Bali Orphanages - Jan 2010

The start of my trip was a little unexpected detour for one week in Bali.
Rather than laze around the resort pool all day I decided to kick off my tour with what I love most - little kids! A visit to two orphanages that are based in Denpasar in Bali - Jodie O'Shea orphanage inconjunction with Bali Volunteer House and Seeds of Hope Children's Home provided me with a lot of little smiles and hope for the next generation of Balinese children.

I found over the last few days when you mention that you have visited an orphanage everyone seems to have pictures of doom and gloom. And yes I can understand that as it is sad that each one of these little one's cannot be with their families - but when you are there you realise these children are bonding with each other and are happy and grateful with their opportunity to be there.

Let me clear one thing up that I didnt realise prior to my visit to Cambodian orphanages in 2009 - they may have the name "orphanage" but it dosent actually mean that these children have no parents or family - 90% of these orphanages that the general public can visit are children who perhaps have at least 1 living parent, grandparent, aunt etc. It's just that their living situation at home is so poor that they would not have the luxury of an education, their own bed, 3 meals or the access to learning a second language like English. Orphanages such as these two in Denpasar take these children out of poor living conditions and give their future hope and a chance for survival rather than ending up in the child trafficking raquets, prostitution, no education and extreme poverty.

Formerly government run - Seeds of Hope Children's Home has just over 60 children whose parents can no longer afford to support their child so give them up in hope of a better future for their child. The idea of the program is that the children will study under the care and guidance of the home and return to their family with an education and a much better opportunity to help support their family. Upon arriving at this orphanage (which was very hard for my driver to find so be warned its best you have your driver speak to someone and keep their number with you for the drive) - I was greeted by half the children playing Waltzing Matilda on the Xylophone and some other bamboo wind instruments. Some of the other older girls were busy distributing water to the visitors like myself who had dropped in for the day from places such as France, Australian and England.

After their performance the children curiously came to mingle with their guests and I was lead around by two of the girls who wanted to show me the schools two pet monkies, their swings and play some basketball. A couple of ladies from the UK were volunteering for two weeks at the orphanage and said that they had found it very hard to volunteer anywhere in Bali - I'm guessing they found a lot of programs where you are expected to pay as volunteers - that's a whole new discussion and I will chat about that when I start my paid program in India.

Some of the children helped the staff prepare the hot coal fire for dinner which was to be fresh fish from the market that day. Some of the children told me they like to help prepare food and cook things like rice - which lead me to think there is a need/opportunity for cooking school just like good old home economics so that they children can leave when they are older know how to prepare basic meals according to their cultures traditions (actually why arent we all taught this back in Australia - I know men who cant boil an egg! :)


Next stop was at the Jodie O'Shea / Bali Volunteer House (BVH) orphanage - through BVH anyone around the world can come to Denpasar and stay in their purpose built accomodation providing that you have a loving personality and can prepare a program for the children to participate in each afternoon once they finish school 4-5pm for the juniors and 5-6pm for the 12yrs + teenagers.

As I already had accomodation it was agreed that I would drop in one afternoon and teach the juniors a one hour interactive world dance program, followed by hip hop to some current top 40 tunes for the 12yrs+. On this particular day the seniors where busy with their studies, so I focused on the younger children. Bonnie who run's BVH was a lovely ball of energy for the children to look up to and trust when it came to having a dance lesson with the new stranger - me.

A mixture of boys and girls between the ages of 4-14 years spent their afternoon learning the basic moves of Bhangra Bollywood, Bellydance, Salsa and Samba. The interesting observation that apart from learning dance and hearing music from different parts of the world - my English instructions was also a chance for the children to learn new words for the different moves and body parts. In particular the older boys thought is hilarious to mimick my instructions as they attempted to get their tounges around some of these difficult English words.

I must admit that at first I was a little worried as always that I just might not be able to break the ice with the children, but I think they could sense my silliness so I gained their trust and together we burnt the dance floor. All of the children dropped their walls and became beautiful smiling, giggling, happy children working together to work out how to do these new dance steps - salsa in partners worked a treat - although I havent quiet worked out how to crack the international childrens code of "boys/girls germs". Along the way I picked up a couple of new words in Indonesian for Right and Left (OK I admit I've forgotten already!).

In what was the hottest hour dancing on the grass outside with the help of my i pod blarring music from its speakers - I felt as 1 person I could make a difference to these children's lives.

I think this is something I have heard too many times as the "bleedy heart" that I am - people saying why bother and that they have come to the conclusion they cant make a difference - how wrong they are. I could list numerous books of women who for one reason or another their life path has taken them abroad just to give back and in the end they have started schools, hospitals, training centres, orphanages, women's shelters, income generation programs - all this created by the efforts of ONE. It should be compulsary that for the life you are given you must also give life to another - now I know some will argue that is why we pro-create but I am talking about giving life, love, knowledge and power to those who are in a worse of situation that you.

Well I hope someone's reading this realising you can make a difference and getting off your but to do so. If you are coming to Bali for a holiday why not take the entire family out to either of these orphanages - it will be a life lesson for your children and a reality check for all to be grateful for all that you have and those around you.