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Extra Edition - JUNE 2007
Flower at Wisma Mercury_Garden_Yogya
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ENJOY THE STORY OF
FLOWGI's VISIT
To Projects in Yogya and Lombok
*******
Ruby is the treasurer of Flowgi Foundation in Holland.
During this trip she was accompanied by her husband Martin and
Ronald the advisor of the foundation
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Martin and Ruby:
This is our first visit to projects in Lombok and Yogya
Before we left Holland Ruby’s parents put a shoe box where our friends
and families could put some money in it.
It was during her Father’s Birthday.
The money would be used to give something extra for the kids in Indonesia.
And the money was spent well
We left for Singapore on the 12th of June where we stayed one night
before we proceeded our journey to Solo the next day.
Upon arrival, Rifai and Enie, Flowgi staff Yogya fetched us.
The trip Solo-Yogya took 1,5 hours.
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June 2007
Lombok 16 June - MATARAM-MALIKLO
We landed at Mataram and Rifai’s brother, his friend and Yani his cousin waited for us. We drove to the hotel directly but first we visited Rifai’s parents, who live in a
small village - Maliklo.
We met them and of course they already cooked for us, and at a traditional way we
sat in the living room.
The food was really nice too and they welcomed us with open arms.
Late in the afternoon we were brought to our hotel.
We were with Erwin, Rojak, Rifai (staff members at Lombok and Yogya),
and Ronald.
The next morning we would visit Erwin’s parents.
Lombok 17 June - Village MALIKLO
This is the report of our visit to the village Maliklo where Yani gives English lessons
to 50 children/adults (now 55 persons) every Saturday and Sunday.
She is still a student and on weekdays she goes to school in Mataram.
When we arrived at Yani she was giving English lesson to the children.
It was a very unique experience for the children and for us. We questioned the
children about what they learned. There were different small groups, so every time
we changed place so all the groups had a chance to talk with us.
It was very nice to see how they reacted. Some of them were very bold and some
of them were very modest and almost too shy to say something. They speak English modestly, even before they followed the English lessons. After the chat we all had
lunch together. > From the money that was collected by Ruby’s parents.
Yani’s parents took care of the lunch, they were very hospitable and they took
care of everything. During the conversations Rifai made pictures and a movie,
he was as good as a real top photographer. We also talked to Yani about how
she likes it to give English lessons. She is very enthusiastic and would like to continue with the lessons and she also would like to start a library. Later when we were in
Yogya we bought English dictionaries for them.
> From the money that was collected by Ruby’s parents
Late in the afternoon we drove back to the hotel. The next day we would visit
Erwin’s school and have a lunch at his parents’ home, and also visit
Rojak’s and Rifai’s parents.
Lombok 18 June - Village Montong Gamang
Today we first visited Rojak’s parents; his father was at another place for work.
Rojak´s mother cooked for us. They live in a small village where kemiri nuts are
being cultivated, dried and sold. It was really nice of Rojak´s mother to cook for us,
and the food was delicious.
We also got a tour around the village and visited a fish farm and fed the fishes.
We noticed that the people in the village were not used to see strangers
walking through their streets and especially no white people.
A whole group of children kept walking behind Martin.
Then we left for the school in Montong Gamang, this school has about 100 pupils.
The teachers work voluntarily. They receive a little contribution each
month from the people who live in the village.
At the beginning of the year Erwin, a Flowgi staff, requested to renovate the
lavatory of this school. This was because it was flown away by the storm
of December 2006.
He received money from Flowgi. The roof and the door have been replaced,
the cracks in the walls are repaired and the floor has new tiles. Only the paintwork
still has to be done. As requested Ronald brought a painting set (rollers, paintbrushes, paper tape, sheet covers etc.) Erwin was really happy with this.
We also took a look in the classes and spoke with the teachers. One teacher speaks English very well and the others don’t. Ronald also talked with the headmasters.
Meanwhile we talked about buying 6 whiteboards for the school and we directly
ordered the whiteboards. We would also buy the markers, wipers and
cleaning products later.
