Indonesian school children have been given an opportunity to see how their country is presented to pupils in Denmark through materials produced for the 2025 Danish Children’s Development Calendar.
Representatives from the Royal Danish Embassy in Jakarta visited a primary school in North Jakarta in June, where 45 pupils participated in two days of presentations, games and storytelling about Denmark.
The pupils also read Forsvundet i Jakarta – Missing in Jakarta – a Danish children’s book written by author Benni Bødker. The embassy had translated the book into Bahasa Indonesia under the title Hilang di Jakarta.
The translation allowed the Indonesian pupils to encounter the same story and portrayal of Jakarta that Danish children used while learning about Indonesia.
The book formed part of the educational material accompanying the 2025 edition of Børnenes U-landskalender, Denmark’s annual Children’s Development Calendar. That year’s material focused on Indonesia and introduced Danish primary-school pupils to everyday life, nature and climate challenges in the country.
Proceeds from the 2025 calendar supported a PlanBørnefonden project helping children and young people in Jakarta respond to climate-related challenges.
More than 100,000 Danish pupils at over 1,000 schools typically work with the calendar’s educational material each year.
The embassy has shared a video on Facebook featuring reactions from the participating Indonesian pupils.
