Children Who Never Stop Learning, Even in Disaster

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — “Sir, will we be learning again tomorrow, sir?”

The question softly slipped from the lips of a child in the evacuation tent. Simple, almost without burden. But for the volunteers, that sentence was like knocking on the deepest door of the heart.

When flash floods and landslides hit East Aceh in November 2025, the SDN Ranto Panyang Rubek building was devastated. The walls collapsed, half of the building was swept away by the current along with logs, leaving behind rubble on the banks of the murky river. Mud dried on the cracked floor, and wooden planks were caught in the bushes.

But there was one thing that did not wash away: the spirit of the children.

In Sijudo Village, Pante Bidari District, volunteers from the Atjeh Connection Foundation initially planned a mobile emergency school, visiting each affected area, along with distributing medicine and providing medical services. They set up a simple white tent with the inscription “Emergency School SDN Ranto Panyang Rubek”.

There were no classroom partitions. There were no chairs. There was no long table where books could be neatly arranged. Only one blackboard with a black marker line dividing the imaginary space between classes. The children sat on black tarpaulins, hugging small tables donated by volunteers. The wind sometimes blew the sides of the tent, bringing the smell of mud that had not completely disappeared.

Then the question came: “Will we be learning again tomorrow, sir?”

The plan changed. The emergency school was no longer just a short visit. It became a routine. From Monday to Saturday, from eight in the morning to noon, the white tent transformed into a space of hope.

In the middle of the mud left by the flood, the voices of the children were heard loudly when asked about their dreams.

“Me! Me! I want to be president!” shouted Nisa, her hand raised high.

“You, you want to be a police officer!” her friend replied.

Nisa did not give up. She wanted both. President and police officer at the same time.

Others mentioned doctors, astronauts, teachers, members of the TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces), entrepreneurs. Not a few wanted to be palm oil entrepreneurs, perhaps because their village was surrounded by palm oil plantations and most of the parents worked there. The dreams jumped in the air, as if not caring about the mud that still stained their feet.

The school may have been washed away. But the dreams, no.

That spirit also became fuel for the teachers. One of them is Rahmat Syah. He himself is a disaster survivor. Every morning he has to go through muddy roads, passing steep hills and winding slopes. If it rains, the road becomes slippery and vehicles are prone to skidding. But he has never been absent.

“This is our obligation,” he said softly. “Especially after this disaster, we must encourage the children so that their dreams can be achieved.”