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notes from the field
Asian Aid
a i a s i e s e n n o o d d n n I I landscapes
May 2013 // Issue 3
Stories, Photos, and Design by Joshua Moses - Field Media Coordinator Š 2013 Asian Aid Australia.
S PLU
A learners guide to tax deductibility
and faces
12 pg 11 &
2013 | issue 3
So I need to take you away from India, only momentarily, to digress to the end of 2012. In November, en route back to Australia, I (Joshua Moses, Field Media Coordinator for Asian Aid) stopped over in Indonesia to visit the Health, Education and Lifestyle Program (HELP). HELP is an Asian Aid funded communitydevelopment initiative. As we landed, I could see turquoise water, beautiful bays and beaches, and green everywhere. This was a welcoming contrast to the dusty pollution in big Indian cities. Indonesia lays claim to nearly 18,000 islands and, because of the vast spread of people along the coast, the economic boom Indonesia has experienced recently remains in the bounds of tourist areas and/or large cities. According to World Bank statistics 12 percent of Indonesia’s
population live at or under the poverty line. It may not seem like much, but amongst their swollen population of 242.3 million people, that equates to over 29 million impoverished people. HELP is a project based in Lombok, one of the poorer Indonesian islands. Though impoverished, Lombok’s natural beauty is slowly giving rise to a booming tourism industry. People living in Lombok are hospitable, friendly, and all-smiling.
H H
Then there’s the landscape, but I’ll get to that later.
The HELP project helps locals learn English, understand sound diet principles and educate against smoking, and in this process creates
HELP - bringing education to rural
and
impoverished
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Digress to Indonesia
t t c c e e j j o o r r P P P P L L E E H H
community ties. The increase in demand for English-speaking employees, due to tourism, creates opportunities for many to have an income. Whereas in the past agriculture was the nation’s largest ‘employer’, now the service industry is seen as the easier avenue for employment. Smoking, encouraged through advertising, is a problem for over one third of the nation, including the young. Diet is also changing now that processed foods are increasingly available and affordable. Many, who have left farming for work in the cities, negotiate the pace of the city life with quick take-away meals.
2013 | issue 3
h c a e B a t u K
Just a tad beautiful
HELP is delivered through schools that often lack the resources to effectively cover the regular curriculum, let alone teach English. Rural schools, such as the one pictured on the previous page, often struggle to survive due to lack of funds and/or damage from storms. Yet, take a trip to the beach or to the green hillsides, and you will experience a postcard-like scenery. Even in hot and humid weather, the crystal clear water and the cool ocean breeze make you, momentarily forget the cares and struggles most Indonesians face daily. With new international airports hosting thousands of
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travellers from all over the world, and the boom of domestic air travel, Indonesians are no strangers to tourists. The technology and infrastructure continue to improve much faster than many rural citizens can keep pace with or afford. This is what inspires locals to pursue learning English. If they know English they can enter land agreements with foreigners who can’t purchase land without a local to co-sign the agreement; , they can do business with foreigners ensuring larger and more consistent income streams; and they can transform villages and even large cities like Jakarta
into places of employment, while still maintaining their culture and lifestyle. Lombok Island differs from other well-known tourist spots, like Bali, in that it is much more peaceful and unpopulated. The beachfront restaurants are few and ‘Western’ amenities aren’t as abundant. Travelling here – for now anyways – is much more culturally raw than other tourist destinations.
2013 | issue 3
My quick three-day trip was quite a tease. I felt quite at home staying with a local family and sharing their living space. I was tempted to give my flight a miss and stay a little longer thanks to their hospitality and willingness to get to know me. This is exactly what attracts the volunteers who deliver the HELP.. Most are young volunteers from either the U.S. or Australia with a keen desire to go a bit off the grid. Many volunteer teachers, like Tara and Julia whom I met while I was visiting, come to Indonesia to serve others and to enjoy a different culture, lifestyle and country, including the fantastic surfing opportunities that Lombok offers inseason. Many Indonesians have to plan their year based on the weather, though most of the year the temperature doesn’t change, hovering around 250-300 celsius. Indonesia has two distinctive seasons - a wet and a dry season. In many of the islands, rain provides plenty of water, but in the low coastal plains of islands like Lombok, surprisingly, there is water scarcity. Recently the island has began construction on a dam that aims to irrigate over 10,000 hectares, but until the dam is ready, locals must rely on the rainfall they get, or don’t. I was surprised to learn this; I’m so used to associating humid and tropical environments to consistent rainfall, like the Philippines or Papua New Guinea. While Bruce, the volunteers, and I were visiting projects, the locals were busy preparing the soil adjacent to their houses. I had come at the tail-end of the dry season when people were hopeful for what was to
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come. In fact this photograph, on the right, was taken just before I left for the airport, and as I waited for my flight, it began raining heavily. It was a happy moment for them. It’s so interesting to watch a community operate as one body; one family. The village of Rambiran showed me in three quick days, just how unified a little claim to earth can be. Everyone had a task and when that task was completed, they all socialised, ate, talked and laughed together. No nine-to-five days - just simply living. After a year of having curry and rice, I was surprised to find that Indonesian food, though unique, resembles Indian food and the tastes of the Orient. A stroll through any village in the evening fills your senses with the amazing aromas of seafood. I’ll be back Rambiran.
