No more Sjaki

Since this week I don’t do volunteer work anymore at Sjaki. Already since November I was thinking about not working until the end like the original plan was. I decided to finish the things I had promised to do and what I had started and then stop. The 2 hours on the road 3 times a week to get there and back are very exhausting It’s always busy in traffic here on Bali and there is just unbelievably much pollution when you are on the road on a scooter. My skin is black when I arrive, I can only imagine what comes into the lungs, even though I wear a mask. My time on Bali is supposed to be fun and good and I am free to do what I want. To want to sit on the scooter in this traffic 2 hours on a regular basis it has to be for something that is really motivating and worth giving everything for.

I have had a good time with the other volunteers and I also have good contact with some of the Balinese employees. For the children and teenagers I could have given everything and I love to be around them. And I would love to help with more if the conditions were good and if I was asked by the Balinese for something specific. At this point I anyhow feel happy with what I have been able to do for them and I certain that my decision is right.

Besides the fact about driving a distance there has been a lot of internal problems and conflicts at Sjaki, between the board and the volunteers. For me it has been problems outside my business because of my different kind of role at the foundation. I was there for 10 months with no other conditions then that they paid me the petrol for driving and they fixed my visa. I was going to make the first aid conditions better and furthermore help where needed. The other volunteers had more specific tasks and also had other conditions. Angeline and Berry were only 4 months and did some very good and important things and left again in January, we all missed them very much! The conflicts have not become smaller during the last couple of months and for me this was also a big motivator to be sure of my decision that I wanted to stop. I finished my first aid tasks and other things and told everybody that I would stop. Meanwhile my friends, the other volunteers, also decided to stop for reasons of their own related to the conflicts the last couple of months. I hope Sjaki will stay and survive for the children and teenagers, they have such a good place with dedicated teachers. Without a place like Sjaki they have no place to go.

I am very happy I started these 10 months with doing volunteer work. It was a great opening to get to know locals and it was wonderful to get to see the children with special needs here in Bali and have a chance to do something for them. I have had some great moments with them, the teachers and other employees and volunteers. I have seen more of inside and real Bali and behind the tourism because of Sjaki.

So now by coincidence we all stop at Sjaki at the same time almost, so we decided to end it with the great valentines event, which was planned already a long time ago and the other volunteers had already done almost all preparations for it. It was a big event organized together with the CP lounge, Sjaki’s neighbor and with a local band. Lots of sponsors, food, drinks, raffle, performances of all kinds and sharing love for and together with disabled children of Bali. All money was going to Sjaki and two other foundations for disabled children. It was a great day and evening and I was personally really touched by all the performances by the children. Deaf children dancing different Balinese dances, with a wonderful woman who guides them with sign language and teach them to dance to the music. A big group with blind teenagers performing with their band and choir, which also touched me to tears, all the joy and talent they were able to show to us. One young lady with a physical handicap read two poems written by her, translated by someone after she said it. I cannot express it in words, everybody should have been there to see her perform it and hear how it is to have a handicap on Bali…

See the pictures of a great valentines day <3


One of the dance performances by deaf children and their teacher :-)

School trip, reports and holy water

Friday last week everybody at Sjaki-Tari-Us went together on a school trip to Pura Tirtha Empul, a Hindu temple in the Ubud area. The reason for the trip was that all the children and teenagers were getting their reports this day, and for this nice event we went to the temple. Pura Tirtha Empul is one of the important temples for the Balinese, because of the holy spring water and the public baths connected to the springs.

It was a sunny and nice day and we went with buses a 45 minutes drive to the temple. Teenagers, children, parents, teachers and volunteers, a group of almost 80 people were all dressed in their beautiful traditional clothing and we also brought an extra sarong to be able to swim/bath. We arrived happily with food, drinks and reports and headed for the entrance. But when the guard saw some of us were white people he stopped us immediately and he wanted us to pay…we had stopped at the local entrance, but he was not happy to see white people there too, in his eyes a bule (white person) is always a tourist I guess. So a big discussion later between the guard and our headmaster at Sjaki, the guard left angry and we continued and went inside.

