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Children`s Integrated Education Programme Developments
2011 EBPP High School Graduates
2011 was the high point of the integrated education programmes we launched in Cegi and Pengalusan in 2000 and Manikaji in 2001 with 29 students graduating senior high school and 13 graduating junior high school. We also had 24 elementary school graduates from four of our six schools.
We are particularly proud that one of our graduates, I Wayan Lias, is now studying for a Fine Arts Degree at Singaraja Ganesha University and another, I Nengah Gata is now our full time INKAI Karate teacher for all 6 EBPP schools. See EBPP High School Graduates’ success stories below.
2012 EBPP Graduating classes
In 2012, 26 of our students took the Government National exams for graduating elementary school and a further 10 to graduate junior high school. These exams were only held on 16-19 July, so we do not yet have the results, but we are confident that all will be successful.
National Education Day inspiring present and future generations
 A great Indonesian tradition is the celebration on 2nd of May every year of National Education Day, re-emphasising the importance of a good school education as a foundation for future sustainable social and economic development. EBPP staff and students take this very seriously and in all of our 6 schools, a wide range of challenging educational games, dramas and quizzes are held involving all students. As it is difficult to gather all of our children together in one location due to the remoteness of most schools, Cegi hamlet is always a key focal point for gathering many of our students together due to its better access and reasonable proximity to our Pengalusan and Bunga schools. As in past years, 2012 was another inspiring day, with dozens of proud parents enjoying their children’s success, and left me again with many emotions seeing how far the children and communities have come in such a short time. From total illiteracy and living each day as they’d done for generations – to a time of aspirations and a positive approach to an ever improving future, led by the newly educated and empowered children who have all become great teachers for their parents and extended families. Click here to see the video of Education Day activities in Cegi hamlet.
INKAI Karate and more Black Belts for EBPP students
 We introduced INKAI Karate as the main sport for all of our children in 2006 because it was so practical on the steep hillside hamlets. We tried volley ball, basket ball, soccer and other ball games but dozens of balls were lost down the 200-500 metre steep slopes and impossible to safely retrieve! Karate involves so many disciplines that keep all of the students fit and mentally stimulated as well as motivated them to be champions, and emulate their peers who have already achieved Black Belt 1st Dan status. Thanks to the dedicated training of our INKAI karate 3rd Dan instructor, Pak Mangku Pasek, three of our high school students achieved their Black Belt in February 2011 and this year two more lads from our Manikaji high school achieved their black belt accolade. It’s interesting to note that 2 of our first three graduates were from our Pengalusan School and the other three from Manikaji. We will keep you updated on the continued karate achievements.
EBPP High School Graduates’ Success Stories
Our success stories are not only from graduates from our hamlet schools, but also from the first young children that we were able to send for high school education in Singaraja in 1999, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Danu Enterprise’s Ms Judy Slattum and Made Surya as well as Dr Denise Abe and various friends from USA.
Graduates from EBPP’s first Education Programme 1999-2005:
Ms Judy Slattum in April 1999 offered, through her Bali Ecotourism programmes’ guests, sponsorship of primary school graduates from Desa Ban schools. When our EBPP staff of only four people in 1999 checked with the active government schools in the lower Desa Ban hamlets, only 12 (from a theoretical total of about 300 twelve year olds in the 19 hamlets) were due to graduate with the potential to continue to high school. As there were no high schools in the area in 1999, we enrolled the 7 boys and 5 girls in an orphanage boarding facility in Singaraja, North Bali, and they were all accepted in good schools. Of the eight who graduated in 2005 (all five girls and two boys), all girls returned to work with EBPP, four of whom went to college/university: one for an accounting diploma and three studied to be teachers and now teach playgroup, elementary school and high school in EBPP’s health and education programmes. The fifth, Armiani, is our librarian and our senior playgroup teacher in our 27 Desa Ban “Taman Posyandu”. Very wonderful!!
