“ Roslin Orphanage “ in West Timor

by Budi Soehardi and family

By : Rotarian Budi Soehardi and family

"It began in 1999 with an unplanned trip to the refugee camps in East Timor. The trip was triggered by a TV program showing us about the East Timor refugees.

Something for the children

Inside our house

At Changi airport

At the Check in counter

Things were flown to Jakarta then by ship to Surabaya (22 hours), to Bali 17

hours and finally to Kupang ( West Timor) 28,5 hours.

At Kupang we were buying and packing a lot more items such as food, sanitation, vitamin and many things for the children.

51 hours of nonstop packing

Some of the love gift

The are wearing rags

After multiple trips to these camps, we decided to rent a house in Kupang City, and care for some of the abandoned babies.“ But ……..

"We soon began to realize that we wanted a place of our own, and decided that we would build an orphanage.

We planned to build the orphanage in 5 years but we completed the building in 11 months

We did it and it was officially opened by the Provincial Governor Alexander Piet Tallo in April 6th 2002.

"The orphanage has been a home for so many children, offering them a safe and nurturing environment in which to grow."

"Many who have visited the orphanage have been enriched by their experience, and returned home with the deep realization of how fortunate and blessed their lives are."

"Many who have visited the orphanage have been enriched by their experience, and returned home with the deep realization of how fortunate and blessed their lives are."

8 years ago at the orphanage

After 8 years under our care

When they came to the orphanage

We became a family

“At the age of 18 months, Cornelis is able to feed himself”

Biscuits on the right hand and the broom on the left hand BUT this is not a child labour matter

“A primary-two student washes her uniform”

What kind of a place is Timor Island ?

“It is the driest province in Indonesia, with the least amount of rainfall.”

“It is the poorest province in Indonesia.” “The population is severely lacking in

education”

Commonly seen hut house

We want to study but ………

A real class room ?

Another class room to study ?

“Water is desperately needed in West Timor. The people need help to be able to access clean and drinkable water”

“We are so privileged to be able to have clean water on a daily basis”

“Even during the rainy season, clean water is not easily available.”

It is quite common for two buckets of water they have to walk such a long distance

Resting for a while on their way home after carrying the water for quite a distance

“walking barefoot in the heat, searching for drinking water for the family”

Our precious drinking water

Our precious water

The efforts to get water

A little water is better than no water

“Without clean water, skin diseases and ailments can occur at any time.”

“Water is desperately needed in West Timor. The people need help to be able to access clean and drinkable water”

“We are so privileged to be able to have clean water on a daily basis”

“During the famine, we helped to deliver food out on the streets”

“The dry season in Timor (from June to November) sees the highest rate of infant mortality, especially in October and November. This is due to illnesses caused by airborne bacteria and lack of clean water to wash things. The people here desperately need access to clean water.”

A help from The Rotary International

Matching Grant # 66507

Rotary club Eclub3310 ( which I am the president Elect) , Rotary Club Suntec City of Singapore and The Rotary Foundation have completed a clean water project in April 2009.

The targeted people are the people who live in“ Familia orphanage” ( an orphanage at Sikumana village) and a joined primary and secondary school near by , its location is about 40 km from Roslin orphanage.

Because of our togetherness the project was completed and some 600 people are now able to enjoy enough supply of fresh water daily

This can be made because of our togetherness

Celebrating the new water supply

Education programs at “Roslin Orphanage”

From the beginning Roslin orphanage is focusing the efforts on helping the children with their education. So much has been done but so much more must be deal with.

The orphanage has built a fantastic library and with the help of another Matching Grant # 59419 form Rotary International we have been able to provide a mobile library for the people who can not come to the library

Our first mobile library

Our second mobile library from The Rotary Foundation

1. Lets read2. lets make our self literate

3. through reading we can reach our goals

Reading is good

Please come more often

By another Matching Grant # 61236 we are getting the huge help from The Rotary Foundation , Rotary Club Eclub3310 and we are providing good books for our “ Bolelebo” library.

Roslin Orphanage have built two library buildings on our own.

With this Matching Grant we are also enabled to buy 4 computers , an audio player and a projector.

With these tools we can give the children not only reading materials but also some educational movies.

Two library buildings have been built at Roslin orphanage. With a matching grant (#61236) from the Rotary Foundation, we have been able to purchase four computers, an audio player, and a projector for our “Bolelebo” library.

It is a fantastic start, but many more learning materials are needed.

“Help is always welcome.”

“All the way from Singapore, Amy and Chris come to lend a hand by writing the library’s name on the building and making foundation for the new dorm

Inside library number one

Library number two

One to one teaching for the weaker student

Because of this library our orphanage children are able to have an access to so many fantastic books.

