SEEDS partner, the Perahu Nusantara Foundation, has been running a new leadership course aimed at developing emerging Indonesian leaders. This interactive program goes beyond traditional lectures—it’s a dynamic learning experience that equips participants with practical skills, strategic thinking, and collaborative tools to lead effectively in today’s complex environment.The course emphasizes hands-on engagement. Through group discussions, real-world case studies, and problem-solving exercises, participants learn how to navigate challenges, build strong teams, and make decisions that create lasting impact. Each session encourages active participation, ensuring that learning is not just theoretical but deeply practical.One of the unique aspects of this program is its focus on contextual leadership—understanding cultural dynamics and leveraging local strengths while applying global best practices. Participants also benefit from mentorship and peer networking, creating a supportive community of future leaders committed to positive change.Our vision is clear: to prepare leaders who are adaptable, innovative, and grounded in values that matter. This course is more than training—it’s an investment in Indonesia’s future.

Across Southeast Asia, educators and students are increasingly eager to participate in global academic discourse—whether through studying abroad or publishing in international journals. These efforts are more than personal goals; they represent key steps toward broadening perspectives, achieving higher program accreditation, and advancing professional careers.

The need for support is especially acute in areas farther from major education hubs like Java. A recent visit by a SEEDS consultant to an Islamic university in a smaller provincial capital brought this into sharp focus. During an informal sharing session, faculty members asked thoughtful and urgent questions:

• “How can I improve my IELTS score to qualify for a scholarship?”
• “I have young children—should I take them with me or leave them behind?”
• “How can I publish in prominent journals to attract international supervisors?”

Drawing from experience supporting others on similar journeys, the consultant offered practical advice and encouragement. The session was well-received, but it also revealed that the need goes far beyond a single conversation.

University staff were already discussing ways to collaborate on long-term solutions to help their lecturers and students overcome barriers to global academic participation. While the consultant was not in a position to initiate a partnership immediately, the visit highlighted a clear opportunity for future engagement.

This experience underscores the importance of supporting academic institutions throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia. By investing in capacity-building and fostering collaboration, we can help educators and students connect with the global academic community—and ensure that no one is left behind due to geography or limited access.

This year, the educational and research project in southern Thailand has been building slowly. The research affiliation with a local university has enabled the ongoing research work of the SEEDS consultant, which is part of a bigger research project focused on the cultural heritage of southern Thailand. Our consultant has taken the role of the supervisor for the local researcher team, helping to coordinate and support the research team based in southern Thailand. A key highlight for our team has been the conference we coordinated mid-year. In July, we successfully held a research conference on the cultural heritage of southern Thailand. In partnership with the local university and another research team, the diverse cultural heritage of the region was explored. This was a unique conference that sought to bridge the gap between academia and local communities. The conference brought local and international academics together in the morning sessions. But in the afternoon sessions, local religious leaders, educators, and activists joined the conference. This wide range of participants led to dynamic interaction and opened the door for more community engagement on the region’s cultural heritage in the future. The importance of this topic for local academics and leaders was evident; it is an area which needs much attention. The research team has been following up with the key local leaders from the conference to explore ways to work together in documenting the region’s cultural heritage. We are expanding the research project and developing an extensive network of relationships through this initiative. It is hoped that this research project can have long long-lasting impact on a region where ethnic tension has rumbled on for many years.  

Long-term SEEDS partner Yayasan Tunas Aksara (YTA) works through its Saya Suka Membaca program (SSM) to work for a future where all Indonesian children have the opportunity to learn to read with fluency and understanding, and to love reading.

A key part of its strategy lies in building long-term relationships with schools, education departments and front-line community groups, creating opportunities to measure the impact that using the SSM method and curriculum materials has on children’s learning. This is important to demonstrate that SSM is effective, and to allow the team to continue to improve their methods.

In the 2024-2025, YTA’s team in Kupang ran a year-long partnership with the local education partnership to equip twelve teachers of Grade 1 classes in local schools. In August 2024, before the program began, the team conducted baseline tests with 221 children in classes receiving the intervention. They also tested another 206 children in similar “control” schools which were not receiving the intervention in order to compare the progress of the two groups. The two groups were tested again in May 2025, and the SSM team went to work analysing the data.

So how much did the children learn?   The graph below shows the scores of Control and Treatment students at baseline. The results are broadly similar,  with a median scores of 14% for both groups. 

