UTU TASYA MARTHA NIA the younger daughter

When Chiem van Houwelingen had been inspired by their friends Robert & Marion Monden from Holland as well, and wanted to sponsor a child in Bondalem.

They chose to support the youngest daughter (UTU TASYA MARTHA NIA) of a mother of three, who needed to give up her job, after birthing her third male child.

In Bali families will keep trying to have a male child, and will birth as many children as is necessary, because it is the boy that has the responsibility to look after his aging parents. The girls move out of the house, to follow the husband to his house, where he takes care of his aging parents.

But taking care of three children takes money. Especially as in Bali children have to wear a uniform, buy books themselves, and pay school fees which get bigger with rising grades.

Her and her husband are now raising a family of five on less than one hundred dollars. The School funding is greatly appreciated!

]]> http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?feed=rss2&p=295 0 http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?p=272 http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?p=272#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 08:21:33 +0000 Ilona http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?p=272

Here is Dewi with her two children, who is now being sponsored by YVONNE KOCH from Switzerland!

Yvonne had been taking care of a Tibetan Child for a long time until recently, when the young adult finished her schooling and was looking for a new child to take on.

She now decided to help the older daughter of Dewi, and what was especially nice, was that Yvonne could meet her and connect to the child in person during her recent visit to Bali in April 2012.

A great beginning!

This Easter weekend April 2012, the day after full moon, was the great inauguration day of the Trash Education Program at the SD2 school and Bondalem.

This is the 1st of 11 schools to benefit from this Trash Education Program.

Funds for this project were donated by the LIONS CLUB in Switzerland, spearheaded by Jeannie Pollak, who was previous participants, about 2 years ago in Ilona Selke’s seminar at Shangri-La.

Children of the 2nd and 3rd grade of the Grade-school, totaling about 50 children, ( 25 children from the 2nd and 3rd grade, and another 25 children from the 4th and 5th grade, totaling about  50 children) are being taught by the chosen teacher by the name of Redy, 2 hours for each group every Saturday.

Through hands-on training, the style of Learning by Doing, as well as with the support of the children’s books, colorful flyers, songs, games, and demonstrative PowerPoint presentations, the children will practically and theoretically understand how to separate trash, and why to do it.

• This is what the children will learn:
• how to recognize plastic from organic from paper trash
• were given trash cans that allow the children to separate trash (ECO BALI was kind enough to let us purchase these bags from them)
• the problems of burning plastic, and the health hazards
• how to create compost from organic matter
• how to plant a garden with using compost
• compare the 3 garden plots: one that uses ordinary soil, one that uses compost, and one that uses compost plus prayer

Teaching materials:

• 25 children’s books of the title: LUMBA LUMBA (to be edited) published by SARITAKSU (with colorful images and text printed in Balinese, Indonesian, and English)
• 25 children’s books of the title: KROBAKAN (to be edited) published by SARITAKSU (with colorful images and text printed in Balinese, Indonesian, and English)
• brochures designed by ECO BALI called: THE SOLUTION IS IN YOUR HANDS (Solusi adalh di dalam tangan Anda)
• games, and songs, and PowerPoint presentations created by the teacher, and/ contributed by Ilona SelkeA flyer created by ECO BALI called:  “The Solution is in Your Hands” (SOLUSI ADALAH DI DALAM TANGAN ANDA)

• PowerPoint presentations that outline the ugliness of trash filled streets, versus the pristine look of beauty in gardens and countryside, the suffocation of wildlife etc.
• games, and songs

Materials used:

• 2 sets of wooden frames, 50cm x 50cm x 1 m ( A set of 2 for each of the 7 classrooms)
• each wooden frame is covered with either a green or a red nylon bag, printed accordingly with the words: PAPER and PLASTIC which was purchased from ECO BALI ( who were kind enough to let us use their trash collection bags for this project)
• one big compost drum, plus bacteria, which will turn organic matter into soil within 2 to 3 weeks. For more information click here: COMPOST DRUMS

Although in general the children had already been taught the concepts of trash separation, I had seen no evidence at all when I 1st visited the school.leaves, organic trash, plastic, paper all were mixed in one stinky corner box in the schoolyard.

Until about 1989 food in Bali was packaged in palm leaves, the only telephone was to be found at the airport in Denpasar, electricity was rare, and yet in the last 25 years Bali has become a fully modern nation. However the educational system and trash management has not kept up with the speed at which plastic arrived on the market scene.

