Students Establish Literacy Corner to Support Education of Aceh Tamiang Children
Jakarta — A group of students from Sriwijaya University (Unsri) in Palembang has established a literacy corner to strengthen children’s learning interests in Landuh Village, Aceh Tamiang, despite the region having been struck by disaster.
These students are part of 5,040 students from 36 higher education institutions contributing to post-disaster recovery efforts in Aceh through the Impactful Student Programme.
“The purpose of implementing this programme is to recover psychosocial impacts on affected children. Before this programme, children were largely withdrawn, had lost motivation to learn, and many had not returned to school as usual. However, since the programme began, praise be to God, the situation has changed significantly — the children have regained enthusiasm for learning activities and express themselves more,” said Muhammad Gabriel Valensa, Chairman of the Executive Board of Students (BEM) at Unsri, in a statement in Jakarta on Friday.
He explained that the literacy corner was introduced with a simple, practical, and easily applicable concept suited to field conditions, in the form of tiered bookshelves positioned in a corner of the room, approximately 130–150 cm in height and 90–100 cm in width.
Beyond the bookshelves, students also provided seating cushions and small tables that could be used for reading together.
The collection of books provided is diverse, ranging from children’s stories, general knowledge books, to educational magazines. This variety of reading materials aims to broaden students’ horizons whilst establishing reading habits from an early age.
Beyond conventional approaches, the literacy corner was also integrated with simple digital technology. Students provided access to digital reading materials through barcodes that could be scanned using mobile devices.
Furthermore, Veronika Zahra Pirera, responsible for the Literacy Corner programme, stated that the Literacy Corner programme lasted approximately 26 days.
According to her, the Literacy Corner programme served as a vehicle for creating a safe space for children affected by and recovering from disaster, allowing them to experience learning and play as usual.
“Our approach with the children here has been natural and unforced. Additionally, we frequently played and travelled around the Landuh Village area, and during this month of Ramadhan we conducted evening prayers together,” Veronika said.
I Ketut Adnyana, Director of Research and Community Service at the Directorate General of Research and Development, emphasised that the Impactful Student Programme 2026 is part of transforming higher education to be increasingly contextual and responsive to community needs.
“Students and government will continue to be present alongside the community. The presence of students is hoped to provide spirit and optimism to the community to rise from adversity, and foster the belief that the future will be better through the use of existing potential and technology in Aceh Tamiang. This is a concrete manifestation of impactful higher education,” said I Ketut Adnyana.