A day before we also ordered 100 lunchboxes for this school
> from the money collected by Ruby’s parents.
Erwin’s parents and sisters took care of this, and they really had done a good job.
They delivered the boxes on time at around 12 o’clock.
We gave them to the children and teachers. The lunchboxes contained rice,
chicken, vegetables, drinks, fruit and some candy.
It was a really nice lunchbox. The children ate a part of it, they
brought the rest home to share it or show it to their parents.
On behalf of our foundation we gave each teacher 100.000 rp. (Around €9, 00)
as a little gift. They were really happy with it, even though we couldn’t understand
what they were saying we could see from their embrace that they
were really happy. It gave us a nice feeling to see that.
In the afternoon the whiteboards were finished, we bought the markers
(refillable), wipers, ink, and cleaning products as well.
Suddenly the dark classroom became lighter because of the whiteboard.
The teachers were very happy and the classroom looked surely much better
than before. We put our logo on the board, so everybody can see
who gave it to the school.
In the afternoon we also visited Rifai’s parents to greet them and to pick up the
ordered sandals > made of car tires< and the fried onions. Again we were
welcomed with open arms and the women were busy frying the onions.
And of course; we were expected to stay for dinner, our last meal,
coz after that we had to leave for Senggigi, a real touristy area
and from there we would go to the airport of Mataram.
After 4 hours we finally left. We went with Erwin, Rifai, his brother, and Henny,
Erwin's sister. Rojak would come later because he had to do a test for a course
he wants to follow.
In the Pacific Beach Hotel we booked 3 rooms en in the evening we ate again.
Wow, it was too much. We enjoyed it very much and actually we would like to stay longer. It was a beautiful island with much nature and not enough tourism.
It is important for Indonesia to have more tourists visiting
the island of Lombok as tourism here has really declined .
► Photo's of Lombok
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Yogya 19 June
When we arrived in Yogya we took a taxi to the hotel and unpacked our suitcases.
All staff members were really busy with the preparations for the Funday
in Bantul which would take place the 24th of June.
Everybody was busy doing something: preparing chairs, tents, a stage,
food, drinks etc. There was a lot to be taken care of.
We got 2 days to go our own way.
Yogya 22 June and 23 June
Friday and Saturday before the big day: we bought 136 pair of shoes and socks
and some volunteers filled the Flowgi pencil cases with pen and pencil.
Saturday evening we started to pack the shoes and put them
in bags with 1 pair of socks in every bag.
On the bags we wrote the sizes so everybody could see directly which size it was.
The sizes varied from 28 till 40. It was a big happening to pack the shoes, all
volunteers and us together. It looked like a henhouse, but we had a lot of fun doing it.
After we finished some boys stayed the night at the school to keep an eye on everything, so that nothing would be missing for the big day.
Lucy and I also took some interviews from a couple of students, asking them about
what they would like to do in the future. And whether they would be available
to help Flowgi for the next coming year.
The next morning we were picked up at 9.15,
Ronald was already expected at 7.00.
We all received an official invitation from the SD (primary school) in Bantul.
Written by Ruby and Martin
Translation: Clemy Balvers
_____________________________________________--
25th JUNE 2007
The 3rd Anniversary of Flowgi Foundation
FLOWGI PRESENTS…
Beautiful FLOWGI Moments
SUNDAY FUN DAY
for 125 children of Banjardadap school in Yogya
The bright sun was shining the whole day on that beautiful day
Sunday 24th of June 2007.
The warmest sun illuminated a small village, SD Banjardadap, Bantul, Yogyakarta.
Some people looked so busy over there; they were arranging the podium, dining tables, and preparing the programs for the Sunday-Fun-Day show.
All students, the students’ parents and the guests started coming around
at 07.30 a.m.
A few minutes later, the first program begun. This was the closing of the school
year 2006/2007 of SD Banjardadap; the elementary school will move to a new place and it will unite with three other schools in Bantul.
