TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Rahima Noor Ghaliza, 10, made small flaps with her hands. Her lips whispered a whooshing sound while her face contorted in feigned pain. The fifth-grader was trying to mimic the swaying of a mango tree in high winds. "Help, help! I can't bear it anymore," Rahima said-providing the tree voice.
At Ahmad Yani Park in Medan, North Sumatra, Rahima, or Rima as she is called, told the tale in front of 50 other elementary-aged kids and their parents. The tale was neither legend nor folktale, but one of her own creation. Titled A Proud Mango Tree, the performance concluded with thunderous applause.
Indriani, 33, is Rima's mentor and the leader of the Medan Storytelling Village community. "Before, I never thought we'd have a 'storytelling girl' able to tell a tale so fluently in front of a big audience," the mother of four told Tempo English two weeks ago.
A 'storytelling boy' or 'storytelling girl' is the term coined to describe those who join the activities in the Medan Storytelling Village club. The group-founded in 2013 by 20 women of varying professional backgrounds-is the Medan branch of the community set up by famed storyteller Awam Prakoso in South Jakarta.
According to Indriani, or Indri for short, the Medan branch was started as a way to address children's growing dependence on computers and gadgets. A case in point was the 067091 Medan State Elementary School where Indri teaches, where 80 percent of the schoolchildren own gadgets that can access the Internet. This, Indri said, has rendered the children less able to sustain real-time, real-world interactions with one another.
She said there were other effects as well, including increasing disrespect towards parents, an inability to empathize with people, and imbalance towards right-brain thinking. The Internet also has too much violence and smut readily available, she argued.
These concerns compelled Indri to look for ways to reach out to children and waylay the bad influences of the Net. She selected storytelling, she said, because good stories are engaging and can provide a moral compass. "We want to bring children back to the world of imagination," Indri said. (*)
Read more inspiring Outreach stories in Tempo English Weekly News Magazine
