Bali Life Newsletter
April - June 2015
Graduations
Congratulations to Joshua, Ani, Ruth and Putri who graduated from primary school and will enter middle school in July, continuing their studies at
Harapan Bunda. Olin and Fani have also graduated from middle school and will enter senior high school in July. Thank you to all who team up with our scholarship program and support our kids in their education to give them hope in their future.
This is a big year for Bali Life as we have three of our students graduate from High School. Congratulations for Juven, Riska and Olan for their successful graduation. We are so grateful for everyone who supports our scholarship programme to support these kids and give them brighter futures. Olan has been accepted into State Polytechnic of Bali and will Major in Business Administration and Juven and Riska are still waiting on their results for which university they each will attend. Bali Life is grateful for everyone who partners with us to make a difference for these kids that they may be able to pursue their purposes for their futures, especially as we come to this new era as a foundation, setting kids on their path to independence through further education studies at university.
Easter
Our children were invited to a trip to Bali Safari and Marine Park on Easter weekend. Children and staff enjoyed travelling through the park and seeing all the animals in their habitats and learning about the animals. Thank you to Russell and family for taking the children out for this trip.
Miss Universe Australia
In May we had a special visit from the Miss Universe Western Australia Finalists with Karma Kandara. The girls came and hung out with our kids, helped with chores, showed some dance moves and played a soccer competition with the children and brought afternoon tea to share. Thank you to Miss Universe and Pink Tanks for your donations of musical instruments and sporting equipment to support our children to continue developing their skills in our children’s home.
Volunteers
Thank you Nadia Fanaie for coming to volunteer and see and help out with all our programs for two weeks in May. We are grateful for your involvement and support of our Foundation.
Thank you Ellinor Ryman for these past three months teaching English to our children at Harapan Bunda and at the Women's Centre.
Thanks to Pan Trinity Das and Kyrie Maezumi for coming and painting angel wings and Mother Teresa on our walls in May. We love when people come with projects to help make our home more alive and inspiring for the kids. The kids love posing in front of the angel wings and getting their photo taken.
New Kuta Golf
Ten of our children had the opportunity to perform a dance, choreographed from one of our teenagers, at a fundraising event at New Kuta Golf World Cup Tournament in May. These kids are growing their talents in dancing and remembering several routines. Thank you New Kuta Golf for supporting Bali Life and inviting us to be part of your event.
Farm
Our Self-Sustain Farm has been flourishing well, bringing in many delicious and nutritious fruits and vegetables for our children’s home. Every week the children’s home also benefits with eggs from our chickens and ducks. Thank you Intercontinental Resort for supporting our food scraps project for feeding the pigs, chickens, ducks and cow on our farm.
The Women’s Centre has continued to expand with new programs and new women starting. With the assistance of many volunteers our Centre has provided training, employment, support and encouragement to many women. We welcome two new Indonesian volunteers Susan, teaching sewing and design and Velli, teaching computer. We also welcome Olga from Russia teaching English. Thank you to an anonymous visitor for coming with a donation to pay our sewing teacher to teach and train our women.
We formed an agreement with a local upmarket Spanish restaurant called
El Kabron. They agreed to employ our women and four women started working there. We continue to receive offers of employment for our women. Thank you El Kabron.
Our farm continues to flourish under the management of a local Balinese woman, Ibu Wayan. The Intercontinental Head Chef showed us the vegetable gardens at the Resort in order for Ibu Wayan to gain some more insight into farming local vegetables.
We started teaching English in a new community, with eight women coming to the first class. We have already given them vegetables from our farm. The Guagong community, where we taught English previously, has continued to grow with 5 babies being born in the past few months. Every new mum has received baby clothes and other items for her baby from the Centre.
Our Centre has formalised a Memorandum of Agreement with
Logan Women’s Health and Wellbeing Centre, to establish a sister relationship with the aim of providing support where needed. They have already provided clothing and women’s health pamphlets written in Bahasa Indonesia. We hope to expand our contact with Women’s Centres worldwide.