It is needed to be known that SD Banjardadap is one of the schools which building
was destroyed during the earthquake; that was why the students followed
the lessons in the classes with the bamboo partitions (Gedek).
In 2006 FLOWGI visited SD Banjardadap a few times after the earthquake.
During the visits Flowgi handed over school bags, uniforms for the students and also
to share the fun and love. Today’s event would be the last on the agenda of SD Banjardadap, that was why FLOWGI decided that the 3rd anniversary of Flowgi
would be held at this school.
This moment is the last beautiful remembrance, a gift for the school.
This school program went on for around three hours, it contents speech presentations and the art performance of the students.
The art performance consists of Javanese traditional dances such as;
Kuda Lumping and Kontemporer dance,
besides there was the chorus which was brightening the atmosphere.
At noon, Sunday Fun Day became more cheerful entering the summit agenda;
that is the third FLOWGI’s anniversary programs and Ela as a Master of Ceremony started the show gloriously.
Actually, FLOWGI’s birthday is on 25th of June, but in order to be more glorious,
Flowgi celebrated this together with the Banjardadap School event.
Fun Love Our Wonderful Given Ideas
are of course available at this moment.
Do you know what happened in the middle of the event? “Suddenly, a funny big boy appeared from the audience, this boy wore an elementary school uniform which is in red and white color. The boy carried a school bag and a drinking bottle. His appearance made the audience laugh spontaneously. The boy went up on the stage and asked;
“What is back to school?”.
Since “Back to School” becomes a theme at this moment,
Ela explained it to that boy.
“Back to School” means that nobody stops studying ; young and older people should get back to study; we are never too old too learn something new or something that we might have missed to learn in the pass.
The message is;
“people will get a better future through learning ”
Ela explained.
That boy in fact was uncle Ronny who has made the show more cheerful.
Beside the show there was a drama performance entitled
“Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih love cleanness ”.
The drama was done by Malai Production people and J-TOKU films which put a robot named Ozona who loves purity.
The drama is to cheer up the entire students.
There was also a funny show which were presented by the Pom-pom Boys.
Another show: some musical show from FLOWGI people to entertain the audience.
The next event is uncle Ronny on behalf of FLOWGI FOUNDATION presented
some gifts for SD Banjardadap.
On the top agenda, FLOWGI handed over shoes and socks to around 122
students of SD Banjardadap and TK Panca Sakti.
This beautiful moment was testified by FLOWGI members: from Holland; Lucy, Ruby
and Martin, Jakarta; Hera, Babe who came with some friends and donors,
Bandung; Aswin and Yogyakarta; Erita, Siska and Kelopak community members etc.
The happiness was seen on the student’s faces.
FLOWGI hopes that the shoes will be worn to go to school and wearing the shoes
the students will be more energetic to walk to school.
According to the name of this event, “Sunday Fun Day enjoy aja”, which means “JUST ENJOY THE FUN OF THE DAY”, the invitation guests and the students
looked happy enjoying the entertainments.
Beside the food corners and the traditional food bazaar,
they could also enjoy the movie corner. All is free of charge.
The Movie Corner was the place to launch a new film from
Malai Production and FLOWGI.
Malai Production and FLOWGI presented a film entitled
“A Girl in the Red Balloon”.
This film has a purpose for a documentation film in Holland and to
be shown at some places in Indonesia.
It will be used as a media to collect donations to help the Indonesian children.
In conclusion, this moment becomes three in one moment:
-Closing year of SD Banjardadap,
-FLOWGI’s 3rd Anniversary
-Launching a film entitled “A Girl in the Red Balloon”.
These moments went on joyfully.
Hopefully, it will be a beautiful remembrance and an inspiration for all of us
because FLOWGI stands for:
Fun Love Our Wonderful Given Ideas
HAPPY 3rd anniversary to FLOWGI…
Let’s spread the Understanding, Attention and Love
to all people in the world!
We will wait for your participation on the next FLOWGI moments…!