We hope that with the additional funds we can contribute to the education of these children and make a difference in how trash will be managed now and in the future by these children, their families, and children’s children.

In the West we know that education makes the biggest difference in how we wield our choices. May the children forever remember these precious months of training which will give them practical tools on how to start handling the trash issue in Bali.

May these children in the future become leaders in the field in the preservation of our Earth and her resources.

Resources and Help from:

We are very grateful to the LION CLUB from Switzerland and the help of Jeannie Pollak, who convinced all the members to contribute funds, so that the Balinese people here in Bondalem or given a chance to be taught HOW to make a difference from early on.

My gratitude also goes to the previous Mayor of Bondalem, GEDE and to ECO Bali, for allowing us to use their materials at their cost, for the publisher SARITAKSU for extending to us a 10% discount for utilizing the books in a public service program, to all the teachers involved to support this project, and to the gardeners from Shangri-La who are helping in the process of teaching the art of composting.

The fact that I am taking on this endeavor is all based on the teachings of my Mother, who took great efforts to teach me how to compost when I was a child. She taught me the value of taking care of our Earth, and who was able to prove my grandfather that utilizing compost was more effective and related greater yield that utilizing chemical fertilizers.

In subsequent years Don and I funded his training as a travel agent for one solid year. Today he earns three times the daily wage of other well-paid daily workers.

Meanwhile he has gotten married to Iluh, and produced two girls and finally a little boy. His wife stays home and takes care of the children while he goes to work.

During one of our visits to his house with our seminar group the group decided to collect some funds to help with the schooling. They collected 300 Euro, which have gone to the annual 850,000 Indonesian Rp (75 Euro)  for the school uniform, which luckily enough he was able to use twice in a row, and the monthly fees of 4 Euros per child per month in the lower grades.

However the funds are running low by now, and we are currently looking for someone to be this family’s sponsor.

Putu lives with his oldest boy age 9, his wife and his youngest son of one year old, in one single room, as part of the family compound, room that is no larger than two mattresses. No windows, and therefore no circulation, and instead moldy walls, he shares his compound with his father and his stepmother, and all her male children.

After Putu’s birth-mother’s death, who died during his birth, he was raised by his stepmother as a second rate son. None of the inheritance of land, that had been promised to him, has been given to him. Yet he has the duties and takes on the burden foel the things that the rest of the family does not wish to deal with.

For example when his grandfather, stricken by stroke, would soil the floor and needed diapers, it was Putu who took care of him instead of his father, who should have taken care of his own father.

Putu’s wife, who is taking care of the two children, had been able to work for at least  2 Euro per day prior to the birth of the second son, but is bound to the home now.

Their dream is to someday be able to buy land and build a house.

The Christmas money that Brigitte had given Putu one winter was not used until 1 1/2 years later when his youngest son needed his special three-month celebration. After a child is born the three-month marker and the six-month marker of celebrated at the child was blessed for becoming intelligent, beautiful, and healthy by the priest, during the UPACARA.

Brigitte is a dance therapist, financial adviser and lives her passions!

The father, Gede Widnyana, a man who gives his best in his work as a gardener, shining forth from his eyes like a saint, is supporting his three children and his wife as well as his parents on one salary.

As the cost of schooling, books, school uniform( Bali requires all children to wear school uniforms which have to be paid for by the parents) as well as paying for the school fee for the three children, which takes approximately three months out of the one-year salary, is nearly unimaginable, Gede was beyond himself when he was chosen to be sponsored by Lilia.

Lilia is a choreographer, dancer, and inventor of the DOLPHIN WATER DANCE, originally from Italy, now living in Hawaii.

SHANTI child of KOMANG MUDASIH and WAYAN

Sharing one is a bedroom and living room the mother and father had to send the eldest of the two daughters to live with the grandparents, who are now helping to pay for schooling.

Shanti’s father is of Chinese descent, and, although already third-generation Balinese, he’s still ostracized for his back.

He is one of the few males who followed his wife to her hometown. His wife could not bear the thought of leaving her family, and out of pure love he decided to stay with her in a town that did not exactly welcomed people of Chinese descent, which is also the reason why the shares such small accommodations.

Shanti, about 10 years younger than her elder sister, loves to sing, and has been studious and desiring to learn and excel in school, ever since she was five years old. However her parents worry about schooling, as they are trying to do their best to make ends meet, and send money to help the grandparents , who are taking care of  the older girl.