In May, Ibu Monica, who is a widow, and her two children, Ing (girl) and Igo (boy), arrived in Bali to live in the Women’s Centre. They travelled by ship for 4 days to get to Bali from Kupang. Monica has a relative that has been coming to the Centre for classes and she told her about our program. Monica wanted a better future for her children and took a giant leap of faith to come from her village to Bali. Her older son will join the family in June. Monica and the children will live at the Centre until she is financially able to support her family independently.
Thank you to Cheryl and Michael for visiting us in June, donating much needed toiletries and also providing our women with free haircuts and a boost to their self-esteem. Thank you also to Tania for coming every week these past few months and painting with our kids in KidZone, Ellen for helping us teach English to women and kids, and Susan, a widow from America, for visiting our centre on the anniversary of her husband’s passing, meeting Monika and sharing stories with her and donating funds for our program in May. We appreciate all the visitors, volunteers and donations who get behind what we do, to support the women in our community.
Our full time English teacher, Adrienne felt it was time to change direction and has now moved to the Street Kids Centre. She was a valuable member of our team and loved by her students. Thank you for all your great work Adrienne. God has supplied us with some new volunteers to continue on with the English program.
Street Centre
Big thanks to all who got behind us on our World Street Kids Day Fundraiser in April joining our Bali event, volunteering and holding fundraising events in your own homes. Big thanks also for the girls with Nadia Marican who baked and sold 1100 cookies and raised SG$8155 for our Centre. We are grateful for everyone who got behind us to provide more opportunities for these children and their futures.
We are proud to announce our first graduate from our Street Centre School. Made has studied hard this past year and in June passed the national exam to enter middle school. He will be able to enter into formal schooling in July thanks to sponsorship for his education and enrolment fees. Through formal education, Made will have further opportunities for a brighter future for himself and his family. Thank you to
Youth Shine for providing us with the bridging school lessons and tests for our children’s education. Thank you to Ketut and Sri who have been on our team this past year supporting the children’s education. We farewell you from our centre as you go on to pursue more in your careers. The Street Centre now welcomes Adrienne to our team teaching our children the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as being a helping hand connecting with our children and mums.
In June we also said farewell to our intern, Olivier (Pak Ollie) Nuyts. Thank you for all your hard work teaching, building relationships with our children and mums, and supporting the work we do here. We hope to see you again in Bali, soon.
We would like to thank
Ben’s Boxes for their generous donations of story books and a brand new fridge, now we can store food safely to serve breakfast and lunch to our children and mums every day. We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to Ben, James and Anouska and Lachlan, the builders, for your donation of a new playground. The children who come absolutely love playing on the slide, swings, and monkey bars, growing their physical and social skills in the process. Thank you to Amanda O’Connor, from Bali Buzz, for visiting and making an
article about this playground for our children.
Thank you to all our volunteers and visitors who team up with us at the Street Centre: Petr for raising funds with
Green Books to team up and donate books for our library and enhance the education of our children. Mikail for generously providing fruit every week; now we can meet more nutritious needs of our children with fresh fruit juice every day. Anshu from Bali International School for coming and teaching our children how to paint and build on their creative abilities. Reja for coming consistently every week to assist in the classes with our young students. Nikki Mahoney for coming and running a sport clinic, teaching our kids the benefits of healthy exercise and sport as part of our lives.
Green School for inviting our women to show their skills at your sustainability workshop and also
Bali Buzz for coming and writing about this opportunity for our women.
The Women’s Workshop farewelled Ibu Claudia in April and welcomed Ibu Jum in May as our women’s coordinator. Ibu Jum used to work making handicrafts and we are glad to give her this greater opportunity. Now ten women come to work and grow skills, earning a living for their families. Thank you to Bart and Linda from Holland for joining our centre and proving women with more handicraft work. Thank you also to Kim and Kerri for your continued support of our women’s workshop and providing our women with jobs, and also encouraging them as they grow their skills, adding to their confidence, knowing they have talents. If you have a business and would like to provide our women with work, please contact Greg at
greg@balilife.org to get in contact with our Women’s Workshop Coordinator and find out how you can support these women and their children.
