Ice Cubes, Clean Clothes, and the Invisible Classroom

Siswa tunanetra belajar daring di ruang kelas virtual.

Author: Redaksi
Published date: July 13, 2026
Estimated reading time: 8 min read
Views count: 2 kali dibaca

"What are clouds like, Teacher?"

A question as simple as that once made Muhammad Alfian pause for a moment in front of the microphone. His student, a visually impaired child who had never seen the world, was genuinely curious. There were no pictures to show, no objects to touch directly, only voices connecting them through a WhatsApp group call.

Alfian finally answered, "Clouds are cold, like ice cubes." Then, when his student asked about the color white, he replied again, "White is cold and clean, like your freshly washed clothes."

It was from these small conversations that a classroom without walls, named School Sharing for the Blind, has survived and grown over the past two years. And that evening, through the "Kartunet Ngobrol Bareng" (Kartunet Chat Together) session, Kartunet had the opportunity to sit down with them to hear their story from the beginning.

Representing Kartunet were Banyu Nugraha and its founder, Dimas P Muharam. From School Sharing for the Blind, there was Faizalil Qisti, affectionately known as Rahma, as the founder; Farah Mujahidah Setyaninggrum as the student affairs vice-principal and Indonesian language teacher; Muhammad Alfian from the IT team; and Tama, who currently serves as the acting headmaster.

Born Out of "Idle Curiosity"

If you ask who designed School Sharing for the Blind from the beginning with a mature proposal and a grand vision, the answer is, no one did. "Initially, it was just out of 'idle curiosity', Teacher," Rahma said with a small laugh, recalling its origins.

About a year and a half ago, Rahma—who at the time was still new to the world of the visually impaired, having previously been more involved with sighted people—met a friend who wasn't attending school. It wasn't because they didn't want to, but due to two painful reasons: an impossible family economy and old wounds from bullying they had experienced.

Rahma had no guide, no curriculum, let alone a long-term plan. She only had a simple intention: to teach her friend, slowly, through voice. "Honestly, I just became an impromptu teacher, Teacher. So, I just went with it, without any references," she said.

What makes this story special is not just that it started without any resources, but that she truly saw it through. Slowly, Rahma and her friends approached the child's parents, communicated gently, and arranged for a transfer to a new school. The process was long and not instant—but today, the child who was the reason for this community's birth is back in formal schooling.

From one student, one impromptu teacher, and one small WhatsApp group, the story continued to spread. Volunteer teachers arrived, new students joined, and the name, which was once long and complicated, slowly simplified to School Sharing for the Blind.

Explaining the World Through Words

Teaching without being able to see each other's faces is already challenging. Teaching children who have never seen colors, shapes, or even clouds. That's a different kind of challenge.

Alfian recounted how he and other teachers constantly had to find new analogies for things that are usually sufficiently explained through direct touch in special needs schools. Flat shapes, solid shapes, trapezoids, circles—all objects that in a conventional classroom are simply placed in students' hands to be felt, here had to be translated word by word, tried, failed, and then tried again.

"We look for the approach they can understand best," Alfian said. The only way to know if an analogy works is to keep trying it in class, listening to student reactions, and then refining it in the next class.

Dimas, who also has a background in educational research, described this process as valuable precisely because it hasn't been widely documented—even by experienced teachers in special needs schools, who have traditionally relied on physical presence and tangible objects in the classroom. "Things like that are only discovered through trial and error," he said, reminding that what appears to be a limitation is actually giving birth to new methods that have never existed before.

And despite all its limitations, this online system is precisely School Sharing for the Blind's greatest strength. For visually impaired children in remote parts of Indonesia—an archipelago nation where distances between regions can separate someone from the nearest school—all they need is a mobile phone and an internet signal to sit in a "classroom" without needing to be escorted, without transportation costs, and without having to wait for busy parents.

The Reasons They Endure

Such immense challenges certainly cannot be sustained by mere whimsy. There is something that keeps each teacher coming back, week after week, without pay.

Tama had an unexpected entry point: he became interested precisely after accidentally overhearing a live broadcast of the community's internal meeting on an audio communication platform. Initially, he had no intention of becoming a teacher, only curiosity. Now, almost a year later, he is entrusted with the role of acting headmaster—a position that, as he jokes, "is unpaid, so I don't know how long I've held it."

For Tama, there's one moment he can't forget: a student who was initially lazy and reluctant to learn slowly became enthusiastic. So much so that when a learning session was about to end, he was unwilling to stop. "That's what impressed me the most," he said. "It turns out this child can do it."

Farah, who surprisingly has a background in religious education but teaches Indonesian, admitted to being surprised by the immense curiosity of her students. "It turns out their curiosity is very great," she recounted. They asked what college feels like, how to register for formal school, what needs to be prepared—questions coming from children, mostly still of school age, 14 to 20 years old, with dreams far exceeding anything they had ever imagined.

A Video, A Testament

The stories above are not just narratives retold that evening. School Sharing for the Blind also documented part of their journey through video—one of which can be watched directly below.

Diplomas They Cannot Yet Provide

Behind all these achievements, there is one limitation they haven't been able to overcome: School Sharing for the Blind cannot yet issue diplomas.

So far, all they can do is recommend their students to continue to formal schools or provide a kind of study certificate. Not an official state-recognized certificate. For Rahma and Farah, this is a significant obstacle, as they know there are students who are academically capable but lack formal proof to advance to the next level, whether for further schooling or applying for jobs.

Dimas offered another perspective, stating that the path towards such legality already has a traceable precedent, for example, through the Paket C equivalency education scheme via Community Learning Activity Centers (PKBM) which are officially recognized as equivalent to elementary, junior high, or high school diplomas, or the homeschooling model, which is also recognized by the state. The difference from a mere "letter of recommendation" is that such a certificate can genuinely be used by students to continue their education or apply for jobs officially, not just as a gesture of goodwill.

However, he also reminded that the root problems faced by these visually impaired students are not always the same as the general reasons for dropping out of school. It's not solely about economics, but sometimes about families who are not yet convinced their child can attend school, or access to information that barely reaches them. "That's the main problem," he said. To address that root problem, more than just online classes are needed. Formal recognition that opens doors, not just knocks on them, is required.

As a small step towards sustainability, the community has also started a service unit, offering freelance services carried out by community members themselves, to help fund needs such as data packages or Braille learning materials for their students. It's not a grand solution, but at least an effort to ensure this dream doesn't end for the simplest reason: lack of funds.

"Kartunet's Homework"

Towards the end of the conversation, Dimas offered something simple, yet potentially significant: leveraging Kartunet's existing assets. The kartunet.com domain, which has been continuously active for almost 20 years, strong domain authority in search engines, and an extensive network across various youth forums and social initiatives. All of this he offered to be used collaboratively, not just for Kartunet, but for friends like School Sharing for the Blind.

He emphasized that representatives from communities like School Sharing for the Blind would become an important part of that network.

The evening concluded not with grand conclusions or ambitious work plans, but with something simpler and perhaps more honest: a hope to keep in touch. That two communities, both born from small concerns and grown without rigid guidelines, now know they are not alone. And perhaps, from casual conversations without a formal agenda like this, greater collaborations will grow in their own way.

Until that day arrives, School Sharing for the Blind will continue what they have started: explaining clouds through ice cubes, explaining the world through words, one voice call at a time.

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