Met Dayah Subulussalam children

On behalf of Hope 4 Our Children, I brought gifts for children in the form of school bags. The children gathered at a meeting place. Before that, the principal, Mr. Bambang Achiruddin, who was a graduate of prestigious teacher college in Jakarta, asked both Elly Risman and I to speak in front of the children.

It was a good opportunity to meet face to face with the children. I encouraged them to learn and read. I took the same quote (in Dayah Babulilmi), the first word from Allah in the Quran Iqro which means Read. I stated you all learn not only from the school, but you can learn merely from anybody and from books you read. Please always remember that today has to be better than yesterday, and tomorrow should be better than today.

To further motivate them, I shared an experience of my late grandmother, Tinur M. Nur, who came from a very small village called Pandai Sikek in West Sumatra. I told this story to Dayah Babulilmi students. She was only elementary school graduate, but she had such will power and motivation to read, to learn, and to give women opportunity to learn at school. At the age of 16 (it must have been in mid 1920), along with several of her girl friends, they were determined to build a school for girls. They picked up stone from a river nearby, and passed them one by one, hands to hands to build a school building. Finally the building was in place. It was the first school for women in Sumatra, called Diniyah Putri. (I didn’t mention to them that in the process my grandmother and her friends were arrested by the Dutch for trying to gather people). It is very important to have a dream and a goal. If you fail, don’t be discouraged. Keep on trying. Insha Allah, you will find your way.


Picture: Ina spoke in front of Dayah Subulussalam children.