CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS

Helo Everybody,

this time I want to tell you a little bit about an event, we had last month...

BEACH CLEAN UP – Last month we had been teaching the  children about how to care for their environment, especially how to  deal with rubbish. We decided we needed to start this environmental  care at home. We explained to them about different kinds of rubbish  and how to handle it. As you may know, there are many beaches in Bali  contaminated with all kinds of plastic rubbish; people don’t have much  awareness about their environment. So we took the  children to one of the beaches around our area and we cleaned up  the beach by picking the organic and non-organic rubbish. We brought  the rubbish home and gave away the recyclable rubbish to the rubbish  collector next door and the organic stuff we used for compost to  fertilise our farm. We had fun that morning, picking up rubbish,  having a picnic but due to bad weather the waves were too big for us  to swim. The children were a little disappointed but as it was for our  own safety we decided to go home. After walking up lots of stairs, we  rested a bit and a couple of westerners came up to us and asked what  we’re doing and why. When we explained it, they were so amazed at what  we were doing and really thanked us. Then they went on to say that  they own a hotel on the beach and in all their time running the hotel  they have never seen any one come and clean the beach. The owner  then invited us to swim and have some snacks in his hotel.  The  children were screaming happily and kept saying, “This is amazing,  swimming in the pool is sooo much better than facing the big waves on  the beach and we can wash ourselves from all the sand”. When we’re  heading back home, the lady who owns the hotel told us, anytime you  clean the beach here…please let me know and you are most welcome to  hang out around my hotel for snacks and swimming.”

Doing good things isn't too bad...: )

Wish you all a very good start in 2010. All the best

Brad

OUR VEGGIE GARDEN

Hello Everzbody

Today I want to write a little bit about our Veggie Garden. We have started growing our own  vegetables, fruit and spices. It’s amazing how we can harvest some of  the veggies even before we got the fertile soil on the land.

South  Bali is famous as a dry part of Bali, it’s hard to grow fruit or  vegetables here and the soil of our front yard is full of limestone  and rocks but with prayers, hard work and the blessings of God, we  have harvested many cassavas, chilli, tomatoes, banana, basil, mint  papaya and much more.

Pak Eko is such a great farmer and was very  excited when we decided to get a truck of fertile soil to extend the  plantation so we can grow more fruit and veggies. Our children get to  learn about horticulture and also how to be responsible and work  together for their blocks of farm. Pak Eko has given groups of  children the responsibility to care for, nurture and harvest the fruit  and vegetables that are on their blocks. Our farm has helped us a lot  financially and it also healthier for the children. We are also hoping  to breed our own chicken, eggs & fish very soon.

So keep the fingers crossed,that our veggies will grow as good as possible...

All the best.

Brad

SHARING THE LOVE

Love is for everyday; and we celebrated it by visiting the children at the Disabled School and Dormitory that is not very far from Bali Life. The head of the dormitory was telling me that they needed cooking oil and sugar when I approached him few days before our visit.

Our children were a little bit surprised when we visited the school that day. We could see they didn’t really know how to act with children who have disabilities; they were trying to be as normal as possible, by being friendly and polite. Despite their uncertainty we could see that our children had a passion to serve the children.

On this Love Day they had the privilege to sing and dance for them. Our children sang one of their favourite songs ‘MAKING MELODY’ with actions and we were excited to see how the students responded to the song and actions; they were smiling and laughing. It was such a great time. Each of our children gave a flower and a block of chocolate to the students who were very happy and touched when they received it.

Our Foundation was able to give out 25 kg each of sugar and cooking oil according to their needs at that time. In return for our performance, some of the students wanted to perform for us. One boy shared the poem that he had written; he was the winner of the Province as an author for best poetry. Some students were singing, one of them is Cindy, she came second as best singer for the Province competition.

We were all very touched by them, and our children were encouraged to use more of their talents because they saw other children, with disabilities, show courage and a creative spirits. We also had the opportunity to watch some traditional dances from other children who were also keen to entertain the students. It was excellent for our girls who just started learning traditional dances at Bali Life.