The fantastic usage of this library has been enjoyed by the orphanage children .

A hug help to enrich their knowledge. We are really grateful

One of our orphanage’s children , Gerson has been accepted and studying at the medical school. We are hoping to have our own in house doctor in 5 or 6 years time. .

What can be done through Roslin orphanage

Lots of things can be done through the orphanage. Teaching and educating the children to be able to help them self .

It has been a joy teaching the children how to farm, vocational training for some useful skills and productive activity such as planting peanut, corn, rice, nursery plants , character building etc

A success story in Roslin orphanage

one year ago I was so worried about when I am retired from my job.

Retired to me means I will have no salary to finance the orphanage any longer.

Without having some saving even for my own three children, how can I finance the daily needs of the orphanage .

With the intention of getting “ any water” we bought 2 water submersible pumps and a generator just in case we will be able to find water. People said that the water is at least 44 Meter or even 70 Meter deep.

We have some land for doing farming, but we can not plant anything at all as there is

no water.

But we tried our luck

Thorny bush

Big and sharp thorns

Land clearing in the process

On our first trial upon drilling for water ,

we struck an artesian water source which a pump and a generator is not required any more. The water is flowing by it self 24 hours a day and even better as the water is drinkable directly from the source.

It’s a blessing indeed

Because of this water we cleared part of the land to about 2 hectares and made it into a paddy field in 3 months time.

Small amount of water but made us to be self sufficient on rice

Small but flowing constantly

My Peggy is also doing the land clearing beside looking after the orphanage children

Budi having fun and great exercise

The transformed land

Hux , Edu and SIA Chief pilot Alan Chan at our rice field

Budi’s happiest moment

Its harvest time

Husking through the night

• We planted our first paddy in Jan 2008 and we had our first harvest in April 2008.

• 1st November 2008 we will be having our 2nd rice harvest while the first harvest is only consumed less than 20% of it.

• We are declaring our self to be self sufficient on rice since April 2008.

We are declaring our self to be self sufficient on rice since April 2008.

What can be done through

Roslin orphanage ???

78 years “young” Cornelis Lakusa teaching them through stories.

Peggy explaining some family planning to the village mothers about sanitation and birth control

Good nutrition and vitamins for the village people

A regular Nutritious food for the children age 5 years and below

We came and help with food that we cooked during the famine

Direct action during the famine

Help us to play with the children

Teach them any thing that you a are comfortable with

Help us to give vitamins to the children

Its Christmas

Hux ( Lim hui xiang) spending his precious holiday time with the children

You may give Free English lesson

Such a quality time that you can give

Such a quality time

16 Singaporean students were spending 2 weeks for their school projects with us

Helping us to peel corn

Singapore students doing their school projects for 2 weeks

through Roslin orphanage

• We were giving the some practical experiences of dealing with a culture shock, helping the villagers with paving the floor with cement, teaching them to teach the children and interacting with the local schools etc.

• Some exercise was given to be resilient and teaching the to live with some basic living conditions.

Some exercise was given to be resilient and teaching the to live with some basic living conditions such as sharing he bathroom, cooking with stone made stove and with wood.

It was a great trip

School uniform is a good gift

We try to help our self too

Who wants to be a pilot

Wound dressing at Roslin Orphanage

Encouragement for not quitting school

Sis Serene , son Jabez and bro Mark Lee spending their holiday with us

Bro Chris and sis Amy helping to make the boy’s dorm’s

foundation during their holiday

Story telling

Interacting with the children

teaching

Simply so much to do and always

Our current progress

• Our current project is to build the storage room to store our rice harvest and our equipments. This should be done in 4 weeks time if we have all the materials.

• Only when we are done with this project we will be able to put the children to their dorm which has been forced to be used as a storage room for us ( due to the abundant rice harvest).

The next project will be making a banana farm. For this we need to clear up the land , making a good fence and free us from the nasty thorny bushes. The area is 25 000 M2. At this farm we will breed animals like goats and some cows.

The banana can be sold or made into some food products while the trees are a good source of food for the animals. All of the generated income will finance the orphanage.

OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

To build the girl’s dorm and a proper study room.

To build a proper school so we can teach properly

To continue the nutritious food and vitamin distributions to the children within the our area.

To continue the nutritious food and vitamin distributions to the children within the our

area.

•What are the needs

Teachers and volunteers Financial help, so that we can do more

It will be a honor to us to have you there one

day

Welcome to Roslin orphanage

www.roslinorphanage.org