WHERE WE REPORT


Many portray villagers as backward, uneducated, and less able to innovate. Kompas.com wants to present the opposite view through the Meranti Reporting Project. In the first part of the reporting, their journalists and photographer visited Sungai Tohor, a village just 3 hours away by ferry from Batam and Singapore that has cultivated sago for hundreds of years. Their report revealed that the villagers know their potential very well, grasp current trends, and are very passionate about developing products. They are beyond sago farmers; they are a group of product designers.

Kompas.com packs the coverage in a tour-like format. Content invites readers to complete three trips, see villagers' efforts in developing sago, and reflect on their experiences. Readers must open seven messages hidden in envelopes that spread across the page and are easily found. Through those messages, Kompas.com communicates how sago plays a vital role in peatland restoration and the challenges villagers face when developing and marketing sago. A question that readers should have and discuss with their peers when they finish reading is, "What's your idea to answer challenges in expanding Sungai Tohor's sago products?"

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