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n a r i b m a R
the village 2013 | issue 3
faces Indonesia Population: nearly 240 Million, 4th most populous in the world
Letter from a teacher at one of the Lombok schools Population Density: 84th most densely populated - where HELP is delivered. 125 people/sq km 323 people/sq mile “This letter is to establish that the English learning 58% of Indonesias live on the island of Java course that is administered by HELP and sponsored through Asian Aid has achieved a high level of success in the government exams for English learning. The HDI (Human Development Index): ranked #121 (2013) school has finished with equal results as the top school (for reference: Indonesia is tied with South Africa and in Mataram, Lombok Island. considered in the Medium level of Human Development. To put this in perspective, we are talking about a less fortunate school where teachers are volunteers and GDP: $1.21 Trillion (15th in the world) children pay no school fees.
•
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Religion: in 2010 87% were Muslim • 7% Protestant • 3% Catholic • 3% other
Compared to the number one school in the capital city of Lombok where teachers are on a good salary and students pay tuition of 1,000,000 Rupiah (equivalent to $100AUD) per month to attend. We appreciate and greatly respect the work that you do with us here.”
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s Photo Left: Tara, one of the more recent volunteers from the United States, runs a geography tutorial for the children. She’s being assisted by Bruce, who serves as the main liaison for the schools and the HELP project. Photo Inside Left: Very few of the schools have access to good resources. In this particular school the dividers between classrooms are made from bamboo and do little to keep the sound from travelling from one classroom to the other. Nevertheless, the students are happy to have a school to attend, as many on the island of Lombok don’t have access to an education. Lombok Photo Inside Right: Total Island Population: 3 Million Badminton is one of the most popular sports in Indonesia. They have played and won gold in the Olympics for Largest City: Mataram - 402,000 people badminton every year since 1992. Other sports they enjoy are football and Pencak Silat, an ancient martial Total Island Area: 4725 sq/km’s | 1,825 sq/mi art. Highest Point: Mount Rinjani, an active volcano Photo Right: creating the peak of the island at This particular school really suffered from a lack of 3,726 meters, or 12,224 ft. infrastructure. The walls are paper-thin, as shown by the light that is filtering through the walls. And though Island Challenges: Access to water and education it was pleasant on the breezy day we visited, it would be a nightmare when it’s raining and windy. They are in the process of constructing a new building, but have run out of funds.
2013 | issue 3
e c u Br
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“
locals ask me all the time if I’m from Japan...I tell them NO! I’m from here!!
HELP volunteers speak highly of Bruce, the main local contact that assists in running the day-to-day operations of school visitations and liaison with community members and groups. Bruce grew up in Manado, north of Sulawesi, a group of islands in the northern section of Indonesia. Finishing high school in Indonesia, he wanted to go overseas so he headed to the U.S. where he completed two degrees - Bachelor of Business Administration and a degree in Nuclear Medical Technology. He based himself in Seattle, and worked in a hospital there until he joined ADRA and headed back to Indonesia to work on a project.
”
English skills, while helping people in rural and remote areas enjoy better quality of life and longer lifespans. Bruce says his father challenged him, from a young age, to always keep a passage from the Bible in his heart and never forget it: “…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23. Having met Bruce, I have no doubt that these ‘fruits’ are reflected in his character. Though he may not look like a local, fooling even Indonesians, he has a deep-rooted passion to see those who suffer begin to transform their lives for the better.
Being back gave him the desire to reach out to his heritage communities and to work with the youth in remote areas to give them the hope of a tangible future and the means to reach their goal. He now knows that it’s not just an education that children need to succeed in life, so he has become passionate about equipping children and youth with sound diet and lifestyle advice as well. His inter-cultural skills, learnt from working in the U.S., gave him the keen ability to manage, relate and communicate effectively with the volunteers from overseas. He has been working for HELP for just over a year and is optimistic about the future of the program. “We are now ready to expand our work by printing books about health and smoking awareness. We are also spreading our reach by helping a specific community in Jakarta by providing clean drinking water. We have doctors coming over to work with rural tribes to provide education on health as well,” he says. Bruce wants to see HELP continue to provide locals with
2013 | issue 3
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2013 | issue 3
Wealthy men can’t live on an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance. - Aryton Senna
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