Volume 3, Edition 2, February 2004

EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS IN SAFE WATER AND EDUCATION

I report this month on exciting developments in our water and integrated education programmes at the start of 2004, which, combined with commitments from many new donors, have enabled all of East Bali Poverty Project team – and the community – to look at the rest of 2004 with great confidence that our goals of sustainable social and economic development are on track for the foreseeable future. Community motivation and participation has been the key, as they see that so many of their aspirations, stated to EBPP team in November 1998, are starting to become realities.

Safe drinking water now assured

Water gushed out of the polyethylene pipes at the third of the new community safe water reservoir locations on 17th of February 2004 when we tested the two-and-a-half kilometres of newly installed water pipeline from the forest spring down as far as the nearest access point for Cegi and Pengalusan communities.

Joy, elation and satisfaction were the emotions expressed by East Bali Poverty Project’s young water programme supervisor, Made Sudarma (a Desa Ban resident, who joined EBPP as our office boy in November 1998, when he was just 16 years old), and his team of dedicated local staff. Together with male members of the beneficiary hamlets, who had laboured - as their contribution - with our team for the last nine months to build the water infrastructure through some very hilly and rugged forest terrain to achieve this landmark, they were literally bubbling as they played, aiming the geyser-sized flow from the end of the pipe at their friends. It was even more rewarding for Komang Kurniawan, EBBP team leader, and I, finally seeing our dream become a reality: getting the delicious water from this high mountain spring that we identified and tested in 1998, become available for the neediest people.

To ensure sustainability, the final stage, after the three water storage reservoirs are completed in two weeks time, is creating educating the hundreds of predominantly illiterate families to ensure that they get optimum benefit from this safe and more plentiful water supply. We will use our proven techniques in educating over 2,000 families about micronutrient deficiencies: very simple sketches illustrating the processes of regularly cleaning their four types of water containers, starting from when they leave their house on the trek to get water: the jerry cans and buckets they use to carry the water, their large plastic or earthen home storage vats, the plastic gayung (plastic thing usually used to bathe/shower) they use to transfer water from the storage vat and the thermos flasks that boiled water is often stored in.

Education developments

Education has again been one of our key focuses in February, with two key landmarks:

·  Graduating elementary school: 45 children in our Cegi, Pengalusan and Manikaji programmes have been registered to take the Government exam to graduate elementary school, after only three and a half years education in our programmes in May this year, thanks to the extraordinary effort of Rosmara Dewi, our Education programme supervisor, who has doubled up her teaching time to ensure that all the children are ready. Rosmara has now learnt how to plan a 36 hour day!

·  New donors for existing education programmes: Funding for our Bunga and Manikaji programmes has now been assured from donors in USA and UK respectively. Launched in August 1999, Bunga was our first integrated education programme, made possible by a generous Japanese gentleman, yet with funding only for a year. Similarly, Manikaji programme, launched in January 2001, was only funded for a year by Hard Rock Hotel Bali. We did however manage to continue both of these programmes uninterrupted thanks to great support from many caring individuals, organisations and companies that are too numerous to mention here but are clearly acknowledged on our Homepage.

·  Launching EBPP’s fifth integrated education programme: a site visit by managers of three star-rated hotels in Candidasa area (details after the programme starts) resulted in their pledge to fund our fifth education programme for the children of Darmaji hamlet. The picture was quite clear when we visited on the 18th of February: a four and a half kilometre motor cycle ride up very steep, precarious and winding tracks got us to the small community centre. 12 small homes can be seen on the hillside, defying any first-time visitor to believe that another 70 families live in the surrounding terrain – out of view. Scheduled to start in May 2004, wemust start the whole process of preparing the children and families in early March. The steps required are a follows:

1.  Recruit tutors from Darmaji hamlet who will undergo 2-4 weeks training in all of our existing education programmes. The requirement for tutors is that they are literate, and sufficiently motivated and dedicated to lead their community forward through the children. The children become the parents' teachers. From our experience with all of our established programmes, transformation of the community starts within weeks of the children leading by example in the home.

2.  Find out as much as possible about the community so that we can focus educational materials on their key needs.

3.  Evaluate the children who will join the programme: estimate their ages; determine if they are in any way retarded and hence require a slower rate of tuition; evaluate their health and any existing illness that may have to be eliminated before starting, e.g. impetigo. As with all of our other programmes approximately 50% of the children had the infectious skin disease impetigo, which we had to cure before they could be in contact with other children; prepare all the basic classroom needs, including chairs and tables (made by the locals), bamboo partitions to separate the classrooms, blackboards for each classroom and a place to use as a kitchen for their daily school meals.

4.  Recruit and traina local lady who will be the cook. In most cases, this is the Kepala Dusun's (hamlet leader) wife. Key training in is in standards of hygiene and sanitation, as well as methods to cook the foods they have never even seen before. Probably the most important training with the cooks is how to calculate the daily food needs and when and where to buy. Again, she will get training in one or more of our other education programmes with one of our experienced cooks and our expert staff, especially Ms Iluh, our health coordinator.

There is still a long way to go, but now that so many of these once forgotten communities a are becoming empowered with the essential tools of education and assurances of better health, their aspirations are now showing no bounds. The next two months promise to open more doors for many more people towards our common goal of sustainable social and economic development, thanks to the unfailing support of our many donors and expert volunteers.

If you require more information on any of East Bali Poverty Project activities or would like to support us, please call me on (0361) 410071, email: or check our Homepage: www.eastbalipovertyproject.org