, where children and parents read together and participated in read-aloud sessions.

"Room to Read and ProVisi Education together have partnered with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education for the past eight years,” said Dr. Lanny Anggraini, S.Pd., M.A., a representative from the Ministry. "We hope this collaboration will continue so that more primary schools can reap the benefits, particularly in fostering the love of reading and strengthening a culture of literacy among students."

The celebration welcomed more than 650 attendees over two days — a fitting tribute to 10 years of collaboration, creativity and community-driven progress.