Congratulations to all 412 new Pijar Scholars.
If you have been awarded a 2026 Pijar Scholarship, you can view your official award letter online.
View my letterWelcome
Lighting eastern Indonesia's future. One child, one village, one purpose at a time.
Education, health, livelihoods and preparedness across five islands of Nusa Tenggara Timur, since 1998.
PijarFoundation
Pijar Foundation is a private family foundation guided by a simple belief: a child who can learn, stay healthy and grow up in a thriving village can change everything around them.
Founded in 1998 by Maria and Yohanes Lado after a long drought emptied the classrooms of their home village in Sumba, Pijar began with forty scholarships and a borrowed truck of rice.
Today that spark has grown into a movement across five islands. From scholarships that open doors, to village health posts that keep mothers and newborns safe, to climate-smart farming and disaster plans written by villagers themselves, our work is patient, local and measurable.
Our story
Tenun & Tinta: twenty-eight years of village schools, in their own words.
Our first book gathers the stories of scholars, teachers and parents from Sumba to Lembata.
Our commitments
Driven by care. Focused on people. Fuelled by purpose. Pijar exists to help the next generation of eastern Indonesia thrive, today, tomorrow and for decades to come.
What we do
Four pillars, one village at a time.
01
Education
Education is the surest path out of poverty. Scholarships, mentors and teacher training from primary school to university.
02
Health
Healthy mothers raise healthy villages. Health posts, midwives and nutrition for the first thousand days.
03
Livelihoods
Climate-smart farming, seed banks and savings groups that let families plan for the dry season, not fear it.
04
Preparedness
Villages that plan together recover faster. Early warning, evacuation drills and relief stock before the storm.
Our impact
- 12,400+scholarships awarded to children from five islands since 1998
- 310village health posts equipped and staffed with trained midwives
- 5,800farming families growing drought-tolerant crops on climate-smart plots
- 86villages with disaster plans, early warning and relief stock written by villagers
Pijar Scholars 2026
Your award letter is waiting.
If you have been awarded a 2026 Pijar Scholarship, enter the reference number from your SMS and your date of birth to view and accept your official offer.
- 412new scholars this year
- 5islands, 11 regencies
- 31 Octlast day to accept
Dear ,
On behalf of the Pijar Foundation, we are delighted to offer you a for the 2026/27 school year at .
You will be paired with a mentor from your island, who will call you before the first term begins.
Maria LadoMaria Lado, Chair of the Board
Where we work
Five islands, one sea.
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Where Pijar began. Scholarships, maternal health and rainwater tanks across three regencies, with our field office in Waingapu.
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Mountain schools, sorghum and coffee on dry slopes, and landslide drills with village volunteers in four regencies.
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Nutrition for the first thousand days, and health posts that bring a midwife within an hour's walk of every home.
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Teacher training for remote schools, and solar lamps so homework no longer ends at sunset.
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Disaster preparedness around the volcano, fisheries cooperatives, and weaving groups that sell directly to buyers.
Stories
From the field
Legacy
Twenty-eight years of lighting the way, and we are only getting started.
Get involved
Give monthly, light a whole year.
Every rupiah goes where you choose. Our family covers Pijar's running costs, so gifts go straight to the field.