Pak Tinggal actually had six children but only two staying with him and his wife in that hut. He was a formerly homesteader in Sulawesi, following the government recommend for her islands having even population through transmigration. Some succeed and some failed, Pak Tinggal is among them who failed and in the end going back to his homeland, Bali. In Sulawesi, he lost two children in forest and where his wife and one of his children also lost then found alive but having mental disorder. He actually had four children still alive however, one of his children never visit him, never looking back at his own family. Another one occasionally coming home if he has worked to do to support the family’s economic condition. Then the remaining two are those of mentally retarded children, a fully grown man and woman.

On December 22, through a rather steep path we saw clearly the hut where Pak Tinggal and his family lived. The rather steep path where one wrong move we will going down to the ravine below while carrying our donation one by one. To this family we donate some necessity stuff that we thought could ease the burden of this family. With us, we brought two mattress, pillows, blankets, and necessity food such as rice, eggs, cooking oil, sugar, coffee powder and more. We also gave them toiletries as in soaps, toothbrushes, toothpastes and shampoos. In the packet, there were also clothes and detergents for them to wash as well as some cooking equipments. We also gave this family some pocket money.

The hut is really in a tragic and poor condition. It built with anything strong enough to make it stand, always flooding on rainy season and anytime could suffer landslide. Here we met his paralyzed and mentally disorder wife and his two mentally retarded children. We saw hanging garment where they usually take a bath, we saw the chamber where they stick together and sleep every night and their kitchen. Here we had our chat with Pak Tinggal, where he shared his experience and lives in Sulawesi and in Bali.

It has been four years he and family live in that hut, on the land belong to someone else where at anytime they could be driven away. Once, there was social service officer visited Pak Tinggal and would like to put him and his wife at the nursing home and his children at an orphanage but his son strong headedly did not want them to be separated, make it become a very hard decision for Pak Tinggal to accept the offer. We have a really long chat with Pak Tinggal, not only heard his experience and burden of life, but also his hope and how we can help him further with his condition today. Yet, we still hope that Pak Tinggal will accept the government offer so the future would not become too horrible for him and his family. It is since his old age and gradually he would not be able to support the family anymore, what with his profession as a scavenger.

Anyone out there who read this story and willing to help, anything you give, anything you want to provide, everything will be very much appreciated. This old man, who can be said support his poor family alone is in need of our gracious help. He hoped for a safe place for his family to live together under one roof. They hoped they would not be separated into an orphanage and to a nursing home, as suggested by the Social Service. They wish for a simple house where they could stick with each other and having no fear to be driven away every single day.

Our visit on this month charity was not not to Pak Tinggal family only,but also visiting once again Semara Putra Orphanage in Klungkung. We gave the children a large television for their entertainment. At the orphanage, we did not meet with Ibu Gunasih, the foster mother at Semara but a representative there to accept our donation. There were also almost no children to be found since all of them accompanied Ibu Gunasih in a Tokoh Magazine event in Denpasar. After this orphanage, we headed back to our office in Denpasar, with more comprehension and understanding that there are people who have worse suffering and that despite their condition they still fighting and struggle to live.

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We departed from our office around 11.30 pm in the afternoon and departed directly to Klungkung. After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at at Semara Putra Orphanage. We were welcome directly by the orphans, the foster mother and her parlors. We had a very warm hug as the foster mother uttered prayer for our wellbeing. We had quite a merry greeting despite the poor condition of this orphanage, something that we did not expected at all. We knew their good intention yet we will be more than please just by visiting the site with the simpler welcome. It is since we knew their exact condition due to our previous inspection before finally deciding this orphanage to become our project of the month.

We led to one of the room in this orphanage where long table and chairs had been prepared. There we introduced ourselves and then listened to the foster mother brief introduction about Semara Putra’s factual condition. What were they urgently needed, their short history and the progress until today. It revealed that they really in desperate state of affairs with their primary needs that is food to feed 100 children then followed by education fee. The condition where they did not have regular donator complicates their already complicated lives.

Aid from regional government definitely could not gives firm support for this orphanage. How come they can continuing the lives of 100 children with IDR3,000 per children per day when people usually cost more than that just to eat every single day. What more tragic was this month donation that was only IDR 35,000 in total. We could not imagine the struggling of this orphanage just to eat every day. Once was an organization gave donation but with a very small number that was 1,500 per day per one children as it dedicated for 30 children only despite the fact that Semara Putra take care more than 30.