Komang and Wayan are extraordinarily grateful for the support of their youngest daughter. They hope think she will make it into higher education, able to take care of as they do not have a boy who will take care of them in old age.

Her sponsors is family from Holland/the Netherlands, the mother Gaby is an artist, from Ecuador, who has four children with the Dutch husband.

]]> http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?feed=rss2&p=249 0 http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?p=246 http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?p=246#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:03:49 +0000 Ilona http://se-5.com/balivilla/blog/?p=246

The father of these two children, Made Arsa, had a very interesting blessing happen in his life:

A sponsor from Holland/the Netherlands had found him as a teenager working, carrying fruit, instead of going to school when he was still in his early teenage years. When the friendly Dutch couple asked him why he was not in school, he replied, that his father simply did not have the money.

This Dutch couple committed to paying the five dollars of school fees every month for the next few years until Made was able to finish high school. It is because of this amazingly kind help, the story that Made loved to tell to whoever would like to listen, that the father of these two children was able to go to school and now hold a good job.

With the advent of his third child on the way ( birth control is not yet an exact science in Bali) he feels blessed beyond belief to found yet another Dutch couple to support his two children and going to school. His hope is that his child will excel and exceed beyond his own abilities.

This family still lives within the compound of their extended family, which is still the norm here in Bali. His childless uncle and his wife who live with them, will become his responsibility went his uncle gets too old to work. Made is also taking care of his unmarried sisters, his younger unmarried brother, age 19,  all are his responsibilities.

in Bondalem, where the unemployment rate is about 80%, each family member that holds a job probably supports 10 people. Extra money is not a probability.

Made and his wife are feeling supremely blessed by having yet another Dutch couple support his children go to school.

KADEK Tisy Avirjian the older daughter

Komang Ayu had a job in housekeeping when she got pregnant with her 3rd child. She was very much hoping for a  BOY, which she got!

In Bali it is essential to have a baby boy, because it is  the boy that takes care of the parents in old age, where is the girls went into the household of the husband.

Because of the lack of energy and due to the necessity of taking care of three children now, she had to stop working.  However, she had been able to purchase a washing machine during her previous job, and now runs a small laundry business out of her living room while her husband works at an underpaid rate at a nearby Villa. Raising a family of four on his income of roughly €70 however presents a problem.

When Robert and Maripn heard that only the younger daughter had found a sponsor, they took pity on the older daughter, and decided to include her in their annual sponsorship drive, although they had already taken on the boy and girl from another family.

They now are sponsoring the older daughter by the name of: KADEK Tisy Avirjian

The mother of the 3 children asked for about 45 Euro per year in support for this school year. They were to shy to take the larger sum offered. This will make the money last longer is their reasoning!

This family is very grateful that the older daughter found a sponsor for her older child in Robert Monden and Marion Walker, who came to visit in Bali in Oct 2011 and in May 2012 as well!

at ShangriLa we separate the trash into PLASTIC, PAPER and ORGANIC trash and produce our own living GOLD

Here in Bondalem we still don’t have any trash pickup service. This is true for most of Bali except in the larger cities. this means that each household somehow has to take care of their own trash.

Of course in Bali that means, that most of the trash winds up either in the river, which is the convenient trash conveyer belt, which is then finally dumping the trash into the ocean, or were being dropped on the side of the street into one of the gutters, which eventually also should run down to the ocean.

And regularly the Balinese still burn their trash, any and all of it: organic, plastic and paper!!! they even have special days where everybody burns their trash including their plastic!!!!!

To reduce our trash here at Shangri-La, we separate the trash first.  So that in the end we only have to transport the I recyclable plastic off to a larger landfill, which is less than one hour away, by truck.

However, because of the trash separation,we are able to compost the organic trash here right in our own back yard and  turn into miracle making soil.

The secret to our amazing lush gardens at Shangri-La,that we were able to grow in the last couple years, which are so lavish, are due to the fact that we have been creating richcompost,

We have practiced until now we are able to produce rich soil within TWO WEEKS only by using friendly bacteria, mixed into the organic material, in what of the drums that you see above. This system produces results very quickly.

The fact that we practice trash separation, which took our staff a little while to get used to, spills over into the family life of all our 23 employees. Bit by bit we set the example that cleanliness produces QT, which uplifts our soul. Bit by bit we set the example of how to handle the trash and minimize the burden on our earth.

The good plastic is already being recycled, and people regularly buy up the good plastic and bring it to Singaraja, where they can turn the good plastic into money.

Bit by bit, we hope to set an example!