Have you ever seen a horse library? Indonesia has one in the remote village of Purbalingga, Central Java.

Dubbed Kuda Pustaka (Horse Library), the project was initiated by 43-year-old Ridwan Sururi and Gerakan Pustaka Bergerak (Mobile Library Movement) founder Nirwan Arsuka and has been running since December 2014. From Tuesday to Thursday, Ridwan will use one of the seven horses entrusted to him, a white Bonsai horse named Luna, to travel and serve as a mobile library in the remote village at the foot of Mount Slamet, where he resides with his family.

It usually takes around four hours for Ridwan to bring books on Luna’s saddle, all to be borrowed for free by children and adults, specifically housewives. His destinations include a strawberry farm, schools, as well as places to learn the Quran for children.

“The horse is already a point of attraction for children. They are already happy when they see the horse,” Ridwan told The Jakarta Post. “The children borrow books from me because they say my collection is more complete than that of their school’s.”

Ridwan began running the library on his own with only 136 books supported by Nirwan. His collection has grown to around 3,500 donated books that include those on farming, carpentry and fairytales. He also opened a library at his house. 

(Read also: Scavenging for a children’s library)

Ridwan said he received a monthly salary of Rp 600,000 (US$ 5.77) from the horse owner. “[Then] I asked for permission to use his horse to earn money on the strawberry farm, explaining that my pay is small anyway,” he said.

With the owner’s permission, Ridwan, who is a father of four, began renting horses to tourists on Saturdays and Sundays. “ I can get Rp 100,000 to Rp 200,000 every Sunday.” 

Despite his economic situation, Ridwan is still passionate about running the library. “I am a poor person. I want to donate but I don’t have the wealth. That’s why I use my energy to help them, to make them happy,” Ridwan said, referring to the children of his village.

(Read also: Donate your books through these local communities)

“I want to help increase reading interest in our village, so that the next generation will be smarter, so that they won’t be like me,” he said. Ridwan himself is a junior high school graduate with a Paket C certificate that is equal to a high school diploma in Indonesia. “In my time, it was hard to search for books. Now everything is easier for them, the books are even transported to their doors, so they should be more enthusiastic.”

In addition to children, adults in the village also gain benefits from the project. “Once, there was a housewife who told me that she was able to eradicate pests after reading the book she borrowed from me.”

Ridwan added that he was happy to see the change in his surroundings. One of Ridwan’s stops in a tourist spot, a stall which he claims is the busiest shop in the area, has started to install a bookshelf to display his books. “I like seeing them reading,” said Ridwan, referring to tourists who read his books.

The project has also inspired others to do the same. Since around three months ago, a similar library can be found in Rangkasbitung, Banten, West Java. “It is run by a person who has been following my Facebook account for a long time but only got the financial means to start the horse library recently,” Ridwan said. (kes)