An old Indonesian adage says, “do not give the fish, provide the fishing rod” we believe that when someone is starving, we need to feed them first so they have enough energy to go out fishing and catch the fish themselves.
Our primary aim is to help the poor, with our ultimate objective to ensure their long-term sustainability and welfare. Not only to help them out of hunger but out of poverty, through our carefully crafted programs.
As an open community we embrace the passion of our members to the environment, nature conservation and most importantly applaud their time, ideas and contributions to those less fortunate.
We are continuously expanding our program offerings as well as refining our existing programs which currently include:
Basic needs assistance
For those who require basic everyday support to live, we provide immediate assistance in the form of aid packages with food, clothing and school equipment for children.
The challenges we face with this program are continuation. Even when programs such as cattle assistance are provided it often takes some time until an income can be earned to cover basic needs.
Housing assistance
Many families live without adequate housing, lacking a roof structure that keeps the rain out, lacking sufficient strong walls to keep the chilling night winds out and lacking clean floors to keep them healthy. Our program provides simple but sufficient housing to ensure the community can have a safe and healthy place to live.
The challenge we face here relates to land. In most cases, the families do not own the land where their homes are located. Landlords lend them the land so there is a strong likelihood that newly built houses could be repatriated and these families end up with nothing.
Cattle assistance
In the spirit of “giving the fishing rod” we give away cows as a form of productive assistance. People raise the cow as their own and then have the ability to start earning an income when the cow gives birth. Without complicated technical issues, most Balinese villagers know how to raise a cow properly, and it is easy for them to sell it at a good price when the time comes around.
The challenge facing this program is the local conditions. Cattle can only be given if the environment supports these animals, otherwise they will not survive. Another issue is that it takes sometime before a cow gives birth therefore basic needs assistance may still be required during this time.
The issues highlighted above are provided to illustrate the need for increased outreach programs and to showcase the need for greater program effectiveness. Sometimes, more than financial donations we require ideas for continuous expansion and improvement. We need your help!