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For thousands of people in Aceh and Central Java, a life-changing force was set in motion decades ago when a man named Kasoem — a pioneer in Indonesia’s optical world who built a successful glasses business from scratch in the early 1940s — brought his daughter Lily to his shop, hoping that she might learn something. Education, he believed, was the most important thing he could give each of his eight children.

It was a lesson Lily took to heart. Years later, after a successful career, she would focus all of her formidable energy on helping to give others the same educational opportunities she had.

In the family

Lily’s father taught her not only about eyewear but also about what it takes to succeed. Although he had only graduated from elementary school, Kasoem, persistent and passionate, managed to nourish his business, which used skills he had initially learned from a Dutch company where he had worked for several years.

Lily decided to build on what she had learned about the optics business by pursuing higher education in London. When she returned to Indonesia in the early 1970s, she became directly involved in the family business.

“My father was ill and decided to go to Germany for treatment. That was when I thought it was my chance to apply what I had learned overseas,” said Lily, now 63. “I changed everything I thought necessary because I believed it would make things better. For example, I introduced the banking system to my father’s employees. Before that, all the money from the sales was handed to my father, quite literally.”

But Kasoem did not like his daughter’s changes. He asked Lily to leave his company and create her own.

“He told me, ‘I can’t afford to lose all my loyal employees because you are changing all the policies,’ ” she said. “And I was not the only one kicked out of his business. Some of my other siblings were too.”

In 1972, Lily did start her own optical business — and managed to prove to her father that she could run her business well, making it a household name in Indonesia.

Today, “Lily Kasoem” is still one of Indonesia’s leading optical companies, although Lily is no longer involved. After nearly four decades Lily retired, leaving the business to her own daughter.

Change of direction

For Lily, the December 2004 tsunami that devastated Aceh proved to be a major turning point.

While watching news of the disaster on television, Lily, who had always been squeamish around death and blood, suddenly had the urge to go to the affected areas and see what she could do to help. She left for Aceh three days after the disaster, calling off the birthday party her daughter had prepared for her.

“Invitations had been sent, food had been paid for, but I told my daughter I had to go,” Lily said. “We told everyone the party was canceled. I just thought that it was not the right time to do such a thing.

“I suddenly had no fears about anything. It seemed that divine intervention had affected my mind, body and everything.”

Accompanied by her you ngest daughter, Lily left for Aceh with no idea where she would stay or who she would meet.

What she saw saddened her deeply.

“It was like what I saw in war films,” she said. “Dead bodies scattered, everything destroyed. I still remember [former vice president] Jusuf Kalla mentioning that there were around 10,000 dead. In fact, it was way more than that: [nearly] 200,000.”

When Lily returned to Jakarta, she told her friends at Soroptimist, a group founded to address women’s and children’s rights, about what she had seen. Through Soroptimist, which means the “optimistic sisters,” Lily began to raise funds for medicine, women’s underwear and sanitary pads for survivors of the disaster.

“Based on my observations, those were the immediate necessities people, especially women, needed there. We aimed to collect $10,000,” she said.

Lily asked her daughter to write a report to be circulated via e-mail to all her friends in Indonesia and overseas. “Suddenly, my inbox was full of replies. People asked how they could help,” she said. “Within a month after we started fund-raising, we managed to collect $1 million.”

Eventually, the funds reached $1.6 million. Lily decided to use the money to help rebuild the village of Lamreh, a ruined area that had a relatively high number of survivors. “I thought it was the right decision as these people needed to carry on with their lives,” she said. “Most villagers there said they only wanted to have their houses back.”

While international nongovernmental organizations were busy with assessments, Lily was halfway done building 200 homes, a school, a market, a library and a woman’s center to teach skills like sewing and cooking. Locals and others organizations called her a “one-person NGO.”

“They said that because I had no team in the field. But actually I was not alone. I had backup in Jakarta,” she said.

Under Lily’s supervision, the project was completed in a year and a half. “In total, I lived there for two years. One and a half years supervising the building work, and another half-year to see how things went,” she said.

Looking to the future

Lily is now busy with the Titian Foundation, a project she started to benefit the victims of the 2006 earthquake in Central Java, by focusing on educating young people in Bayat village. Titian (an Indonesian word for “path”) has rebuilt a library and two schools, including a vocational school that empowers local people by training them to make batik and pottery, among other things.

“As for the library, I just thought that reading is one of the most important things for a child’s development. It is vital in shaping a better generation in the future,” Lily said, adding that most parents were against the idea, as it cut down on the time their children could help them work in the fields.

“And that is just sad,” Lily said. “If you can’t make your children like reading, you are depriving them of their futures.”

Partnering with other organizations, including multinational and local companies, Titian now provides consistent, high-quality education in Bayat village and helps secure university scholarships for outstanding students.

“You wouldn’t believe that a village far away from the city’s hustle and bustle has so many smart children waiting for opportunities to access their right to an education,” said Lily, a grandmother of six.

At the vocational school, the students learn not only creative skills but also management.

“I want them to also learn how to develop a business,” she said.

Lily’s next project will focus on bringing education to people who have never had access to it.

“A lot of the parents who disliked the idea of their kids spending time learning things at the library now said they wanted to learn to read and write as well,” she said.

“It just makes me so happy to know that they are keen to develop themselves for the better.

“I still believe that the lack of education is the root of everything wrong in this world.”