Wall Paintings Adorn Children-Friendly Village

If you ever stop by the Kejambon District in Surabaya, particularly located in Kampung Keputran, you will notice something different when you step into this village. You will see a huge mascot that greets every visitor and guides the visitor to the reading house. Going  further into the village, you will see 7-meter high wall painting with children theme. That’s the place of the children reading house.

The reading house is one of the programs that is strongly promoted by Wahana Visi Indonesia in order to support the creation of a children-friendly village. Children-friendly village is a condition which meets the needs and rights of the children so that they could optimally grow.

The villagers would further create much more favorable condition and atmosphere for their children to nurture and develop their potential

Children-friendly village is initiated by the Surabaya City government with several other parties to  realize the Child Friendly City or Kota Layak Anak (KLA) in Indonesian language. KLA is a city which prioritizes and highly commits its resources to fulfill children’s rights to develop their potential to the fullness. The city should also be able to integrate the support of various elements, such as the local community, businesses, and all the government programs to ensure the fulfillment of children’s rights.

Abraham Sitompul, area development manager of Wahana Visi at the Surabaya office, explained the children-friendly village program in Keputran is the cooperation of Petra Christian University, the Surabaya City government, and Wahana Visi in an effort to help realize the Child Friendly City program.  Abigail Niendy Aniendya, one of the members of the Petra team, said the university engaged several visual design students to express their creativities in drawing the giant mural at the children reading house. The landmark is expected to generate wider love for reading among the younger generation.

The wall painting program started in early June 2013 and took three weeks to complete. The unfriendly weather, with falling rains for several days, slightly disrupted the painting activity. Moreover, the painting process was quite difficult as the painters have to stand on rather unstable frames.

Not only painting and decorating the children-friendly village, the Petra design team also expressed their hope that the villagers would further create much more favorable condition and atmosphere for their children to nurture and develop their potential.

* Written by Mardea Mumpuni, Marketing Communication World Vision Indonesia | Edited by Hendro Suwito, Senior Editor World Vision Indonesia  | Translated by Steve Wirawan