HFF Last Newsletter

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From all the HFF team

In 2004 I had a vision to provide a gift of education to the young, disadvantaged, people of Bali. With passion, and building a great team of supporters, my vision has more than surpassed any expectations that I initially had. The Helen Flavel Foundation has sponsored more than 620 children in Northern Bali and the Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel Foundation in Bali (to be known by their registration name of Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel as of the 3^rd January 2012) and the Sukma Helen Flavel Learning Centre continues to flourish under the highly effective management team, headed by Nyoman Sukadana, Professor Dr Ni Nyoman Padmadewi (Dewi) and Putu “John” Widiarta.

In September 2010 we commenced our 12 month Tourism and Home Assistant Program (THAP) offering the students who had completed year 12, and who came from very poor families where they struggle just to survive, an opportunity for a higher education and to learn skills that enabled them to gain employment. In September this year, 11 of the original 13 students graduated from the Sukma Helen Flavel Learning Centre.

The THAP graduates have found employment, and the feedback from employers has been extremely positive. The THAP has been highly respected within the community and our graduates are sought after by the travel and hospitality industry. Our second intake of 20 students commenced their 12 month course in July this year and the aim is to increase the intake number of students each year.

With my hopes and dreams being fulfilled, and due to changes within my personal life, it has become obvious to me that I need to make some management changes. With this in mind, and with the support of the HFF Committee, it has been decided that the full control of our humanitarian work will be handed over to the Management Team of Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel (PSHF) Bali on the 3^rd January 2012 and Helen Flavel Foundation Inc., the Australian entity, will be wound up.

Some may notice that this is my second attempt at retiring. In November last year, Jennie and Dennis Pleace were “learning the ropes” to take over the HFF as of 1^st July 2011. Unfortunately due to health issues they had to step down and hand the work they were doing back to me. I took this as a sign that I should keep running the HFF, but due to changes in my life I knew that transferring the entire foundation to the Bali Team was the only option.

This decision has been a very difficult one for me to make, but I believe it is a positive step forward into the future to ensure the longevity commitment to assisting the poorest of the poor Balinese People. I will stay and mentor to the PSHF team for three months until the 3^rd April 2012 and return in late May to do any further training the PSHF team feel is needed. After that Ron and I intend to enjoy our retirement.

Both the HFF and PSHF are totally focused on a smooth transition in the hand-over, and the change in how you continue to support and sponsor your child should only be the obvious change of name from "Helen Flavel Foundation Inc." to "Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel" and the way your fees are paid for the first few months.

It gives me great pleasure to report that the Foundation is leaving the team in Bali the following:

The beautiful Sukma Helen Flavel Functions Centre which is on six Are of land, including a sports ground surround by a tropical garden; the two story Sukma Helen Flavel Learning Centre which is on two Are of Land. Both buildings have excellent furniture fixtures and fittings.

Two cars which were new when purchased

A second hand truck to transport bedding and furniture deliveries

Numerous motorbikes

More importantly I am pleased to know that when I hand over the reins in January everything is freehold and the Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel Bank Account is extremely healthy.

I will travel to Bali on the 2^nd January to hand over and train the Administrative team of Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel concerning the finer details regarding our sponsorship fund. The Foundation’s Deputy Director, Deborah Kaye, and her daughter Lucy are accompanying me through this part of our journey and together we will document, photograph and report back to you this exciting new beginning.

I hope and trust that you will continue to support Peduli Sesame Helen Flavel and sponsor your child through their school life. Although I am stepping down I will always be a feel part of Bali and will continue to strive for a better way of life for their people, who are our extended families.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have helped and supported me behind the scenes. Without their never ending support I could not have run Helen Flavel Foundation Inc. I have so many people to thank that if I started to list them, the list would go into many pages. To every sponsor and supporter, please accept my gratitude for your kindness toward your sponsored child and the HFF.

Contact information as of the 3^rd January 2012 will be as follows

Nyoman Sukadana MBA, Director, Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel, phone 0812 380 7620

sukadana@pedulisesamahelenflavel.org

Dr Ni Nyoman Padmadewi M.A, (Dewi) Director, Sukma Helen Flavel Learning Centre

Phone 0812 396 0864

dewi@pedulisesamahelenflavel.org

John Putu Widiarta Deputy Director, Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel, phone 0852 3785 1110

johnwidiarta@pedulisesamahelenflavel.org

Address

Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel.

Jl Srikandi Gang Mawar No 10

Sambangan Singaraja.

