The Batanta Hope Island School was created to provide education to the communities of the remote village of Yarweser in Batanta, Raja Ampat.
Education and schooling had not been present in the island for over 20 years. To answer the local families’ desire to educate their children, the RARCC invested in providing education for levels primary one through six. Starting from 2018, RARCC has provided the village of Yarweser with the means for proper schooling: teachers, educational material, school building, and teachers’ accommodations.
The RARCC provides the teachers with their pay, accommodation, and food and fresh water. Every two weeks, they get to visit Kri Island, where the RARCC office is located, to rest and take advantage of steady signal and office facilities to create and print educational materials.
We offer a holistic approach to education, placing a heavy emphasis on character building and environmental education. Our hands-on practical learning curriculum include beach clean ups, learning about the biodiversity of Raja Ampat’s habitats, recycling, and helping the ReShark StAR Project by collecting clams for the pups’ food.
We have taken the school children on educational trips to other islands around Raja Ampat, and even to Sorong, to see the different careers they could one day aspire to have. As most of their families are fishermen, the children believe they can only grow up to have either one of two jobs: as fishermen or dive guides. Through educational trips and special guest visits to the classroom, the children gain new aspirations and dreams.
In a village where people struggle to make a living, the teachers often take on a parental role during working hours. In line with our holistic approach to education, the teachers also focus on building the children’s character and faith, teaching them the simple actions of greetings, a hug and handshake. The teachers often find themselves surrounded by the kids outside of the school, as the children like to visit their accommodation.
Despite the food and water shortage in the village, we have received overwhelming generosity from the local families. The Batanta Hope Island School has become the village’s pride and joy, bringing the community together and overcoming differences.
As of December 2024, we have taught more than 200 kids.
We have built two teachers’ accommodations and one school containing three classrooms. We plan to upgrade the teachers’ accommodations to make more room for comfort and our team. As our enrollment continue to grow, we plan to build another school building that will have three new classrooms. Our other plans include creating a small section in the school buildings for a library.