It is a quiet Friday morning on the west coast of Lombok. The monsoon rains have not yet arrived. The sky is a deep blue and the ocean even bluer.

I am on my way up the hill behind Senggigi to visit Duduk Atas, a small primary school which clings to the slopes of one of Gunung Rinjani’s volcanic foothills. The school, now called Sekolah Dasar 3, BatuLayar, began its life fifteen years ago on the veranda of the village mosque. Before that, most of the villagers never got to school. Most were destined for life as illiterate, itinerate labourers.

The school at Duduk Atas has grown since then. It currently has 107 children and 15 teachers. In the spirit of ‘gotong royong’ (an Indonesian term, meaning that everyone helps to achieve a shared goal), the whole community has built the school. Beginning with the inspiration of Pak Aini, theneighbourhood head, the community has supplied labour, land and volunteer teachers. This is a poor community, but rich in spirit; a community with friends. The government licensed the school and has built some of the classrooms; it now provides operational funds, a principal and two teachers. TheLombok Rotary Club andThe Studio guesthouse also contributed. AndFace This has supported the school since 2008.

Now the school faces a new challenge. The series of earthquakes, which rocked the island of Lombok in August this year, destroyed or badly damaged 894 schools. 1529 classrooms are unusable and need to be rebuilt. 106,698 children are impacted, most now living in makeshift tents, and attending classes in temporary schools under tarpaulins (data from Ministry of Education & Culture, August 16th 2018). One of those schools is Duduk Atas.

Back in 2008, a young Dutch couple, Jos and Jelke, were holidaying in Lombok. While enjoying the beaches and resorts, they could not help noticing the poverty in the background. Jos, who has Indonesian heritage but grew up in Holland, decided to do something about it. Their first throught was to help a local school. After asking around, they discovered Duduk Atas, and Face This was born.

Face Thishas grown since then too. Beginning with a simple idea, Face Thisis now a popular Dutch-based T-shirt brand; popular notonly for its unique designs but also its great philosophy. Face Thist-shirtsfeature cool designs, based on drawings by childrenfromDuduk Atas. The children’sdrawings are sent toHolland where a group of creativeillustrators and designers turns them into unique designs forthe t-shirts. The profit from eacht-shirt sold goes back to Duduk Atas to help the school. Funds from the t-shirts have paid for equipment, books,furniture and teacher training, as well as building classrooms and a playground. NowFace This has launched a special-edition t-shirt to help with the earthquake recovery.

“We sell the tees mainly through our website” Josexplains. “Our customers are mainly from the Netherlands and we have several Dutch celebrities over here wearing the tees. But we ship worldwide, so we have some customers from outside Holland as well. Including Indonesia!

“The special-edition Lombok t-shirt is designed by British artist Jimmy Turrell, who designed the album cover of Beck’s latest album. He also directed several music videos for the artist. Jimmy used Hawanah’s drawing for the design of the new tee. She was eleven years old when she made that drawing; we met when we visited the Duduk Atasschoolten years ago.”

At Duduk Atas, the children are arriving; the playground fills with the familiar sounds of laughter and childish chatter. Before long everyone is seated on blue mats under tarpaulins – busy with books and pencils. The business of learning goes on, even after the earthquakes.

While the teachers and children are busy with their lessons, Pak Sahri, the head of the school committee, is busy repairing the damaged school buildings. Many cracks and fractures are evident; broken tiles, ceilings, and windows; but the main classroom blocks and the terracing and retaining walls on which they rest are basically sound. Sahri is working with other villagers to remove and replace damaged roofing and ceiling panels. The money from Jimmy and Hawanah’s t-shirt is already paying for emergency tarpaulins, materials and labour to rebuild the school.

Pak Saifurahman, grade fourteacher, looks at me with a bright smile. ‘We are all fellow humans,’ he says. ‘Whether we are rich or poor, whether we are from Holland or Australia or Lombok, whether we are Muslim or Christian – we are all human beings, right? We are all the same.’

You can help Duduk Atas (and look cool) by ordering a special-edition t-shirt or other designs from https://facethis.org/

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