CVA Compiles New Chapter for Literacy in Asmat
Wahana Visi Indonesia's area programme in Asmat Regency, Papua, is continually striving to improve the wellbeing of children and the community through activities designed to enhance knowledge and empower the community, especially in the education sector. Some examples of these activities include positive parenting awareness programs, training for Rumah Baca (reading house) tutors, and teacher’s training.
Another effort implemented by WVI is to facilitate Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) activities. Marsel (32), who lives in one of the assited villages, is involved in these activities. Marsel often represents village residents in actively voicing their aspirations when interacting with local government. When involved in CVA, Marsel is given a platform to express his assessment, as a community member, of the services provided by the government. This assessment will serve as the basis for improving the quality of services, such as education or health services in the area.
“I am happy to be involved in the CVA activities in Sentani last year. There I met many friends from other race or regions who were already very knowledgeable about how to facilitate activities related to literacy in their villages,” he said. Marsel also wants to be able to do the same thing in his village. He wants to become an advocate so that his village can become a Literacy Village, a place that can stimulate the improvement of children's literacy skills.
“Although I have worked in the district, there are still many things I don't understand about government regulations, especially those related to literacy. Through the activities yesterday, I learned a lot about those regulations,” said Marsel. With this new understanding of local regulations on literacy, Marsel can assess whether these regulations have been implemented in his area, what the quality of implementation is like, and how to improve their operation.
With his new knowledge, Marsel returned to his village in Asmat and planned a meeting attended by villagers and village government officials. This discussion between the two parties resulted in several important agreements, such as the construction of a Rumah Baca to be funded by the 2025 Village Fund budget and the statement to fund salary for Rumah Baca tutors. The advocacy carried out by Marsel was successful and very meaningful for the children in his village. Once the Rumah Baca is active, children will have regular reading activities outside of school.
Marsel is happy to be able to facilitate the activities carried out in his village and he also did not expect that it received very positive feedback from the villagers and village government. “Previously, I was not too sure that the villagers and village government would welcome CVA meetings like this, judging from previous experiences. However, the enthusiasm of the villagers showed something, I am quite confident that the results of yesterday's meeting can be implemented according to the schedule we have agreed, especially the construction of the Rumah Baca. In the future, I will continue to monitor the Village Head until the Rumah Baca is built,” he said.
Author: Maksimus Asrul (Field Facilitator for Asmat Area Programme)
Editor: Amarissa Kayla (Intern for Marketing Communications unit)
