Q3: GIVING BACK TO OUR BELOVED BALI
Bali, the Island of Gods and the place we call home. It really is a special place that has brought so much happiness to our lives. With it’s beautiful beaches, gorgeous villas, amazing restaurants and cafes it’s an idyllic place to call home. The locals are the warmest, most welcoming, most positive and grateful people we have ever met. We feel so lucky that we have the opportunity to spend a lot of our time here.
It’s really important to us to give back to this island and its community. We’ve spent a lot of time researching various causes on the island and we have chosen to support the incredible Bali Street Mums Project. Bali Street Mums provides basic necessities including shelter, clothing, education, basic health care and food to women and children in need.
Despite Bali’s reputation as paradise and it’s huge tourism sector, often it can be hard to see from a fancy resort’s sunbed that there are still roughly 25 million people in Indonesia living below the poverty line. This means that there are many challenges to survival for Balinese women and children, with many facing issues such as high unemployment, little to no education, infant mortality, malnutrition and the threat of trafficking and forced prostitution. With so many tourists and expats having the time of their lives on the island, it’s such a stark contrast for the reality of many local people.
Bali Street Mums does incredible work to help give women and children a better quality of life. Their work is centered around:
- RESCUING ABUSED CHILDREN - psychologists working with police to rescue and rehabilitate abused or trafficked children and convict offenders
- PROVIDING SAFE, COMFORTABLE HOUSING - moving mums and children into clean, safe, comfortable housing, away from small huts in slum areas in areas rife with dangerous sex traffickers
- FEEDING THE HUNGRY - providing children with a protein breakfast, fruit, milk and vitamin C supplements (on average the street kids tend to eat only one bowl of rice per day)
- MEDICAL AID AND COUNSELING - to help children who have been subject to the mental, physical and sexual abuse that is commonplace after begging on the streets
- EDUCATING THE KIDS - enrolling kids in school who would otherwise be begging on the streets of Kuta for up to 12 hours a day. We teach them how to have fun and play, so they can learn to be children again.
- EMPOWERING THE MUMS - teaching mums a skill such as handicrafts to generate income so feel empowered and do not take their children back to the streets to beg.
We are excited to support such an incredible organisation that is transforming so many women and children’s lives and giving us the opportunity to give back to this wonderful island.