I loaded up some fotos of this very special day. We are looking forward of sharing more love in the future. 

Sincerely

Brad

ACTIVITIES: Traditional Dance(Balinese) Course

Hello.

Today I want to write a little bit about our activities we offer in the lifehouse for our children.

Most of our children are Balinese, and one of my desires is that they will not forget their precious culture like language, crafts, dance and others. So in order to maintain it, we invite a young lady whose family has been very close with us (especially Brad & Siska’s family) to teach the girls Balinese dance twice a week. The teacher’s name is Ayu and she was very glad when I asked her to teach the girls. She is currently a uni student who will graduate very soon, and also a dancer for many special occasions. Two of our staff, Ika and Puri are part of the dance classes.

Ika is also a dancer and was very excited to be able to learn other ethnic dances; she would like to mix them with modern dance to praise & worship God, and then teach our children as well.                                                                                                                      

Already our children are able to dance two different traditional dances.

I will load up one foto, so have a look.

Next time I will give you an other look into our activities.

Wish you all the best.

Sincerely, 

Brad

Introducing DEGA

Hello.

We are delighted to introduce to you a new boy who has come to live at Bali Life in March this year.  He is the 5 year old, Dega. In mid March Dega’s grandpa came to see us at Bali Life and begged us to take his grandson.  The parents had separated and left Dega with his grandpa a few years ago. They both had been living with one of Dega’s uncles, who also has three children of his own. Dega’s grandpa told us that he couldn’t take care of him anymore because he is getting older and has no income to support the young boy. The father of the boy comes rarely to visit but when he does, he abuses the boy. The day Dega came to Bali Life his face was a little swollen and the grandpa told us that his dad had abused him few days earlier. Two days later after reading the agreement for the parents before giving up their child, the grandpa came back and without any doubt he and the boy’s father had signed it. DEGA (nick name) is a very bright and brave boy. We are so happy to have him in our Home.

I have posted a Photo of sunny DEGA in the Photos section.

Hopefully we can make more children happy like DEGA in the future. Thanks for your support.

All the best

Brad

GOOD NEWS

Hello Everybody.

Here are some good news, I want to share with you.

One of the requirements to get the operational permission for our Foundation is to have our own sign at the front of the building to state that our Foundation is legitimate. So when you come to Bali, look out for this little blue sign of Bali Life. I have loaded up some Photos of our new sign.

Also this month, a government official came to inspect the Foundation to ensure the organisation is real and operational. He was very impressed to see our Bali Life Home.He said,

” I’ve never seen an orphanage which feels so much like a home. This place is different. How lucky are the children who live here, I will definitely help in anyway I can to keep this kind of orphanage running.”

So we are looking forward to have some important supporters in the future.

Thanks to everybody out there, who is supporting us. I try to be back soon, with some more ggod news.

Brad

Project Update

Hello Everybody,

and sorry for not writing for so long. But right now I want to give you an update.First of all, all is good here with our family, staff and all the kids at bali life kids home.

The project is moving along slowly but there has been some changes along the way. We focused a little more on really trying to get a good strong structure in place.

So this means that we now have two foundations set up, one being in Australia Bali Life and the other in Indonesia being Hill of Life. This will help with the accountability of what we are trying to achieve, as I was being hit with a lot of questions that lead me to seeing the need for this.

Right now we have about AUD$ 16 000 raised and are looking at doing a boundary wall around our land, which we already have, as step one. The cost for this boundary wall is AUD $17 000. So not so much missing!

Once we have a boundary wall we can use the land for growing vegetables, fish farming and plant fruit trees to help with our daily food needs and also give the children some training. That all so good, an we are close to come a very big step further.