Phone number 0362 25893

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Transport and Hotel bookings

As you know, I have made the transport and hotel bookings for our sponsors. With the extra work the Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel team are about to undertake, they will find it easier if you would personally arrange your driver/s and hotel bookings. The contact details for Putu Tour Service and Sunari Villas and Spa Resort are listed below.

Putu Tour Service

Putu and his father Ketut are profession drivers and I can’t speak highly enough about them. They tick all the boxes and their transport costs are very reasonable.

Please contact him at Putu Tour Service aribawa_51@yahoo.com or phone / sms him whilst in Bali on 0815 5562 1368, or from overseas +62 0815 5562 1368.

Sunari Villas & Spa Resort Jl. Raya Lovina, Lovina Beach, Lovina Bali,

Sunari Villas and Spa Resort have always supported our work by given our sponsors and supporters a discounted rate to stay in their Superior or Villa rooms. Their attention to detail to ensure your comfort is outstanding

Prapta prapta@sunari.com or phone +61 812 3930 402

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GRADUATION DAY FOR OUR TOURISM AND HOME ASSISTANT PROGRAM 2011

Sukma Helen Flavel Learning Centre Graduates, teachers and staff

We are delighted to say that our pilot Tourism course has been a great success. This course was started to give the disadvantaged students who had completed 12 and found it very difficult to find employment, the opportunity to study. Our aim was to help them of find employment in the hospitality sector or in a privately owned villa. All 11 of the students who completed this course have found hotel positions and are doing extremely well. The feedback from their employers has been positive and they feel our students have received excellent training and their English language skills surpass many other applicants.

The Filo Award for Excellence

The Filo Award for Excellence recipients

Left to right. 1st place Made Ari Wiarta, 3rd place Komang Mertini, 2nd place Made Budi Artawan

This award, is in the memory of ‘Filo’ (Bill Fitch), who died in March 2009. Claire Lowe, Bill’s partner for over 32 years, has established this award as a way for his work and passion for Bali and the Balinese to live on. Made Ari, Komang Mertini and Made Budi Artawan received their Filo Award. Both Made’s have found work in a five star hotel in Nusa Dua and Mertini has secured a hotel position in Lovina.

Filo worked tirelessly to raise funds to help many of the neediest people in Bali. Along with Claire, they held many ‘garage sales’ to fund improvements in the living conditions of two orphanages and five families. He gave the children and families a brighter life and hope for their future by providing food, clothing, toys, computers, schooling and medical fees.

Their kindness didn’t stop with helping the children. The adults were never forgotten. Bill managed to take wheelchairs, walking frames and spectacles to Bali to help those needing assistance. With the support of her friends in Bali and Australia, Claire continues their humanitarian work. Bill was a wonderful writer, producing colourful stories for people to read on his website, which also includes detailed information on everything you need to know about holidaying in Bali. As Bill would say at every opportunity, ‘Om swasti astu’. http://www.filosbali.net/

Thanks “Filo” you will always be remembered. Adelaide South Australia

Libby and Chris Showell

We would all like to say thank you to Libby and Chris Showell from Tasmania, Australia, for arranging their time to attend the THAP student's graduation. They have become very close to all the students during their visit to the foundation earlier in the year. They generously paid for two month accommodation for the top three graduates, Made Ari Wiarta, Made Budi Artawan and Komang Mertini. Their kindess has meant that the three students found themselves in a far better finacial position as of their first day at work. _____________________________________________________________________________

A SPECIAL DAY OUT THAT OUR BOARDERS WILL NEVER FORGET

A friend told her daughter Astrid about the work that we do in North Bali. Astrid phoned me and explained that she was looking forward to a relaxing holiday in Bali with her friends and family. She went on to invite me into her workplace to say a few words to her colleagues as they wanted to help some needy children whilst in Bali.

Within minutes of my very short explanation of our work, the staff decided to “pass the hat around”. Their enthusiasm was contagious, everyone wanted to open their purse/wallet and give on the spot. I walked out of their building feeling like I had been given a massive adrenalin shot of happiness. Astrid told me that within a few hours the staff had organized drop off spots for clothing and donations, and over the next two weeks they raised $2,000 to take 33 of our student boarders on a shopping spree.

This is Asrid’s story from Adelaide South Australia

Nothing in our everyday life here in Adelaide, could have truly prepared us for the beautiful and humbling experience we were about to have.....

On the 14^th November, 2011, the “Astrid clan” left Seminyak, chauffeured in two cars by Putu and his father Kadek from Putu Tour Service, and driven to Singaraja (north of Bali). We arrived at the Learning Centre at 2.15 pm, in what seemed like the hottest, most humid, day we had so far encountered.

