Who doesn’t remember the magic of libraries, where new wonders awaited on each shelf, ready to take young minds to far-off places? Of course, if you live in a far-off place, a library may be something you’d only read about in books. That is, if you had books to begin with.
That became the mission of Ridwan Sururi, an Indonesian man with a plan — and a horse. Several days a week, he loads books onto makeshift shelves he drapes over his steed, taking them to eager schoolchildren in the remote village of Serang, in central Java. His efforts can seem almost insignificant, given that a study ranked Indonesia 60th out of 61 nations on measures of literate behavior as measured by such factors as access to newspapers, libraries and computers.
Yet such is his dedication that he was called “the Don Quixote of literacy” by the photographer Putu Sayoga, who spent time following him last year.
“The terrain in the mountains makes it difficult, but the horse is very strong,” Mr. Sayoga said. “In Indonesia there are not a lot of people who read books, so what he is doing is very important. He wants to increase literacy. For me, books are a great way to know the world, to gain knowledge about anything.”
Mr. Sayoga, a co-founder of the collective Arka Project, had seen something about the equine library on a friend’s Facebook page. It reminded him of his own childhood, where his school had only out-of-date books. Intrigued, he reached out to Mr. Sururi, who offered to put Mr. Sayoga up in his home while he spent time photographing Mr. Sururi on his rounds. Mr. Sayoga traveled from Bali by plane and train to the remote village.
Mr. Sururi made a living caring for horses, as well as giving scenic tours on horseback. One of his clients, Nirwan Arsuka, came up with the book idea as a way of doing something to benefit the community, specifically a mobile library. He gave Mr. Sururi 138 books for starters. Most were in Indonesian, and the books included a lot with drawings.
Children at the schools he visits can borrow the books for three days, and demand has been so great that he now has thousands of books, Mr. Sayoga said.
“When they see him, they have been waiting,” Mr. Sayoga said. “They run over to meet him and have to make a queue since there are so may of them. It’s a really nice thing.”
Mr. Sururi now plans to take the next logical step on his quixotic path.
“He wants to build a library at his house so the kids won’t have to wait,” Mr. Sayoga said. “That way, they can come and get books.”
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