 I Wayan Lias: Lias was accepted into Ganesha university, Singaraja, in 2011 to study Fine Arts, thanks to sponsorship from ¹Bali Dynasty Resort, sponsor of Cegi education programme from 2000-2004 and Pengalusan education programme from 2000 till the present. On completion of his 4 year course, he will return to Desa Ban to give back to his community and teach art in all EBPP schools. In the meantime, he returns to Cegi during university vacation to share his new knowledge and skills with other students, the communities and particularly the members of the Cegi Art Cooperative that he established with fellow students in 2008. He is the pride of Cegi community and a testament to the high quality teaching of EBPP’s Art/Craft team.
¹Please support Bali Dynasty Resort’s Charity Effort “Dine out to Educate a Child” supporting EBPP’s education programmes
I Nengah Gata: Gata was one of EBPP’s best performing students, not only in karate but also academically as well as in art, drama and yoga. Since graduating high school in 2011, Gata has been EBPP’s full time INKAI Karate teacher for all our 6 schools and is achieving amazing results, still guided by our expert 3rd Dan consultant, Pak Mangku Pasek. For Gata’s complete success story, please click here for the link to Inspirasia Foundation, formerly Annika Linden Foundation – EBPP’s Manikaji School sponsor since 2004.
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Community Health Programme Developments
In December 2011, we proudly launched comprehensive ear nose and throat examinations and intervention led by BaliHears, pap smears for women led by Dr Innes Susanti and Yayasan Sehati and completed first aid training for all of EBPP health team, complementing our existing programmes summarised below.
This is such a contrast to when EBPP started their partnership with the 19 communities of Desa Ban in 1998 when most of the 3,000+ families had no access to government health facilities, midwives, suitable nutrition, education, safe water or sanitation facilities and our surveys of all families found that average child mortality before age one was 30%!
Sustainable Posyandu capacity building in Ban village
Launched by EBPP in 2003-4, with UNICEF sponsorship, we work in partnership with Puskesmas (community health centre) Kubu II to continue providing community health education, family planning, pre and post natal checks, all and immunizations and monitoring infants’ (0-5 years) nutrition status in our 27 Ban village Posyandu. We serve more than 1,000 infants, toddlers and their mothers in Ban village each month.
Sustainable Posyandu capacity building in Tianyar Timur village
Continuing the programmes we launched in 2005 to replicate our successful Ban village posyandu programmes, we serve over 800 infants and toddlers and the mothers in 20 Posyandu of this village, which is adjacent Desa Ban. When we started in 2005, at the request of the Karangasem Health Department, attendance was only 30-40%. By 2012, the attendance is generally over 70% for mothers and their infants. We are certainly proud of this achievement and being able to provide essential health awareness and intervention for these families.
Provide Nutritious Porridge and Ades mineral water for all infants of Ban and Tianyar Timur Villages
 In December 2005, as an incentive for the mothers to make the average 40 minutes walk to their nearest posyandu with their 0-5 years old infants, we started providing a bowl of nutritious green beans, rice and brown sugar porridge for all infants, supplemented by a 600ml bottle of Ades mineral water (donated since 2005 by Coca Cola Amatil Indonesia) for each child and mother. Since 2011, we have provided these same supplements to all the Tianyar Timur posyandu families and do have a much better attendance, helping us to help more infants.
Taman Posyandu Playgroup
 Our “Taman Posyandu” Playgroup programme, launched in 2010, is designed to educate infants 3-5 years old and their mothers in hygiene (general body hygiene especially washing hands after toilet and before meals, cleaning teeth, etc), nutrition, health and safety and basic literacy skills. The playgroup takes place after the basic mother and child health, immunisation and nutrition checks. Up to July 2012, we have served on average 600 children and 400 mothers each month at the 27 posyandu in Desa Ban, of which 403 on average participate each month in the playgroup activities The EBPP Health Teams lead the playgroups, do health checks, growth charts and lead a health education session for the children or mothers in at least one community and often in two-three different communities every day.