Thank you everybody for supporting the Project and the orphanage - you help our children to live a better life. Sincerely Brad

A letter from one of our children

Hello Everybody. First of all, I wish everybody of you a very good start in 2009 and jus the best for the year. Today, I will post a letter of one of our children. Hopefully, our orphanage will be able to help more children in the future. Please help us to be achieve success. Hi my name is Tana and I am 15 years old. I had been living on the streets for three years and every day I had to beg so I could buy some food to eat. It was a very hard life and many times very scary. If I made no money for begging I was forced to do other bad things like stealing just so I could eat. I was so happy to meet the team from Life House, when they came to the streets to visit us two times a week. They would feed us and talk to us about good living, a new life and a God that loves us. Now I live at life house and I know God loves me cause he gave me a new life. I get to go to school now and have a chance to do great things with my life. Thank you for helping us to have our own home and making it possible for more kids like me to have a new and better life. God bless Tana Sincerely, Brad

Local Schools

Hi Everybody, right now is the time, when people all over the world help other people more than they do all year long. Perhaps, our orphanage finds some new supporters as well. To promote our orphanage, I want to give you an other brief overview of what we do, to help children to live a better life here in bali. Bali Life works together with other organisations and send teams of English teachers into our local schools. Good English speakers is a very high demand here and we see this as a good way to help improving and creating more opportunity for children in the village. For our Hands Of Hope fundraiser the kids are also doing their part, in their craft time they are making necklaces, bracelets and earrings that are packed as one set and sold to guests that visit the orphanage. They are selling for $6.50 and all money goes toward the building project. It has become very popular and the kids are very excited that they also are playing a big part in building their new home. I wish all of you a pleasent christmas time, and when I don`t post again, a good start in 2009. Hope your wishes come true. Sincerely, Bad

The Local Village

Hi Everybody, first of all I want to thank all our supporters. As I could see, we have a new one - great! Thanks... Today I want to tell you a little bit about our local village. We have a good relationship with our village leader and any needs that come up in our local village he will keep us informed. Most of these needs are families living in poverty and are unable to send their kids to school. We are in process of setting up a scholarship plan to try and keep our local kids in school. That´s so important to keep this good relationship and having the village leader as a supporter of our project. This helps to realize our aim - making the live of poor children a little bit better. I wish all of you the best - thanks for your support. Sincerely Brad

Clothes for the Kids

Hi everybody.

Its nearly one month, since I posted the last brief discription of one part of our project. Today, I want to give you some more information about how we try to make the life of poor children a little bit better here in bali.

Due to our current house being full we have had to pull back from some of the work we were doing on the street of Kuta. However we still remain a major supplier of clothes for kids on the street. Once our new building is built, the doors will open again for many more street kids to start a new life. We will also set up a more permanent base where kids can come in and out of for counselling, clothes, food and a place to sleep. This program will also be the way we filter the kids that are ready to start a new life by going to Bali Life Orphanage. In the next post I will give you some more facts about our local village and the local school.

Thanks for your support, sincerely Brad

What we do....

Hi Everybody, 

in the next days and weeks, I want to give you a brief overlook on the differnt ways we are trying to help children here in bali. 

Today its about the Slums, which we have in Denpassar. Slums The slums are where most beggars on the street lives, many children and mums with babies who also work on the street during the night live here. We visit the slums in Denpasar which has about 30 families in the community. We put teams together that consist of nurses and other volunteers to run programs in public health, Hygiene, medical and games for children. We also give out packages which consist of food, basic medical kits, sanataries and clothes for each family in the slums.  We regularly visit the slum once in a month.

Thanks for supporting us, sincerely Brad  

First Note....

Hi Everybody.

First of all, I`d like to thank everyone who supports this project and helps us to improve the living standard of some children here in bali.

Secondly I`d like to appologize for not being that present here on betterplace. Here in bali, I don`t have acces to the internet all day - and as you can imagine, there are many things to be done every day. For the future, I try to give you some updates at least every two weeks.

Right now, we are trying to get some supporters for the orphanage in australia. Allthough its a little bit nearer than europe, its very difficult to get this started.

I will give you all a some more facts about the project in a few days.

Sincerely.

Brad