Earning Social Rewards

KOMPAS/KHAERUL ANWAR

Abdul Quddus Ali

Abdul Quddus Ali, 43, is like a contractor because he is a farmer, a member of the Village Disaster Alert Team, and a literacy activist – all at the same time. He always spares time to make his rounds to remote hamlets with reading material for children, and has helped set up reading spaces in several settlements of Sembalun district, East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.

“I’ve had the idea of opening reading spaces and being involved in literacy for a long time,” he said. In fact, reading spaces can become forums for learning, obtaining information and presenting problems that local communities and children experience in the frequent flash floods and landslides that hit their regions.