Pap smear
 Our first Pap smear awareness and screening programme led by Dr Innes Susanti and her Yaysan Sehati team with their mobile clinic, was in December 2011 for 19 women in Ban hamlet. The second pap smear test was for 17 women in Panek hamlet in April 2012. The third awareness was in Daya hamlet in June 2012 for 32 women from Daya and Bunga hamlets of which 20 were examined. In total we have examined 56 women and the programme will continue every two months.
Dental Health Education and Intervention Outreach Programme
 EBPP’s dental outreach programme covers 5,000-7,000 school children in 42 local schools in Kubu sub-district every year as well as local communities attending posyandu in Ban and Tianyar Timur villages. From January to June 2012, our volunteer dentist, assisted by the Puskesmas Kubu II dental nurse and EBPP health team, have examined 2080 children in 23 schools of which 633 (30%) had extractions, 104 (5%) needed fillings and 1343 (65%) had good dental health. Another great result in a region that had no dental care at all prior to EBPP’s first dental outreach programme in 2001.
Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Examinations and Intervention by Yayasan BaliHears
 Following their pilot visit in December 2011 when they examined 120 school children, infants and adults in EBPP’s Cegi School and Cegi posyandu, BaliHears team started a monthly programme in April 2012 of comprehensive ENT testing and problem corrections (including hearing aids if necessary) for school children, infants and adults in Desa Ban, with a target of up to 200 patients each visit. EBPP hopes to extend this outreach ENT programme to adjacent villages in the future. BaliHears works in partnership with the Bali Committee on Ear and Hearing Health and the ENT department of Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.
From April to June 2012, BaliHears team had examined 501 children in two EBPP schools and two government schools, 200 having minor ear problems, but all had good hearing and received instructions of how to maintain healthier ears and prevent infections. Those with ear problems needing further treatment and/or medication were recommended for further treatment at Puskesmas Kubu II.
In another step towards community empowerment, BaliHears trained 10 EBPP health staff on 6th July to do ear examinations, all of whom were certified to examine community members with suspected ear problems.
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Paralyzed Children’s Treatment
Working closely with the Yayasan Peduli Kemanusiaan (YPK) we have been treating paralyzed young children from Ban village both by site visits to treat the paralyzed children and at their Denpasar clinic. They also provided two months intense hands-on training for two EBPP high school graduates.
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Tuberculosis Awareness, Education and Elimination
 Our twice weekly TB awareness and education programme continued in 2012 about the dangers of tuberculosis addressed to all residents in the village of Ban, Tianyar Timur Village, Tianyar Tengah Village and Tianyar Barat Village, supported by Coca Cola Ecomobile complete with generator, projector and large screen. Extension is mainly done in the schools and at Posyandu in each location, supported by EBPP’s comprehensive TB brochure and 12 minute video drama, performed by EBPP high school students. Any people with suspected TB are referred to the Puskesmas for further examination and treatment and followed up by EBPP health team.
First Aid, Health & Safety Training for EBPP Staff, Schools and Posyandu
 Following on from two months intensive field training and certification of EBPP health team, by two expert American Wilderness First Aid volunteers at the end of 2011, EBPP health team, have continued teaching community groups, especially in the posyandu about proper treatment for simple cuts and wounds. All EBPP schools now have comprehensive fist aid cabinets and our newly trained tutors in the EBPP schools check their students, providing treatment when necessary.
Cleft Lip & Cleft Palate Operation
 Cleft lips and palates in young children have been a key priority for EBPP’s community health outreach programmes, and since 2000 we have facilitated more than 20 cleft lip and/or palate operations working in partnership with The John Fawcett Foundation and more recently with Yayasan Senyum (The Smile Foundation).
2012 report: By August 2012, two baby girls from remote Ban village hamlets: Ni Komang Nyempeng, 18 months old from Jatituhu hamlet with a cleft lip and Ni Nengah Sidiani, 3 years old from Cucut Sunti hamlet with cleft lip and cleft palate have both had successful operation to correct their birth defects by the specialist doctors from Yayasan Senyum team in Denpasar.
