Date: Friday, 29 June 2012
Time: 6:00-7:30pm (light snacks provided)
Location: Executive Media Theatre, Level 5, Administration Building, 81 Victoria Street, Singapore Management University, Singapore 188065 (location map available here)

About the Session:

Established in 2003 by Butet Manurung and four fellow educators, SOKOLA provides educational opportunities for indigenous peoples in remote areas of Indonesia. SOKOLA uses a practical “reading-writing-counting” method developed during Butet's years living among the Orang Rimba in the jungles of Jambi. 

The mission of this non-profit organization is to prepare isolated communities to deal with the challenges of the ever-encroaching modern world. As of today, SOKOLA has reached a dozen communities across Indonesia, bringing literacy to more than 10,000 individuals, both children and adults.

Butet's presentation will be followed by a book signing, for which all proceeds from book sales will fund SOKOLA education activities - providing schools for indigenous and marginalised communities in Indonesia.

About the Speakers:

Butet Manurung, Ashoka Fellow & Founder of SOKOLA, Indonesia

Butet Manurung was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1972. She developed a love of the outdoors while earning her degrees in anthropology and Indonesian literature from Padjajaran University, Bandung, Indonesia. She finished her Masters of Applied Anthropology and Participatory from Australian National University, Canberra in 2011. 

 In 1999, Butet joined the conservation NGO, WARSI, to lead their educational program for the Orang Rimba, the “people of the forest” indigenous to the rainforests of Jambi.  Her work in the jungle evolved into co-founding SOKOLA, a non-profit providing educational opportunities for marginalized people in remote areas of Indonesia.

As an educator and activist, she has received international recognition, including UNESCO's “Man and Biosphere Award” in 2001, TIME Magazine's “Hero of Asia” in 2004, Asia Society's “Asia Young Leader” in 2007, and the World Economic Forum's “Young Global Leader” in 2009. She became an Ashoka Fellow in 2006. The Jungle School is her first book, originally published in Indonesian as Sokola Rimba in 2007.

Event Partners:

Indonesian Professionals Association (IPA) is a registered not-for-profit organisation in Singapore that promotes networking and professional development among its members.

It has organised the IPA Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Awards 2011, which appreciate the contribution made by individuals or NGOs whose clear vision, exceptional courage, extraordinary hard work, and innovative ideas have addressed or fulfilled the immediate and unmet social needs of the community in Indonesia.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is the global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world's most urgent social problems.

Since 1981, it has elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.

To register:

Registration for this event is closed. For more information, contact Jared at jaredtham@smu.edu.sg or 6828 1977.