Horse Library Encourages Indonesian Kids to Read

I have loved to read ever since I was a child. I could never get enough books. If there were a book I wanted, I’d just go to the library and get it. Unfortunately, not every child in the world has that luxury. Ridwan Sururi, a 42-year-old man from Indonesia whose job is to take care of horses, recognized this and started what’s now called the “horse library.”

Sururi built a wooden box for his favorite horse, Luna, to carry on her back, and he filled the box with children’s books, Take Part reports.

Three days a week Sururi takes Luna and the books through central Java’s Purbalingga region, where almost 1 million people cannot read, Take Part reports. The children here have schools; however, there aren’t very many educational resources. According to Take Part, the books are donated and the children do not have to pay a fee to borrow them.

The illiteracy rate has dropped considerably in Indonesia (from 15.4 million in 2004 to 6.7 million in 2011, according to UNESCO), and hopefully with Sururi and Luna’s help, that number will keep dropping.

“The purpose of this library is to encourage reading,” Sururi told Reuters. “The reason why I used the horse is because, in my opinion, the horse attracts children.”