Written By Amel & Irma ^_^
*******
► To the Photo Album of Funday 24Juni
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THIS FUN-DAY IS SPONSORED BY FRIENDS AND FAMILIES FROM
RODEN AND GRONINGEN - HOLLAND
THE MONEY IS COLLECTED AT A FUNDRAISE EVENING ORGANISED BY
PETER AND PAULUS FLOKSTRA -
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS
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*******
Flowgi Team Holland would like to thank;
The students and team of Banjardadap School under leadership of
ibu Sri Wismiyati, the team of Yogya Volunteers, Malai Group,
The Pom Pom Boys;
who had a very important role of making the event successful
and cheerful.
Also to the Flowgi members, donors , and guests coming
from Jakarta, Bandung ,Yogya, Palembang and Cilacap:
thank YOU for your presence.
*******
►To the Photo report
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25 JUNE- YOGYA
A VISIT TO KULON PROGO SCHOOL
AND A VISIT TO GONDOLAYU
We left with two cars to visit the primary school in Kulon Progo.
We also planned to pass by Gondolaju in Yogya.
The school is situated high in the mountains.
It’s a two hours drive from Yogya to Kulon Progo.
We didn’t know our way to the school. Luckily there was Henny:
the volunteer and ibu Asih: the head of the school.
Ibu Asih was guiding us by scooter. So sweet of her.
We drove all the way through the mountains.
The higher we drove, the smaller the roads. It seemed like so far away.
On our way, we drove passed three other schools.
KULON PROGO SCHOOL
After one hour driving, we finally arrived at the school. We were kindly
welcomed by all the teachers and the pupils. All the children gave us a hand.
Then we took a look around.
Kids of Kulon Progo school
There are 50 pupils and eight teachers. Two teachers were not presence
that day. Two of them were going to retire, but because of lack of teachers,
they were willing to stay longer to help the school out.
The children at this school are very poor.
The parents pay € 0,25 per child. The teachers dont get paid well.
Some of them have to go by motorcar, which costs al lot of fuel.
It is not possible to go by public transportation.
The pupils of the school live in the neighbourhood, so they always walk.
While we were walking around, Ronald was telling a story to the children.
Each class sang a song for us
It was very nice to hear. After the singing, we were invited in the health
classroom by the head of the school to have some tea and snacks.
Once a month the children are being inspected on their health.
During our little lunch, we had a conversation about the current situation of
the school. The school doesn’t have enough money to renew some facilities that are necessary, sometimes they receive a donation from the local church.
And they don’t have any financial income. There are eight teachers, and one volunteer that teaches computer lessons
once in a month.
We noticed that everyone was so hospitable. Before leaving the school,
we gave each pupil a pencil case and a pen. After looking around and speaking with the head of the school, we had an unsatisfied feeling.
We didn’t bring anything other than pencil case and pen for the kids.
We wanted to give them something extra.
So Ria and Eni, flowgi staff Yogya, ran into a guy on a bike,
who sells noodles and sweets. They came back with lots of sweets.
The children were very happy.
Then it was time for us to leave.
We were invited by Henny to have lunch at her
house. Her mother prepared the lunch. There was lots of food: corn cookies,
pecel lele (fried fish), tempe, tofu, fresh vegetables and another dish: sayur asem. The food was delicious and everybody enjoyed it.
Thank you Henny and Mom.
We didn’t stay long, because it’s time for us to go to Gondolayu.
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25 JUNE 2007
OUR VISIT TO GONDOLAYU-KALI CODE-YOGYA
By the time we arrived at Gondolayu, it was already 14.30. Gondolayu
is the poorest part of Yogya. Their homes are built along a river.
Their homes are very very little. Some live in a space that’s not bigger
than two square metres. To make the environment more liveable,
some students voluntarily painted the houses in different colours.
They looked cheerful and clean.
There are 250 persons/50 families living in this area.
One of the parents guided us through the area. It was a special experience.
The people were friendly and polite.
All the children were called to the meeting room. They came from every corner.
