TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A youth community in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, offers education to children in remote areas. They established three reading houses.

Scores of children rushed toward Nurrahmat Hidayat when he arrived at the shore of Liukang Loe, a village in the regency of Bulukumba, two weeks ago. The 24-year-old’s presence was like a magnet for the children playing on the beach. Nurrahmat Hidayat - Rahmat, for short - enthusiastically exchanged stories with the children.

Rahmat is one of the volunteers with the Sahabat Pulau Bulukumba community organization initiated by Hendriyadi Bahtiar. The group works in three remote villages in the regency-Kalumeme, Liukang Loe and Tana Toa-with the desire to encourage enthusiasm for learning among the children.

According to Hendri Bahtiar, a graduate of Trisakti University in Jakarta, the three villages selected were in dire need of extra teaching staff. Dropout rates at the primary and middle school levels are high. More than half of school-age children in the three villages have dropped out of school to work as fisherfolk, like most of their parents.

The high drop-out rate motivated Rahmat to volunteer with Sahabat Pulau Bulukumba. "I tutor these kids," said the maths graduate from the Muhammadiyah University, Makassar. Once a fortnight, Rahmat goes to Liukang Loe, riding in a fishing boat from Tanjung Bira. The trip takes one hour if the winds are calm. In Liukang, he bunks up at the village chief’s house.

Besides the usual school subjects of mathematics and the natural sciences, Rahmat loves giving his students other things to think about. Two weeks ago, for example, the Tanjung Bira resident took the children scouting, taking the opportunity to discuss with them the values of tolerance and cooperation.

Other days, Rahmat tells them stories about the sea using a hand puppet, slipping in lessons on nature conservation and the importance of keeping the sea clean from waste. He likes to provoke his wards into guessing the ‘lessons’ within his stories. Sometimes he shows them educational videos about the sea, which he saves beforehand on his cellular phone because of the bad reception in the area. Keeping students engaged in interesting ways has become the trademark of Sahabat Pulau Bulukumba volunteers.

Hendriyadi Bahtiar came upon the idea to establish Sahabat Pulau Bulukumba while at Changi Airport in Singapore in 2011. He was on his way home after an eight-week Indonesia-English Study Program at the Iowa University in the USA. Hendri, at the time a student at Trisakti University, expressed his concern about the lack of access to education in his hometown, Bulukumba, to several friends also returning home. "Many of my younger peers in the village do not even dream of going to college," he said.

According to Hendri, the biggest problem is lack of awareness about the horizons education opens up. Since most Bulukumba residents still aspire to become civil servants, not many youngsters were open to the idea of pursuing other career paths or considering work in the professions. Hendri thought that if more Bulukumba children finished their compulsory nine-year education, some even might become interested in going for a university degree.

In the discussion at Changi, Hendri and his friends agreed to initiate a volunteer movement in education based on their experience in Iowa. They were impressed by the enthusiasm shown by youngsters in Iowa who willingly volunteer their time going to orphanages and nursing homes. Hendri believed that Indonesians were already open to volunteering. What they needed were motivators.

Hendri and his friends decided to select some remote coastal areas in Bulukumba, Pinrang and Lampung as their pilot sites, realizing these areas were in urgent need of educational intervention. Sahabat Pulau was the result. Armed with the motto ‘Education, Educate, Educated’, the group decided they would spread their enthusiasm for education to inspire their younger colleagues.

Read more inspiring Outreach stories in Tempo English Weekly Magazine