The Lombok 2018 earthquake brought great sorrow to the people of Lombok. Losing one’s home and family is never an easy thing. But it also brought new hope especially to 26 junior high school students in the North Lombok Regency. A tinge of hope emanated from the faces of the Titian Scholarship beneficiaries that gathered at SMPN 2 Pemenang located in the Pemenang Subdistrict. A moderate sized room at the school became the new activity center for Titian programmes such as Scholarship and Community Development (Comdev) in North Lombok. This modest Community Learning Centre (CLC) is equipped with a library and computer facilities.

Pemenang is a young subdistrict in North Lombok that has just celebrated its first decade as a subdistrict and recently become talk of the town when Lalu Muhammad Zohri, a sprinter from Pemenang, won a gold medal at IAAF World U20 Championships.

In front of the students and their parents, Ibu Lily Kasoem expressed her concern for the future of Lombok’s youth. Ibu Lily hopes these students will be able to focus more on their education and utilize every facility provided by Titian, so that the path they walk to achieving their aspirations is wider and their future brighter.

This preliminary MoU gathering was held on Thursday, June 13th, 2019, and went beyond our expectations. Both students and parents showed great enthusiasm throughout the event, especially on the presentation about the dream of Ibu Lily’s work through Titian Foundation and the changes that had occurred to Bayat scholarship beneficiaries as a result. This stirred a lot of enthusiasm from the guests, which was illustrated by one of the parents who attended. Mrs. Haryati, parent of Lira Noviyanti, was very grateful for the presence of Titian in North Lombok, especially in the sub-district of Pemenang. She also shared the sentiments and hopes of Ibu Lily and encouraged students not to waste this auspicious opportunity and appealled to fellow parents to actively support their children in following the rules and activities set out in the Titian programme.

More positive reinforcement for these students came from our special guest speaker, Ibu Nursyda Syam, who encouraged them to use every means offered by Titian to achieve their dreams. Ibu Nursyda, a Tanjung resident and long-time literacy activist, owns more than 20 branches of the Womens Reading Club (KBP) in North Lombok, and believes that knowledge gained through reading can change the course of one’s life for the better. She is pleased that there is another organization, like Titian, that wants to focus their efforts to propel Lombok’s youth to reach their maximum potential and encouraged the Scholarship recipients and parents to maintain the same strong commitment that they displayed on that day. (NL)