Even the parents got curious.
They gathered around and started to sing a song.
Pencil case and pen from Flowgi
After singing, the children received a pencil case and a pen as well.
We also gave the kids English books they can read and learn from.
Our mission that day was accomplished;
we made the children happy and gave the kids love and fun.
We left and went back to our hotel.
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THE STORY BEHIND GONDOLAYU
The children under the GONDOLAYU bridge.
Under the GONDOLAYU bridge live a lot of very poor families .
In the past, a former Catholic priest Mangunwijaya took care of these
families and provided them with primary needs like rice and electricity.
Most families who live there are Christians, and Catholics.
In 1999 the pastor passed away. So now the families are divided by
different religions.
A lot of the parents are parking guards, beggars, mechanics or
street hawkers. They can hardly send their children to school.
They also live in very sober houses, which are quite clean because the
houses are still under supervision of social institutions.
Nevertheless, these families are having difficulty to keep supporting
their family members
GONDOLAYU
Something special about these houses along the river of kali Code
Father Mangunwijaya, full name Yusuf Bilyarta Mangunwijaya
(Ambarawa, Semarang, 6 May 1929 - Jakarta 10 February 1999),
is an Indonesian architect, writer, and Catholic religious leader.
He is fondly known as Romo Mangun (Father Mangun).
He is known as the father of modern Indonesian architecture.
He received Aga Khan Award in 1992 for his work with the slum dwellers in
kali Code Yogyakarta. (Gondolayu)
► Read more about this award
► To the Biography of Father Mangunwijaya
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25 june- In the evening
The surprise and The Goodbye
In the evening we went out for dinner with everyone who helped
Flowgi on the Funday of the 24th of July.
This was our last project and the 26th we would fly home again.
We would be picked up at 19.30 hour. It was a good time, then we
could start packing our stuff otherwise we hadn’t got enough time to do it.
When we arrived at the restaurant we were welcomed by Ria. She nervously
gave Lucy and me a pink candyfloss. We wanted to walk further, but we were stopped because they were not ready yet.
Meanwhile, we were watching the fishes swimming in the aquarium.
After 10 minutes we could walk further, it was very dark and when we walked
over the bridge they began to sing. On the water was a heart made out of polystyrene with candles and the letters M and R, the candles were floating on
the water around the letters. When we saw that, we understood that it was
for Martin and me because we were married the 24th of may.
It was wonderful. They did this especially for us, we can’t explain how much
it meant to us. Everybody congratulated us and we had to
sit down in the middle of a long table.
They also played music and so we could sing a long.
They sang the first songs for us and then they called us to come to the front.
They bought us presents and we were moved by all this.
The presents have a special place in our house, so we can watch it everyday.
After unpacking the presents we ate deliciously : roasted fish, kangkung (vegetables), rice, chicken etc. It was all very good of course.
The music was playing and they were singing until 22.00 o’ clock
It was a real karaoke night. Everybody had a great time.
Back in the hotel I got a massage from a masseuse who also came
with us from Jakarta, her name is ibu Lies.
She was enthusiastic because of all the stories Lucy told her.
She wanted to experience it for herself and went to Yogya.
The massage was great, especially because it was the last night before
we left. We had to get up at 5.00 o’clock in the morning and
we left the hotel at 6.00 heading to Solo.
Rifai and Ron brought us away.
From Solo we flew to Singapore to get our plane back to Holland.
GOOD BYE YOGYA, GOOD BYE INDONESIA
We would like to thank all the Flowgi staff members again for the party
and for the good times we had in Yogya.
Written by : Martin and Ruby
Translation: Maisie and Leslie Lim
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June and July 2007
A REPORT ABOUT OUR VISIT TO MARDISIWI
Teenagers got T-shirts
too big for me
at the orphanage meeting point
bad condition
handing over some stuff to cook
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A REPORT ABOUT OUR VISIT TO MARDISIWI ORPHANAGE
YOGYA - INDONESIA
JUNE-JULY 2007
In the bright afternoon on Wednesday, 27 June 2007, Flowgi visited Mardisiwi orphanage. The situation was quite dull no children laughing and playing in the yard. When we looked around the building we were surprised to notice the condition. The building's condition is bad, some parts were damaged, dirty, and many scratches in the wall. We were worry to notice this condition. After some time some boys and girls came out, they were glad to see us and they competed to shake their hand with us.