Nengah Sidiani was a tragic case with both cleft lip and palate. At the age of two in 2011, she had a successful cleft lip operation but had to wait till she was three years old to be strong enough for the cleft palate operation, which was successfully performed on 3rd August 2012 and is now recovering with her mum in “Smile Foundation House” in Denpasar.
We are very grateful to Mary Northmore and her Smile Foundation for this life changing support they provide to these disadvantaged infants and their families.
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SANITATION: First Toilets in History for 6 Hamlets
Background
In 1998 when we started our partnership with the 19 hamlets of Desa Ban, the majority of communities had never heard of a toilet or seen clean and safe water! Much to our continued surprise of their lack of knowledge of the outside world, most had never seen most types of vegetables or had the basic skills to treat wounds or deal with many illnesses. But, on the plus side, their remoteness meant that by not having local warungs (stores) there was almost no plastic waste and the children did not eat sweets or ‘junk’ food as they didn’t have any money!
It was this complete lack of knowledge, that we take for granted, that formed the basis for our first elementary school curriculum for the illiterate children, so that they could educate their illiterate parents. Nutrition, hygiene (bathing with soap and cleaning teeth), sanitation and learning to stay healthy without medicines were the main topics. In turn, the children had to teach their parents.
First Toilets in History for Cegi and Pengalusan hamlets
So, what generated the parents’ enthusiasm to have their own toilets? All of our 6 education programmes started in the respective small bale banjar (community meeting centre), with no toilets. However, by January 2006, we did have school buildings for our then 5 schools and we secured funding to build two toilets for each school, in locations to be agreed by the respective communities. In Pengalusan hamlet, Pak Kantor, the Kepala Dusun (official community leader), after agreeing the toilets location asked if we could also provide one for his small house. I clearly explained that if we gave him one, it would be totally unfair to each of the 60+ families. With his normal friendly chuckle, he replied: “No David. My idea is that if I have one, I will convince every other family to learn to use my toilet to ensure sanitation, better health and a better environment. Then, when they are ready, they will all want one!”
True to his word, in June 2010, Pak Kantor, together with Wayan Yasa, Kelian Adat for adjacent Cegi community, gave me their proposal and budget for toilets for all 140 families in their two hamlets! They only asked for basic materials of closet, batako (clinker blocks) and cement, enough for the foundation, septic tanks and walls. They would provide the roof and door and signed an agreement to keep their bathrooms clean. Fortunately, Royal Bank of Scotland wanted to support EBPP and agreed to sponsor these toilets which were satisfactorily completed in November 2010. This great community empowerment and ownership example inspired other hamlets to ask for toilets after hearing of the amazing improvements that this “basic” facility brought to the families, especially in the health and happiness of the mothers and young children.
Continued Sustainable Sanitation Developments since the First Toilets in 2010
Word soon travelled around the other hamlets of Ban village of the instant benefits enjoyed by the Cegi and Pengalusan communities in family health and hygiene, not only the new found privacy but also the dedicated place for regular bathing and doing the family laundry. Locked doors on the bathrooms ensure nobody else uses their private space and also keeps out unwanted cats, dogs and pigs! Within weeks, other communities were requesting toilets and fortunately, by the beginning of 2012, we had secured donor funding and completed toilets for the communities of Bunga, Manikaji Pucak and Jatituhu hamlets.
Please note that these five beneficiary hamlets are some of the most remote in Desa Ban, have the smallest populations and include five of the six where EBPP started local schools between 1999 and 2005. Table 1 shows the status of toilets to the end of June 2012.
