Proyek Kampung Loco

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Newsletter March 2013

It is hard for me to start this newsletter. Did I write in November, that we had to say goodbye to a dear friend. Just 5 months later and after 2 months Indonesia, we are back in the Netherlands on the 11th of February to say goodbye to another dear friend, our beloved May. Lucky for us we still had 3 wonderful days to see and talk to her, before she closed her eyes for ever on the 13th. A person, who meant a lot to us and in our harts she will live forever.

Sometimes you have to accept things in live, if you like it or not and then you try to pick up the things again, so here is the latest information about the project.

First you will find the report of our meeting with the men of the project in Kampung Loco:

Short introduction for the readers:
We heard and noticed that not all the people of the kampung got the same allowance and not everybody got into the project. The four men who arranged everything are also common people like us en sometimes they have bad feelings with other people. There is a lot of gossip and some parents can be rather arrogant. Just like everybody, they have an opinion about there fellow people. But still we think that you have to forget about you own feelings and you have to help every child and family. Who are we to judge other people. But it is not always easy, that is why I started the meeting with below story and we had to come back in line, all six of us: back to the basic of this project.

Present: Adi, Eful, Cuk, Boung, Joep and Marijke

Before we start I do have to say something. I notice that the men are critical about who they allow into the project, because some people who live her, are not really involved with the kampong. Joep and I cannot agree with this feelings. We tell that we think that everybody who lives in the kampong for more then one year should join the project. We think that we are not allowed to judge who are good or bad members of the village. Every child should have the same change. This is what we agreed when we started the project. Of course sometimes we have to put somebody out of the project. Kids who don’t go to school for more then 3 months, people who cheating with receipts, etc. We have seen it all, but still we want to help everybody if possible. Lucky for us they understand what we feel and our project continues.

For the university children we have learned again. The children say they want to go to the university and because we collect information at the front (February), we ask the sponsor already to pay. But when the children get the possibility to start a job, the motivation for university is gone. Actually we understand it, because there goal is to find a job and if you have one, why bother going to university. From now on we decide to ask the support from the sponsor only if they really have done the test and start with university. The sponsors of these children get the information personal of course.

Also we are going to find out, which children need extra support, because they have the possibility for a very good education, because they are super smart. Tonight we find out that when a child is at the best five of school during there Junior High school period, they get a special support from the government and they get an invitation for very good schools. So we are going to keep an extra eye on those children. Also we want to try to give the children from parents, who cannot read or write, extra support. We are trying to find out more about school systems in Indonesia, because they are very complex. If you have the money, there is no problem, but for people with a small income, you really have to puzzle which school is payable and also has a good reputation.

Next point is the bemo. Cuk is still driving the children to school every morning, because our First bemo driver has a job now. But Cuk also has his own store and doing the administration. This all for free. So we are going to find a new driver for the bemo. We already know he will have a hard time to collect his money. We are going to try to get support form a Dutch organisation to keep the bemo running. The bemo is very important for transport for the children but also for transport to doctor and hospital. Already many times he was of good help. If we get support we have some more time to find a way to make the bemo make his own money.

Then we talk about the medicine. Again we make sure that the support is for everybody in the kampung. Not everybody is in the project (for instance people without children and older people). Yet we make an exception here. Students who stay in the kampung for only 3 months as a trainee. They can get free medication but for a doctor they have to pay themselves. Off course if they need the bemo, they will get transport. Until now we had a limit of 500.000 rph every time somebody had to go to a doctor or hospital. Now we decide that, when ever somebody has to go to hospital, they get a support of 1 million. It sounds like a lot, but it is only € 80,- and can make the difference between going or not going to hospital.

From a sponsor we got the question to give 10 bags of 10 kilo of rice to the poorest people of the village. Now this is something for Boung. Without hesitation he mentions the names of the families. Most of them are old people or widows with children, who cannot work and are living by what they get from others. We are going to take care of this. Adi has to work for it, on special request.  

The pot for maintenance of the kampung with also the payment for the water tank is still oké and supported by some sponsors. No problems here.

We end the meeting by thanking the men for their great support and we extra mention Cuk by name, because he is spending a lot of time with the administration and transport of the children, knowing he is doing this all for free.


A few days after the meeting Cuk decides to do even more and all by himself he starts the garbage project. He goes to the Kepala Desa (head of 6 villages including Kampung Loco) and gets the promise for 2 garbage cans (he asked 5). Also he gets permission to put the garbage in containers near Pasar Sini. In consultation with the rest of our team, he buys with project money 3 more cans and bags. What then happens is beautiful. Together with the children Cuk starts to clean the kampong and a miracle happens. The older people start cleaning also. Slowly but sure the garbage project is starting and Loco is becoming a clean village. GREAT WORK CUK!!!
Just this week we got a message from friends who are staying there, that the kampung is still clean!!!

During our stay we also get some beautiful donations, mentioning Heinz and Gerda from Germany and Arie and Wolke Troost from the Netherlands. These last mentioned people just visiting the kampong by surprise and spontaneous they give a donation. This feels great.

During our stay we also see a message coming from Wim Brinkers from Groningen. First het helped us getting support for 2 children out of our project, who lost their sponsors because of circumstances, by Golf Amigo’s. Now the story goes on, look at www.golfamigos.nl, under the header Proyek Kampung Loco. They are really going to support us. We are so grateful with this support. Until now we never met Wim, but he knows Lombok very well and he understands that help is a big issue over there. Terima kasih Wim and hopefully we will meet some day.

On 15th of January 2013 we had the bad luck that we were hacked. Our mail is gone and also facebook is out of use. Because of that we lost all our mail adresses. So please send you mail adres again to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (*including you private address please, see later mentioned)
This is our new mail address. Our facebook for the project is still there but personally you can find us now at: Marijke Joep.

Because we had to leave 2 months before planning, we couldn’t get also the information we promised. Please forgive us and next year we will do our very best to complete everything. Also we didn’t yet finished making all pictures, but our dear friends Nick and Elise finished everything. Dear, dear friends, thank you for this.

After having our information complete, you can see the results below:

New students:
10 elementry school
2 junior high school

Stopped:
1 own choice.
4 stopped after elementry school. (These are Hindu children of the hill. They don’t want more education.)
6 finished university (were 2 ladies had a baby and so wait for apply and 1 lady wants to go on with her study. We are waiting to find out the costs and then we will see what we can do)
3 stopped befor university because they found a job.
1 moved.

This bring the total to:

38 children elementry school
22 children junior high school
23 children high school
7 children university

From April, all sponsors get the new pictures and the info they need. We hope that we still can reach everybody and find all the addresses. *We are going to ask you all for you private address, because only a  mail address is a big risk.

Winter is coming to an end (we hope) and spring is coming. Live goes on, how hard it feels sometimes. We will stay optimistic and go on fighting for our project.
I quote here the words of the Dalai Lama:

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito…………….

 

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