Nurturing ‘Future Writers’: Indonesia

By Barrie | June 16th, 2007 | No Comments

With the aim of laying the foundations for a generation of internationally-acclaimed young Indonesian writers, a non-profit education foundation has launched a series of reading and writing workshops for high school students and undergraduates in six major Indonesian cities.

The “Creating Future Writers” workshop, a joint initiative of the Sampoerna Foundation Scholars’ Club (SFSC) and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival community, has already kicked off in Jakarta.

Banda Aceh and North Sumatra will be next in line, followed by Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Semarang toward the end of the month.

“If we don’t like reading then we don’t learn new things,”

Sampoerna Foundation Communication Director Sapto H. Sakti said. “And since reading and writing are intertwined with education, we are starting this appreciation program with school children.”

Sapto said the foundation planned to create similar workshops for younger students in the future.

Around 100 students from each city will participate in the two-day training events.

Well known Indonesian writers such as Budi Darma, Gunawan Maryanto, Debra Yatim and Indie cinematographer Agung Sentausa have volunteered as trainers.

Source: Jakarta Post