Ibu Gunasih has to use every single ways to cover the expense and to provide all children necessity especially their regular proper meals. She will indebted to shops owner or to the school as she asked for compensation until the orphanage has fund to cover the debt. It usually succeeds since Ibu Gunasih is a responsible person and has local’s trust with her. Every single day they will cost 30 kilograms rice for three times meal per day to feed all 100 children there. Her years of devotion to this orphanage gladly not conducted alone since this year she has seven local volunteers and what more pleased us was 1 volunteer from German who teach the children there about computer, English and Germany.

Ibu Gunasih will try her best to provide not only good food, fine shelter but also proper education for all children, normal or not. In the morning they will have their formal education, then it will be followed with additional skills such as dancing, computer, foreign language, anything. They also has raising ducks, goats and pigs in this orphanage so children, everything that could develop all of them into an independent person.

Things that really knocked our heart, and realize that we are in a better shape, better condition and better living was when we watched Ibu Gunasih teach the deaf children how to read and write. They use mirror so those children able to see the mouth motion in order to produce a solid sound. Despite their loss of hearing sensory, they try their best to said “Ibu” and “Bapak”. They are handicapped children and normal children in this orphanage. Some with no parents or families, some with parents giving up them due to a very tragic economic condition and others are parents who did not know how to educate their handicapped children. Ibu Gunasih said that they are children, normal or not, they deserve proper education and better life. Thus, she always try her best to prepare from the first step of education until circulating their life after school.

Today, there is already school for handicapped in front of Semara Putra orphanage up to high school level. It really help the children education since few years ago when the handicapped school only until elementary level only, graduated from it, Ibu Gunasih will deliver those children outside the region for them to have higher levels of education, such as in Denpasar or Badung. For normal children, when they graduate from their formal education, Ibu Gunasih will communicate it with hotels or resorts in south Bali regarding any training or works available for her children. Very lots of work to do and huge responsibilities in which she never let go even in her old ages.

We also accompanied by her to looking around this orphanage. We were shown where they sleep, children and woman are in one room with bunks bed and their secondhand lockers, and in separate building across the lawn were the male rooms with their bunk beds and old cupboards. There is also kitchen where 3 cooks prepare the meals, their barn with ducks, 2 goats and 3 pigs. Small land close to the barn actually used for plant but it usually failed due to the dry climate in Klungkung and if they used too many waters for plantation means another additional cost for them. We also saw their common room, that same room we used to meet and greet, completed with 1 television for all children there.

While accompanying with our little tour, Ibu Gunasih share her experience of her almost 26 years’ devotion. How she almost gave up, crying every night feels all are enough, but keep going with the support of her late husband, even where she was retired as a teacher and entering her old age, she keep maintaining this position, despite an once attempt came to spend her retired time with her grandchildren. She is a great and noble woman not only for children there but also for us who have this opportunity to meet her.

We gave not a big scale donation as we deliver it with utmost sincerity. Private Leisure International donated kilograms rice, boxes of Instant noodles, some kilograms of sugar, few liters cooking oil, bread, stationery and some hairbands. Each children also receive package of snacks and there are also some secondhand clothing from not only PL crews but also from some friends of PL staffs’ acquaintance. We also gave some amount of cash for this orphanage.

Several minutes before we leave the orphanage, we take our time to interact with the children, with other caretakers and with Ibu Gunasih while taking some pictures. They all are very eager, cheerful children, despite the hardship and struggle they face, handicapped or not, they still smile with wide big happy grin with us. This charity has changes and teaches us that despite our hard time, there are people in the world struggle with greater suffering. That is when we are whining, we need to remind ourselves of the children at this orphanage, who never give up and their foster mother with her utmost devotion and unconditional love. This charity, what we give perhaps not a big scale donation, but we give it with heart and we believe all people in the world could lend their hands, no matter how small, since for those people in need, our small helps means a lot.

For those who wish to help this orphanage, no matter how small, they are in need of any form of primary needs to support the children meals, cash that can be use to support the children education, they also need detergent to do laundry. The children at Semara Putra Orphanage also welcoming anything that can support their education time such as school textbooks or even desks to provide them better place to write since they have to study on floor or at bed.