Flowgi brought food to have meals together and some t-shirts Lucy brought from Holland. Before eating, as usual uncle Ron gave some advises to all
children. They looked enthusiastic listening to uncle’s advises. Foods we brought were shared directly and we ate together. Hmmm……it was delicious. Everybody ate happily. After the meal we shared some T-shirts to all boys and took pictures with them.
We also have an interview with some children in Mardisiwi. And we were surprised
with the result. Apparently, there were problems in the orphanage especially financial problem. They lost sponsors who usually helped them.
To get a better information about Mardisiwi, uncle Ron invited 8 children to go to hotel. They told us about their condition and what they want to do for their future.
From what we heard we knew that all children want to continue their study.
They want to reach their dream and become independent. But it is difficult because
they don’t have enough money. The Orphanage itself cannot help the
total cost. Children who want to continue to study in senior high school must pay the cost of study themselves. The orphanage just gives little aid. The children will get cheaper cost than other students if they study in a school belongs to the same foundation. Children who want to continue their study at the university must pay the tuition themselves. The most difficult thing for them was the cost to enter a new school.
They need extra money for registration, uniform, books etc.
Another information we got that makes us concerned is the living cost.
Everyday they have very simple meals that most of the time the meals dont contain enough nutritions.
The activity of the teenagers in the orphanage is just going to school or university and then come back home to the orphanage again.
Some of them have part time job and others just stay in orphanage.
They cant go anywhere, they fill their time by watching television, sport,
and gossiping especially for girls.
Sometimes they get bored with this condition and they need some refreshing.
So they feel very happy when we, Flowgi team, visited them .
There were many facilities they could use, which Flowgi provided in
2002/2003 but over the years the condition are not getting better.
For example the library, they lost many books. They also have some computers
(Flowgi gave them in 2003) but when the PC goes down, like now,
nobody is able to fix it and they cant use the computers
at the moment.
Other facilities such as sport devices, bicycles, and some rooms were not
taken care well. So Uncle Ron talked to them and told them the importance of maintenance.
A few days later in July;
Flowgi came back again to the orphanage.
We brought the daily needs such as: rice, oil, egg, sugar, soap, etc.
We also bought some cleaning devices to keep the orphanage clean.
We cleaned the orphanage together. Uncle Ron with the boys cleaned around
the orphanage : the floor, get rid of the garbage, rearranged the room, etc.
The girls cooked in the kitchen with aunt Lucy.
They cooked rice, cah kangkung, fried tempe and uncle Ron favorite’s food tahu.
Aunt Lucy cooked enthusiastically, she was busy with her kangkung.
After cooking she also cleaned the kitchen herself.
Finally she was tired and sat down while waiting for the lunch .
At noon our work finished, we cleaned our hands and prepared lunch together. Everybody ate ravenously because they were hungry. The food was very delicious in our tongue because we ate happily.
Our mission was complete that day. We were happy to do all, we could make all boys and girls felt more comfortable in the orphanage. They were just teenagers
who need attention from others. We advised them to take good care of the orphanage and we promised to do something for them in the future and hopefully they got
new spirit to reach their dream.
Eventually, we came back home bringing a sweet memory thinking of our activity during that day. Thanks to uncle Ron, aunt Lucy, teenagers in Mardisiwi, and Flowgi’s volunteers. Without all the helping hands we would not manage to do these all.
We hope that the readers will also help Flowgi to realize the kid’s dream and please continue sponsoring…
Thank you so much to you all who has helped Flowgi.
Written by Ennie – Flowgi staff Yogya
►To the Photo report
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