Due to unforeseen circumstances we had arrived two hours later than the scheduled time, so we very quickly had to round up 33 of the boarders to make the markets. Piling the boys into the back of a truck, arms & legs in, standing room only, and the girls into a couple of cars, we took off on our shopping expedition.

With money divided up, kids sorted into groups and team leaders appointed, we proceeded to buy each child personal items, clothing and shoes, of which many had never dreamed of owning before!! To see the faces on these beautiful, sincerely genuine, grateful kids, at being able to make their first purchase of a lifetime is truly.........(words cannot begin to describe)

To try and teach children the simple process of shopping (which to us is a god given right), when this is something they had never participated in, was to say the least a very humbling experience. What started as quite a formal process became pandemonium, with 33 very excited children, running from market stall to stall, selecting their individual purchases.

With markets closing, we went and got all the children magnum ice creams, (again, a first for some), and with smiles on their faces, wide enough to fit a banana sideways, and lots of hugs and laughter, we headed back to the Learning Centre for dinner, to be rewarded by some amazing and talented performances by the children. (singing, dancing etc)

This experience has been life changing for all that participated, put things into perspective and highlighted what in our lives we take for granted. It has reinforced the importance of the simple things in life, which in our busy lives we overlook, and how much of a difference we can make to someone else’s life if we just make a little effort.

Thanks Helen for the opportunity to spend some time with these truly amazing human beings!!

Libby and Chris Showell from Hobart Tasmania Australia

We had a two week holiday in Bali organized for June 2011, and planned to spend that time based at the Sunari Resort in Lovina, close to the Learning Centre. Apart from visiting our two sponsored families during our stay, we had no other plans for our time - until we realized that our stay would coincide with the end of the Balinese school year, and it was the perfect timing for painting the Learning Centre in order to spruce it up in readiness for the new school year in July! So....we packed our bags with not only clothes for the villages in the north of Bali, but also our own painting clothes!

The staff in Singaraja had organized a Balinese painter, a remarkably efficient woman called Nengah, to work on painting both the Function Centre and the Learning Centre until both buildings were finished. So we worked alongside her, following her instructions via anyone around who could interpret, or by sign language, with a lot of laughs along the way. She worked on a home-made bamboo scaffold, and almost had a nervous breakdown when Chris went to climb it, and quickly realized that it wasn't going to hold his "much larger than a Balinese" weight! So off we went to Singaraja with John to buy an aluminum ladder. A much safer option, and greeted with delight by everyone.

We were surrounded by an entourage of boarders for the first few days, all keen to sand and wash walls, learn some painting skills, and generally help wherever possible. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and they all seemed to be so genuinely keen to make their "home" as smart as possible. As the school holidays started, many went home until we were left with four young boarders; Ngurah, the Dewa twins and Made. What fantastic workers and delightful young men, who deserve recognition for their efforts - especially when they could have been at home with their families instead!

The paint itself is very different from what we are used to in Australia. I guess we'd call it ceiling paint - flat, chalky and certainly not stain resistant, hence the speed with which Balinese painting jobs can become grubby and quite shabby-looking. Oh how we wished for some decent washable satin paint as we worked away, fully understanding that it would be necessary to repeat this job every few years. And what a big job too!

What a great time we had! Don't get it wrong - we didn't spend every day working - but enough to really see where we had been. Unfortunately our time in Bali came to an end before the job was completed, but we were confident that it would all look new and smart when we returned again in September - and it was. It was the most rewarding "holiday" we could ever have wished for. We became friends with the staff in Singaraja, we were fed with delicious (real Balinese food) lunches, and were looked after so well. And we came away with a real sense that we had done something of a practical nature.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas and New Year Year. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and your compassion, together we have made the world of difference in the lives of so many Balinese people.

Helen and the HFF AND PSHF Team

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Foundation News

Bali Animal Welfare Association Could you help the Bali Animal Welfare Association to raisethe funds needed to buy a much need Animal Ambulance We rely on the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) in Ubud for their assistance whenwe find a sick or injured animal in need of medical care. They, like us, are a Not for Profitcharity and rely on the kindness and support of others, to carry out their compassionate work. BAWA desperately needs to buy another ambulance to c... Read More

Function Centre Dedication This past Friday, March 12, the recently finished and brand new Function Center of Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel was dedicated in a Balinese Melaspas ceremony. Located just a short walk from the Learning Center, along some beautiful rice fields, this extraordinary new complex will, as its name suggest, provide a base for a myriad of important functions as well as a new kitchen and dining, laundry, and recreation area for the students and boarders. This new and very beautiful complex was only made... Read More