American Corner ITB is an activity program collaborated by the United Stated Jakarta Embassy and Institut Teknologi Bandung. This event was initiated from the Book Drop Donation Box, provided by American Corner ITB.

Book Drop Donation Box was first launched during the Women Empowerment Series American Corner ITB event on December 2017. Book Drop Donation Box is a large containment box with the dimension of 0.78 m x 0.78 m x 1.06 meter available on the American Corner of ITB’s University Library, specifically on the first floor of the T.P. Rachmat II ITB Library Building. Students and library visitors can donate their books directly through said box. The books inside the box will be recorded and distributed to Public Reading Parks.

During the pandemic, the Book Drop Donation Box was temporarily disrupted due to the closing of the ITB library, and thus, the subsequent part of the project was postponed. Even so, American Corner ITB continued to collect record of the donated books in hope of distributing them in the near future. At the moment, there are around 300 books donated by library visitors since the launch of Book Drop Donation Box.

Improving English Language Literacy

The English language literacy program and the book donation began with the opening and granting of the Book Drop Donation Box books, held at the Odesa Indonesia Foundation. Ena Sukmana, S.Sos., the Head of ITB Library, represented American Corner ITB as he awarded the donated books directly to the Odesa Indonesia Foundation, represented by Faiz Manshur as the President of Odesa Indonesia. The event continued in Waas Village, Mekarmanik, Cimenyan, Bandung Regency, located around 5km from the Odesa Indonesia head office.

Some of the project’s aims were to distribute the donated book collections as well as educating about the importance of literacy to the public. “We have obtained various kinds of reading collection, from the sciences, the languages, also storybooks. We thoroughly hope this will prove valuable to the Odesa management team so that they can serve the community through improving public education, supporting children’s studies, as well as accommodating the local communities in developing certain products or exercising economic activities that improve their quality of life,” remarked Ena Sukmana, S.Sos.

Through this event, dozens of primary school children from the three villages located around Odesa showed their enthusiasm to participate in the English language literacy program, presented as interactive games in English. The game ran about one and a half hour, closed with a group photo session.

A list of American Corner ITB Team member participated in this event included: (1) Yoka Adam Nugrahaa, S.Sos. (The Head of Library Service and Scientific Literacy Division ITB University Library), (2) Dwina Fatimiyah Shidiq, M.I.Kom. (The Coordinator of ITB Library Public Relations Service), (3) Ajeng Fatwa Fadlilah, S.Pd. (The Coordinator of Resource Sharing Service ITB University Library and American Corner ITB Librarian), (4) Ridma Meltareza, M.I.Kom. (Volunteer American Corner ITB, English teacher and Communication Studies Professor), (5) Alexandria Cempaka H., M.I.Kom. (Volunteer American Corner ITB, English teacher and radio announcer), (6) Rosalina Ramadhanni (Volunteer American Corner ITB), (7) Alma Kinanthi Gonzalo Ramadhanni (Volunteer American Corner ITB).