Dr. Cynthia Fowler is a US Fulbright Scholar who researched a project entitled “Linking Environmental Change with Freshwater Ecology: An Ethnography of Water in Indonesia’s Arid Southeast” hosted by Universitas Nusa Cendana.

Dr. Cynthia Fowler received a Fulbright US Scholar grant to conduct research with Universitas Cendana in Kupang titled “Linking Environmental Change with Freshwater Ecology: An Ethnography of Water in Indonesia’s Arid Southeast.” During her research, she also did an engagement project to support early childhood education in a rural hamlet in Sumba, where her research location was.

Santa Gisela is an Early Childhood Education Center (Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini – PAUD) located in Kodi village. Its founders envision a safe place where they can begin training children at a young age to be creative, intelligent, and caring people. With few resources and using their personal funds, Santa Gisela’s small team of teachers is steadfastly devoted to their mission of boosting the intellectual capacity of the children in their village when they are still young. They believe their work is crucial to the village’s children’s success as they enter elementary school, which increases the possibilities during their school years and beyond.

AMINEF provided funding through the Community Engagement Project to restore the preschool’s building, seek educational resources, recruit the next class of preschoolers, and network with early childhood education specialists at the district and provincial levels. In improving the facilities and expanding the social network around PAUD Santa Gisela, Dr Fowler, through AMINEF engagement funds, has assisted in increasing the capacity to be a sustainable institution that successfully educates preschoolers for future generations.

Front porch of PAUD Santa Gisela (before restoration) and after two months of restoration work

Interior of schoolhouse before renovation began; Two months after renovation began.

The back door of the schoolhouse before and after. The new door is constructed of teak milled on the property.