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On October 25th, all team in Private Leisure International departed from our office at Pura Banyu Kuning Street and headed directly to Lebih Village in Gianyar. The village is the spotlight for our charity project this month. Our target is four poor families, families that in their everyday life live just for struggling. Work hard so that tomorrow and the next days ahead they or their children can eat.

The first family was the family of Ibu Siti Aminah and Bapak Haryanto from Banyuwangi. They live in a hut with two rooms, one as their bedroom area and another one as their requirements chamber. The tiny space in their bedroom area is able to accommodate one bed only with no mattress. The next-door room is where they put all their belonging, whether it foods, clothes, anything.

This married couple had two children but only their youngest live with them. Their first-born child lives with their grandmother in their hometown. Their youngest now sit in his first year at local elementary school.

The second family was the family of Bapak Gusti Lanang Santra. He and his wife were bestowed with two little boys. The older brother named Agus and the second one is Dek Nik. They live not too far away from Bapak Haryanto. Bapak Gusti is a farm worker who takes care of his boss rice field and at the same time also raising his boss cows.

Both families received mattress, staple food, and some children toys. There had been several visits to this village asking about what they need or what the children wish to have, that is why Agus got his pair of new shoes.

Those two families just hope for a better life ahead while keep trying hard in these present days. Pak Gusti Lanang also wishes their children could have a proper education. He said that he is able to manage more hard to fulfill their household necessities though it will take differently with their children education. He hoped that his children would be able to have a proper education.

The next family is quite far from these two families so we drive our car once again and meeting the family of Bapak Widarta and Ibu Made Mewastini. They both have three little children. The older daughter is now in her fourth year in elementary school. The other two are a four years old daughter and a 2 years old baby boy. The father of this family is also a labor.

Together with his wife, they are also raising ducks. They have a house but it not theirs, it lend to them.

None of those families we visited owned the land or the hut they lived on, all lent. The same for the last family we visited. It was family of Bapak Wayan Cenik with his wife and his two daughters. When first visited them, this was the family with no electricity but when we went on October 25th, there is a nice neighbor willing to share their electricity access. What make us sad looking this family is that one of the room where the father or sometime his sister in law sleep are side by side with duck coop.

To the last two families, instead of giving them mattress we replace it with dish rack while the remaining are the same staple foods and children toys. We give them so little and they greet us with so much happiness radiating from their faces.

After visiting all those families, we headed back to Denpasar. All this experience nothing but give many to think and to understand about. That we are in a far more better situation with them, that no matter how small it is, our help our and our genuine intend to help others can bring smile, laugh or even tears of happiness. And we who give something for others also at the same time left us with a warm feeling in our heart, an irreplaceable one.

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April 30th – May 1st, Private Leisure International is celebrating its 3rd anniversary. In this special event, the company wants to give a special gift for the staff that support the company and make it stand as the way it is today. Memorable trip to Gili is the answer. Let go all the works behind and let yourself free in Gili. The 2 days 1 night trip to Gili Island, we have the best of our time there. We have our tiring but fun bicycle time, go around the island visiting many villas we put in our website. We also have a high-spirited games session at the beach. At first the game sound so silly but it turned out that the games actually difficult to do and quite reasonable. Laugh and cheers rang from us throughout the games. We really have our memorable anniversary In Gili.

The happiness will become more genuine when we can share it with others, especially those who are in economically cannot afford such a thing. That’s why on our return trip, we bought basic foods like rice, cooking oil and sugar. There is also stationery and toy for children in that village. Once again, as our promise, we visit Nawakerti Village. It is indeed our previous project has been ended there but we will always remember this village and every time our path crossed, we will take our time in this village again. It was on our anniversary that we decided to share our happiness with them.

We asked Pak Sujana, the elderly there, to help us leads our way to some families and deliver the stuff we bought. We visit quite lot of families there. The first one is I Nengah Gedug from Banjar Bau Kawan then followed by couples with two children, Nyoman Daging from Banjar Bau Kaler. They have small children of four and three years old thus, aside from give them the basic foods aid we also give toys for their children.

Made Kamar is the third family we visit. He has such large family with six children. We meet her daughter named Ni Luh Picek who is on his fourth year in Elementary School we also meet his father, Nengah Bait. The next family is belong to Wayan Tokal and followed by family of Wayan Poglo, although we cannot say this kind of thing to pak Poglo since he lives alone in his house. With no wife and his children work in the city, he has no one to take care of him.

