Educational graffittis for Indonesian street children

Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is home to some thousands of children who had been forced to drop out of school and live on the streets, begging to earn a living.

In an effort to aid them and bring some education into their lives, teachers teamed up with graffitti artists and began decorating the city walls with paintings representing topics such as English, math, science and culture.

'We are using graffiti as a medium for teaching because street children are often exposed to graffiti. These children work on street corners near walls that are often covered with graffiti showing obscenity or gang names. That’s how we came up with the idea of turning graffiti into something useful,' said Ronny Pratama, one of the creative directors.

Once the walls had been covered up with school lessons' material, volunteer teachers moved in and encouraged children to join them for a graffitti wall school lesson.

'I am so happy to be able to get together with my friends and learn about things that I did not know before such as English and culture through graffiti,' said a child who had been forced to leave school so he could start working on the streets.

The project, which began in 2013, registered such a success that its founders are now trying to expand it to other parts of the country.