By the time of the endline test, the two groups look quite different:

While the scores of students in both groups have improved, the students receiving the intervention have improved by much more than those in the control group. The mean score of students taught with SSM improved by 16 % more than those in control schools, and their median score increased by 28% more.

So what does this mean? These are very significant gains. The 16% improvement in mean score is an effect size of 0.58 standard deviations, which ranks among the most impactful literacy interventions. And the results are robust (p < 0.001) – meaning that it is highly unlikely that these results happened by chance.

In short, the package of Saya Suka Membaca curriculum, books, training and mentoring had a highly significant impact on the reading progress students made in their first year of primary school – progress that we trust will unlock greater progress across the whole range of subjects that students study in the years ahead.

Congratulations YTA – keep up the good work!

You can learn more about the work of Yayasan Tunas Aksara and the Saya Suka Membaca program on Instagram and YouTube @sayasukamembaca or at sayasukamembaca.org.

According
to the report from a meeting titled “ Bridging the Gap: Thailand’s Path to
Inclusive Prosperity” by NESDC and the World Bank (2023), many of the provinces
in South Thailand face “persistent poverty”. Our foundation is
located in the poorest area in Thailand, and we also find that the common
problems in our province are lack of opportunities and activities for students,
early marriage and drug problems, low education level, and low family income.
Hence, we have developed a community centre for the university students and
kids and women in our area.

 

The community centre is located near the
university, student dormitories, and poor villages. With the high cost of
coffee shops and a lack of affordable gathering spaces, students struggle to
find a welcoming place to unwind, connect with others, and engage in meaningful
activities. Therefore, the community centre’s objective is to provide a
transformative space for connection, co-learning and empowerment for the
community by offering programs that positively impact lives and
create opportunities holistically, such as Culture Exchange Corner ( language
class, cooking class), Relaxation Corner (board games, movie night),
Restoration Corner (art class, reading program, women group).

In the last two months, we
have volunteers help us to have ‘ABC’ workshop for high school students, which
is Art, Baking and Coffee workshop in English. The
students told their teacher that if their English lessons were as good as here,
they would love to go to school every day. Another weekend, we invited 10 kids
from a village where we usually teach English, to our centre for a baking
class.18 children and 2 adults came together, and they didn’t want to go back
home and were asking ‘when can they come again?’. We hope that this community
centre will be a warm and happy space for the community.

For a decade, SEEDS members in Thailand have championed the transformative power of sports for the urban environment, recognizing its positive impact on youth development.  We’ve seen firsthand how engaging in sports not only builds athletic skill but transcends the playing field by helping them in other aspects of their lives as well.  Through the discipline of training and the thrill of competition, youth cultivate not just physical abilities, but also invaluable life skills such as resilience and teamwork.  Our futsal league stands as a testament to this vision.  

Nurturing Local Talent and Community Spirit

For those unfamiliar, futsal is a variation of soccer, played on smaller, cement court.  Here in Thailand, our SEEDs members are invested in empowering local leaders and fostering grassroots initiatives that harness the power of futsal for youth development. While the core of sports training happens during team practice, the broader network of teams is just as vital to our vision. It’s a space for collective growth, for strengthening bonds between neighborhoods, and for igniting a shared passion among participants.

A Decade of Collaboration and Innovation

Over the past two months, the futsal network that SEEDS helped establish 10 years ago came together to host its 10th annual “Area Futsal League”. This year’s event was a testament to the power of community, with 16 teams representing nine neighborhoods pooling their unique strengths – their people, their ideas, their equipment, and their skills – to make the league a resounding success.  Drawing on years of collective experience, our SEEDS volunteers and local coaches collaboratively adapted the program to meet the unique needs of their communities this year.

Fair Play and Unforgettable Experiences

Over the course of the two month league, each team participated in at least five matches through a round-robin format. This structure was intentionally designed to ensure that every team, regardless of their experience level, had an equal opportunity to compete. While this league isn’t the sole chance for our youth to engage in competition throughout the year, the feedback is consistently clear: the futsal league is, by far, their favorite competition of the year!

Recently our SEEDS’ consultant working in partnership with Hasanuddin University in Makassar (Indonesia) was interviewed by one of his students who is part of a journalist team publishing the internal university’s magazine on student life. The main objective was to learn about his educational and professional background but also why he came to Indonesia and how the partnership started with Hasanuddin University.

