In 1998, thousands of people in a village of 19 isolated hamlets high up the steep and arid mountains of North-East Bali lived in abject poverty without roads, water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, health and education facilities, and hope. Children were the main victims:
- over 80% were malnourished and had goitre due to iodine deficiency;
- 70-100% were illiterate in the 1,000+ families highest up the mountains.
Life had been this way for as long as they could remember. Their dwellings, mostly single rooms with bamboo walls and dirt floors, are scattered over 7,000 hectares of land: isolated one from another.
Farming practices remained archaic: the only crops they knew that could adapt to the steep slopes and dry land are cassava and corn. Cassava unfortunately is a threat to health if is the staple, breaking down iodine and thus contributing to the high incidence of iodine deficiency disorders.
Projects, and our achievement towards sustainable development
Our achievements since the first projects started in 1999 have all had one common theme: a partnership with the community, with the well-being of disadvantaged children as the initial priority. We now have a wide range of sustainable projects in children’s education, health improvement, nutrition, appropriate technology infrastructure improvement, natural water resources development, sustainable organic farming and erosion control in this steep and dry terrain. The long term goals of food security and self-reliance through sustainable social and economic development for the overall empowerment of the communities are now being realised through recently developed organic farming cooperatives.
The driving force behind all the projects has been the passionate community motivation and participation. One thing became clear when we started working with the scattered communities: all the hamlets, whilst in one huge and sprawling village, have different climates and cultural directions to life. Hence our approach had to recognise these variables and be versatile in the way we packaged the awareness programmes, discussed new ideas and found solutions to go forward based on their aspirations.
For a detailed list of our projects, please find them listed on the side-menu.