Aside from giving them package contains basic foods need and soap, toys and stationery for the children, each family also been give some amount of money. It’s not a big number of money but we believe it can help them in some ways, for people who struggle each single day so they can eat every day. Just saw their smile and sincere gratitude is everything we need as it brought warmth into our heart. Hope in the future we can help more people and even we bid our goodbye to Nawakerti, as always, every time our path cross, we will visit this village and will never forget about them.

On our way home from Nawakerti, there are some package remain, we give them to any people on the road and for the toys, to the many children who take toys from us merrily. We are satisfied and happy that in some ways, we can give something to other and giving is the best way to express happiness. It is Private Leisure International’s holiday and help.

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Today we have a client – who rented a villa accommodation through us about 5 years ago – returning to Bali. Her birthday happened to fall during her trip, and she and 7 others in her Aussie / NZ family decided to celebrate it by visiting an orphanage. We escorted them to an orphanage named Tat Twam Asi at Renon, downtown Denpasar.

Unfortunately as all school in Bali are having school holiday, many of the children are visiting their home village. On our visit, only 9 out of 43 children are there. As an orphanage, Tat Twam Asi is well organized and is getting regular funding from the government, however it is not sufficient to cover all their expense and therefore donation remains essential. One of the children speaks quite good English so she could escort the group nicely.

Herewith we would like to express our sincere appreciation to Michelle for her amazing idea to celebrate her birthday happiness with the poor and wishing her all the best in her both personal and professional life.

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No matter how much we can give, it will not be able to take them out from poverty unless their younger generation gets sufficient education so they can chase a brighter future for themselves as well as take their family out of proverty. Education is the only way to break the loop.

Without our help, most probably they will not be able to give even basic education for their children. The eldest one, the left-end in the picture above, has left his 5th grade of elementary school for financial reason. Whilst the government allowed waived their tuition fee, to keep their children at school there are a lot more things they need but can not afford to buy.

We do hope that once we managed to give them a better housing, the children will get a better environment allowing them to study at home, but to send them to school and keep them in needs a lot more. Join us to break their poverty loop.

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The second party we visited on June 6th 2010 was a compound where three generations live. The oldest generation was Pak Gejer and his wife, the second generation was their son, Pak Mare and his wife, and the youngest generation was Pak Mare’s three children. Whilst pure smile remained in their face almost as long as we were there, their eyes failed to hide their grief.

Above is the picture of Pak Gejer, his wife and one of their grandsons. Use your eyes to see the smile on their face. Use your heart to see the opposite feeling hidden deep inside their eyes.

Their compound consists of three buildings. The first one is a kind of storage where they put all of their equipments as they work as farming labourers. The second building has one room where the old Pak Gejer and his wife sleep and cook. Above is the building where the old couple live. Inside is a very small room with two different functions, beds on the right hand side, and wooden fired kitchen on the left hand side. Nothing is there to separate the two.

The last building as framed above is where the whole family of Pak Mare, his wife, and their three children live in two tiny rooms, approximately 1.5 by 1.5 meters each.Just like the other building where Pak Gejer and his wife live, the wall is loosely threaded bamboo. You can see through quite clearly, so just imagine how it protects them, especially the young ones, from the cold wind at night. Above is the family in front of their house, and the interior of each bedroom.

Our program is to give them a better housing.

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Escorted by Pak Sujana, the village head, the first person we meet in our visit on June 6th 2010 was this lonely old man, Pak Berag. He lives alone in a humble hut where he spent his nights in  the darkness and loneliness. The first time we got there we thought it was just a hut for the farmers to watch their farming land in the daylight. It was a shock when Pak Sujana told us that it was actually the old man’s residence.

Above is the portrait of Pak Berag. It was hard to believe how his old fragile body could stand the chill of the hillside nights, especially when the rain falls. What would happen if he falls ill?

Above on the left hand side is all he has in his kitchen. And on the right hand side is Pak Berag in front of his bedroom where he spent his nights alone. No walls protecting him from the wind and mosquito, the roof made of leafs was full of holes, and look at his bed and the way he put his few clothes on the ceiling.

We are not in position to give him a company of course. But at least what we aim to do is to give him a better shelter. Nothing fancy, but at least strong enough to protect him from the wind at night and from the water when the rain falls.

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