Our consultant shared about his experience working in the semiconductor industry in the late 1990s and that during this time he developed a desire to pass on his acquired know-how in technology to developing countries. Early 2000 he was introduced to the former head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Hasanuddin University who invited him to help with developing a curriculum in the field of Integrated Circuits and Digital System Design. Soon our consultant learned about the three-fold mandate of Indonesian university: Education & Teaching, Research & Development and Community Service. These fundamental obligations are referred to as “Tridharma”.

Since then our consultant has been involved in various community service programs. Among others he joined a group of lecturers setting up clean water facilities in villages. The more insights of the rural situation our consultant obtained, the more he started to think about ways in which technologies that are available in our interconnected world could become accessible to the village level and thus increase its living standards. The gap between rural and urban society in Indonesia is still very wide. New technologies like drones for spraying pesticides on rice fields are still not trusted and thus most of the farming activities are still performed manually.

During the above mentioned interview our consultant remembered that he had already given a presentation many years ago on how students need to fulfill the role of “in-betweeners” between advanced technologies and its application in rural settings. Students are given the privilege to study at distinguished universities but this also means that in countries like Indonesia they have a responsibility to serve the wider society.

SEEDS continues to be committed to work in partnership with universities in Southeast Asia not only in the academia but also so that the leaders of tomorrow- graduating from universities-can bring key technologies to places where it is much needed.

Tracking, Training, Treatment, Transportation, and Trust. These are the five elements of a cooperative program between the Jembatan TCB Kampar tuberculosis (TB) initiative and members of Indonesian village communities, local government, and private health facilities. The first four “T” words can be quantified, but how does one measure Trust?

One way is to gauge the strength of collaboration with local officials. Mr. Abizar, who leads Jembatan TBC Kampar, has been honored by authorities in Kampar District and its villages of Durian Tandang and Teluk Kenidai to speak about tuberculosis testing and medicine, teamwork to curb TB transmission through contact tracing, and tuberculosis education. The Department of Health in Kampar also hosted Mr. Abizar and a SEEDS consultant in a televised talk show, to discuss public-private partnerships in the national effort to stop TB.

When invited to speak at the Teluk Kenidai Village Head’s office, Abizar told a team of local healthcare volunteers that their partnership with government health workers is indispensable. He emphasized the same on Riau Televisi network, saying it is through cooperation between government and private entities that Indonesia progresses toward its target to eliminate tuberculosis. Jembatan Kampar Sehat has facilitated tuberculosis testing for community members with suspected symptoms, with the participation of SEEDS consultants. It has identified hidden cases of active tuberculosis in Kampar and the neighboring city of Pekanbaru. It has assisted treatment of tuberculosis patients who are currently receiving their 6-to-9-month courses of medication. So far, Jembatan TBC Kampar has recorded dozens of full recoveries from TB.

The word Jembatan means bridge. The original inspiration was a new suspension bridge to Teluk Kenidai, and the initiative’s purpose is similar—to cross a divide. With SEEDS, Jembatan TBC Kampar bridges the gap between community members and the tuberculosis care they need.

A new village warmly opened its doors to our foundation, allowing us to hold English activities for the local children. With the help of village volunteers and a few foreign volunteers, we spent time preparing the space and planning the program. There was excitement in the air as we got ready to welcome the kids.On the day of the event, thirty children showed up with curious eyes and hopeful smiles. Many of them had lost their fathers, and some were completely orphaned, now living with relatives. It was clear that this wasn’t just another activity for them—this was something special.The program started with a warm welcome from the village volunteers. Then we moved into ice breakers and introductions. At first, the children were shy and quiet. But once we started singing, something shifted. They joined in little by little, and before long, the room was filled with their voices and laughter. The smiles on their faces said everything.One of the highlights was spelling the word “LOVE” through song and action. From using just their fingers to stretching out their arms wide, the children expressed love in a way that was both simple and sweet. It was beautiful to watch.As their confidence grew, more kids began volunteering for games and activities. We later gathered in a circle to share a short story of hope and encouragement. The children listened closely, soaking in every word.Before heading home, each child received a food pack—which they enjoyed right away! As they left, many of them said thank you with big smiles on their faces. It was a small but meaningful day, and we were truly happy to see them laughing, learning, and feeling loved.