After changing as discreet as we could in the unisex changing room we started the bathing experience. It was very refreshing in the burning sun but for sure also a special ritual, everybody goes in line to clean themselves under every spring with a certain kind of ritual. The grownups took all the children also under the springs, which was quit a challenge, many screaming kids for a moment there ;-) After a “trying to discreet change clothes session” again back to my kebaya we joined in with the prayer inside the temple.

After a welcoming meal for everybody made by our warung the day was ending with the children and teenagers getting their reports and a gift. It was such a beautiful moment, seeing them one by one proudly getting the reports from Guru Ibu Iluh.

I had a wonderful day with the children and teenagers this day!

Sjaki-Tari-Us

To tell you a little about my volunteership.

At Sjaki-tari-us I am getting to know everybody better and it’s especially really fun to get to know the children and teenagers better. I’ve been asked to help out with a new project for the teenagers, were they are learning more about personal hygiene. They will learn to dress properly and clean, wash hands and face, brush teeth and knowing when they are presentable and why this is important. Some of them are going to work in the Warung of the foundation, helping in the kitchen or serving guests. They will learn why it’s important to be clean and look nice in a job like that or other jobs they may be able to do. Further I will be talking to tourists and other people who are coming by the foundation to look or eat in the Warung, to give them information and make people interested in the foundation. I am also looking in the first aid kit there and I will try to make it better and maybe prepare a sort of workshop so they are more prepared if something happens with the children or somebody else. I’m now going to Ubud Monday-Wednesday to guide and help with the personal hygiene project. For the rest help were it’s needed.

Sjaki-Tari-Us is a foundation started in 2006. The purpose is to support, counsel and accompany children with a mental disability in their development and participation to society. Right now there are around 27 children divided in 4 different classes, each coming 2 or 3 times a week from 9.00 to 12.00. The children are aged from 5 to 10 years old. In the afternoon from Monday to Thursday the teenagers are coming and have classes and activities. There are now 8 teenagers at Sjaki, age 14 - 24. Furthermore there is a Warung were tourists and people coming by can have a drink or lunch/dinner. And there is a shop with different items witch mostly are made by the teenagers, the goal is that all the things sold in the shop is made/partly made by them.

All volunteers are having guiding and coaching positions, all the direct work with the children and teenagers is done by the Balinese guru’s (teachers) and their assistants. In the Warung also just Balinese people are working. The goal is also that Sjaki-Tari-Us in a couple of years is functioning independently on a Balinese team without the help from volunteers. For more info see http://www.sjakitarius.nl/

The children and teenagers are coming from all kinds of families and they have different levels of mental disabilities. Some have Down syndrome or autism but others have no clear diagnose and are just late in their development, have no language or have concentration problems. It’s such a different system here then back home and in other developed countries. First of all it is a shame to get a disabled child and a family is not offered any kind of help. There are schools for children with problems, but there they have to pass a test and still be above a certain IQ level, so these children have no offers at all. Many of them have also been neglected by their parents and family, just put in a room and not having any kind of stimulation and in isolation from the outside world. One girl in the teenage group had her first meeting with the world outside when she came to Sjaki… that's pretty heavy to see. When I started there was also a new 18 year old boy starting for the first time, he came with his parents. He is autistic and he will do very well in the group and it will be very good for him. He’s father was so touched and moved by the way his son was treated and approached by us. He wasn't used to this at all and clearly relieved to have found the Sjaki. He showed his arms, full of bite and scratch marks, from his son’s behaviour for many years. Now he doesn't do it anymore. We asked him why he thinks it doesn't happen anymore, he answered that for 15 years he struggled and didn't accept the situation and the disability of his son. Then he changed one day and started to accept him as he is and try to give him love, and now he’s not biting anymore… How beautiful is that??? If all the parent could learn this. Even though his family, his other son and all people around them still are afraid of his son and wont accept him, he and his wife finally are. A sunshine story to be inspired of. We hope he can be a recourse in the parent committee later and help or inspire other parents.