Table 1. Summary of toilets built with/for communities up to June 2012
The next community on EBPP’s schedule was Daya hamlet, requiring 117 family toilet blocks. Daya has more families than the first 5 and thus a larger budgets is required. Due to the Bali Hindu traditional adat system, which is based on the ‘Gotong Royong’ (communities working together for mutual benefit) system of community self-help, each family in the respective banjars (communities) expects equal treatment and thus, we cannot prioritize any individual families or small group within a community as all our staff are local people and EBPP must adhere to the local adat (traditional) system.
However, for the 57 families in Manikaji Pucak, we did have three different donors and thus the toilet schedule was coordinated and planned by EBPP local water/sanitation team and all went according to schedule, quality and budget and the respective donors were very satisfied. This project however did take longer than others as all households are extremely remote one-to-another, it was the height of the rainy season and the steep dirt road to Manikaji was often inaccessible for supplying materials.
Community Toilets Project No. 6: 117 Daya families, Commenced July 2012
The Daya community is very important as their hamlet forms the western boundary of Desa Ban, the entry road over the saddle between Mount Agung and Mount Abang that EBPP opened with the communities in March 2000 and hosts EBPP’s up mountain office and Daya Bamboo Centre. In March 2012, when our dear friend and bamboo teacher, Linda Garland, founder of The Environmental Bamboo Foundation, introduced me to Ibu Anie H Djojohadikusumo, founder of ²Wadah Foundation, it was clear we both had similar missions: to empower the most disadvantaged communities in Indonesia, with a key focus on empowering women. Appreciating the importance of health hygiene and sanitation to empower mothers, Ibu Anie and Wadah Foundation agreed to sponsor the 117 family toilet/bathroom blocks requested by Daya hamlet’s community. The project started in July 2012 and should be completed by the end of October 2012, before the onset of the rainy season.
²Wadah Titian Harapan is a Jakarta-based foundation established by women for women and their families. It grew out of a need to bring hope to people by helping them help themselves and share a better future for their families and their community. Wadah was founded in 2008 to specifically address the special needs of women as they participate in social, educational, community and cultural activities
Toilets for the remaining 13 hamlets
We have prepared schedules and budgets for the 13 hamlets that do not yet have toilets and hope that by the end of 2017, every home of the approximately 3,500 families in Desa Ban will have toilet/sanitation facilities. If we have 2,500+ by the end of 2015, our village will be a great example, achieving sanitation for 71% of households in one of Indonesia’s biggest villages: a good example of sanitation targets as set out in United Nations Millennium Development Goals!
Sustainability
In addition to regular public health awareness programmes in all EBPP schools and the 27 posyandu our health team facilitates each month, random inspections are made of completed toilets to ensure good maintenance and cleanliness and we regularly interview beneficiary families in order to know how toilets have changed their life and, more particularly, how they keep them clean! Most responses have been the same: “With coconut husks and washing powder”. Not surprising as their bathrooms are also their laundry rooms.
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Road Infrastructure:
Dirt Road Upgrade Appeal by Jakarta Expat
 There was no vehicular access to 15 of the 19 Desa Ban hamlets until March 2000 when EBPP secured $2,000 funding to stabilise the steepest 500 metres of the 3 kilometre community-widened footpath from the saddle between Mount Agung and Mount Abang to the centre of Daya hamlet at the bottom of a steep and winding track. This provided the first road access in history for thousands of people to leave the village and for supplies and knowledge to come in. This involved the local villagers working together under the traditional ‘Gotong Royong’ system of community self-help, preparing the sub-base and laying the twin parallel 50 cm wide, 6 cm deep concrete strips, directed and supervised by David Booth’s small team of four local Balinese volunteers. Since then, the Bali Government has constructed an asphalt road down the 16 kilometre valley from the saddle to the north eastern boundary of Ban village (5km from the Amplapura-Singaraja NE coast road), but access to most of the mountain hamlets is still only via steep and winding dirt tracks; those to Jatituhu and Darmaji high up Mount Abang slopes being the most difficult, especially during the rainy season from December to March. Better road access is vital for empowering the local communities to continue towards self reliance and sustainable social and economic development. At just Rp75,000/metre of parallel concrete strip roads, we are grateful for the initial support we have received as a result of Dr David Parry’s article “A self-Help Model for Aid that Really Works” in the February 2012 edition of Jakarta Expat. Donations received have paid for 180 metres of concrete road on some of the most dangerous stretches to Jatituhu and Darmaji, but we still have 8,820 metres to go! The communities are ready to help themselves if we have the basic funding for them to build the roads that they will own and maintain, giving better access to health care, markets, education, etc. – and accelerate their transition from poverty to prosperity!
