“Once upon a time there was a little rabbit,” said Malika Mustamira followed by her mimicking a rabbit’s ears on a recent Tuesday afternoon. Her classmates sat fixated in a circle.

The 6-year-old girl was recounting a story to her classmates as part of a storytelling lesson at the Kampung Dongeng (Storytelling Village) studio in Ciputat, South Tangerang, Banten.

Malika used to be timid and overly dependent, her mother Nur Murni, 43, said. However, after several months spending time in the studio, Malika grew confident and even brave enough to take part in the studio’s play.

“She was able to express her emotions better,” Nur said adding that being part of a community also made her daughter more disciplined and committed.

But she pointed out that the most important thing was that the kids were able to enjoy the activities.

“Today we’re learning to read-aloud and storytelling,” 7-year-old Noya Divani Imron, said during break time in which the children were asked to read books in the studio’s library.

Before the storytelling, the children were seen doing vocal exercises with the studio’s volunteer teachers. Noya’s mother, Wahda Dewi Wardah, 35, was one of them.

“Noya is homeschooled, and we do not have a lot of children in our neighborhood,” said Wahda, who lives in Serpong, South Tangerang. “We joined so Noya can play with her peers at the studio.”

Kampung Dongeng studio offers children aged 6 years and up soft skills such as public speaking and storytelling. It is also the central office of a community with the same name. Established in 2009, Kampung Dongeng community has branched out to 25 provinces in the nation. In the Greater Jakarta area, there are five chapters in Jakarta, and two chapters each in Depok and Bogor, both in West Java, and Tangerang.

The community, established in 140 cities nationwide, offers broader programs for adults such as the Kemah Dongeng (storytelling camp). The camp is a three-day programmed activity for those who want to learn storytelling techniques, regardless of age.

During the camp, participants can learn different styles of storytelling, such as through dolls or musical instruments. The upcoming Kemah Dongeng will be on Aug. 30.

Another program is Kampung Dongeng Peduli (caring storytelling village) in which volunteers engage in storytelling as trauma relief for people in disaster areas, from neighborhood fire victims to those affected by tsunamis.

“Storytelling is just the method,” Kampung Dongeng founder Mochammad Awam Prakoso told The Jakarta Post.

“I think storytelling brings joy to children and it makes delivering moral lessons easier.”

Awam added that he preferred storytelling because it was part of the Indonesian culture. He said he was inspired by renowned Indonesian storytellers such as the late Pak Raden, who created the popular 1980s puppet show about a curious boy named Si Unyil.

“Through Kampung Dongeng, I want to habituate parents to telling stories to their children. If you tell a story right, it can be more interesting than gadgets and games,” he said.

According to a 2014 study by The Asian Parent Insight, 98 percent of 25,000 parents in Southeast Asia allowed their children between the age of 3 and 8 to use mobile devices, with children using them for gaming 70 percent of the time.

Meanwhile, a 2017 study by the Communications and Information Ministry suggested that 79.5 percent of children have used the internet. Without proper supervision, they can be exposed to explicit content, cyberbullying and other threats. (eyc)

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