In 2018, we set out with an ambitious goal: to rebuild 200 unsafe schools across East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Eight years later, that promise has not only been kept, it has been surpassed. As of September 2026, together we have built and restored 203 schools, creating safe spaces to learn for over 50,000 children across 43 schools in Flores, 87 in Sumba, and 73 in Timor.
To mark this milestone, our volunteers traveled to Southwest Sumba for an unforgettable three-day experience. We spent our time repainting classroom walls alongside students and teachers at SD Solid, a school we rebuilt together back in 2023, while celebrating Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day right on the school grounds.
Yet, the journey was also a gentle reminder of how much work remains.
Just nearby, our team visited SMP Reda Mbolo, a middle school in severe disrepair. With the nearest alternative school over 20 kilometers away, local teachers took matters into their own hands, building basic walls so children would not have to drop out. When funds were not enough, these same teachers started selling grilled chicken (ayam bakar) after hours just to buy roofing sheets. That is the daily reality in rural NTT: remarkable community resilience held back by a lack of basic infrastructure.
The heart of our trip was opening SMP Kristen Cahaya Kasih, our 200th rebuilt school. Founded in 2021 in Langga Lero Village, the school was born out of pure necessity, operating out of cramped bamboo shelters because middle schools were scarce in the region. Today, those same children step into bright, sturdy, and fully equipped classrooms built right in their home village.
As Sylvia Beiwinkler, Secretary General of Happy Hearts Indonesia, shared during the opening: “Rebuilding over 200 schools is so much more than constructing buildings; it is about restoring dignity and giving children a fair chance at life.”
Ultimately, this milestone is about the quiet transformation that unfolds when a child gets a safe place to learn, and Destriyati’s story is a powerful reminder of that impact. Back in 2018, she was one of just 14 students in the very first class at SMA Kristen Air Hidup, studying in a fragile bamboo shelter where heavy rains flooded the desks and a lack of water stripped female students of their privacy. Yet, she and her classmates made a quiet promise to return once they achieved their dreams. Earlier this year, Destriyati kept that promise. She walked back through those gates not as a student, but as a qualified teacher stepping into a fully transformed school to guide the next generation.
Reaching 200 schools was never our finish line. It was proof of what becomes possible when donors, volunteers, and local heroes walk hand in hand. Our next chapter takes us across new waters into remote island communities that have waited the longest for a safe place to learn.