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Creative Music Education Inspiring and Empowering EBPP Children
 “If music be the food of love, play on”. The famous line from William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, 1602. This didn’t apply though in the isolated hamlets of Desa Ban as we learned in 1998 when our four local lads, interviewed 1,056 families about their lives in the 19 isolated hamlets in our village and asked what their favourite music or dance was, they all answered “NONE”: they had no way of hearing or seeing music and/or learning Balinese dance. I was shocked! Life was just about survival. The communities didn’t have songs when planting or harvesting their cassava and corn or in their kerosene-lit banjars in the evenings. They just laboured and slept!
Thus a key goal for EBPP’s sustainable community development programmes for children was to introduce the basics of entertainment such as singing and dancing which did not need TV or radios -as they had no electricity. My dream was for the children to make music from anything, such as empty cans, glasses etc. and eventually musical instruments from bamboo.
In 2010, an experienced professional music volunteer joined us and progress was rapid. We included music classes in our education curriculum and by July 2012, with 160 recorders, 8 guitars, over 20 ukuleles, Djembe drums, music boxes and two local trained staff, we have the makings of quite a few professional musicians and singers, especially amongst our 12-17 year old students. We are grateful to our many donors who are too numerous to mention – but they all take pride in seeing the great advances, especially young students’ performances at the 2011 Bali Garden Party and their Christmas Eve 2011 performance to all guests at the prestigious Amankila Resort in Mandira, Karangasem. Videos of these performances can be viewed on our You Tube Channel, EBPP’s 1998.
Children from our 6 schools’ next performance will be at this year’s Bali Garden Party Charity event on the 22nd September 2012 Children’s Day event, which is followed by a “Dinner Under The Stars”. I hope you can support us!
Although our music programme is still in its infancy, the EBPP is dedicated to empowering our most musically talented students and will be seeking sponsorship for some to continue education at specialist musical institutions. For more information on how you can help, please contact us.
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BAMBOO DEVELOPMENTS: Reforestation, Ecosystem Revival and Sustainable Economic Development
The future sustainable social and economic development of all of the 19 Desa Ban communities is highly dependent on the well designed and monitored bamboo reforestation of the steep and arid Mount Agung and Mount Abang slopes that were covered in many metres of volcanic ash when Mount Agung erupted in 1963. Towards this goal, a key target in our 1998 15 year plan, over 14,500 bamboo of various species have been planted since February 2006 with our communities, the ultimate owners, who are also being trained in resilient bamboo clump management. The bamboo field training, technical expertise, quality bamboo plantling supply and planting design is proceeding well thanks to the continued support and expertise of Ms Linda Garland, founder of the Ubud based Environmental Bamboo Foundation (EBF) and her son, Arief Rabik.
We will post a dedicated report of all our exciting bamboo related developments in our next Sustenance Newsletter
Of note though in this issue we are pleased to report that the popular Indonesian magazine, FIT, published an interesting article on EBPP and EBF Bamboo projects in their June 2012 edition on the occasion of World Environment Day, which fell on 5th June 2012. Click here to read the article
If you want to help EBPP’s regreening of Mount Agung with a sustainable bamboo forests, you can sponsor bamboo plantlings for Rp75,000 (US$8) each and we will advise you of the type of bamboo and give you the GPS coordinates so you can monitor on Google earth. The cost includes supply, planting, composting and maintenance for 3 years.For information on how to donate, please go to our website and advise us by email and we will send you a receipt.
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