sumbawa

Finding the right project

Have you ever considered supporting a good cause, but most of the time end up supporting nothing at all for the lack of finding a good project that is close to your heart? Leaving you with this nagging, useless feeling where you and the ones around you are enjoying all these privileges without sharing, even a small bit of it?  We at The Magnet Projects did.

We have been looking for a while for a good cause we care about. To simply dump our hard earned money into one of these big ginormous NGO’s just won’t cut it. We actually wanted to see the people or subjects affected by these causes doing better. We want to help. But a project that drives and impassions us, where our voluntary work or donations actually really are noticed, is not easy to find.

Then we saw The HARAPAN Project in action.

On our recent travels to Indonesia we were so lucky to spend a few days at the fantastic surf spot of Lakey Peak in a village called Hu’u. Here we ran into Carlos Ferrandiz and his non-profit organisation HARAPAN. This Spanish former lawyer turned ‘the messenger of hope’, as the local population of Hu’u calls him, completely changed his life around and now dedicates all his time and effort to improve the living conditions of this small community in South Sumbawa. Talking about a hands-on good cause, this is it!

 

The current situation on Sumbawa

Hu’u is a very poor region on the south west coast of eastern Sumbawa, two Islands east from Bali. The monthly income is an average of 20$. They produce basically 3 products; rice, corn and they harvest seaweed. At the moment they are totally exploited by large companies, which buy their produce for 0,10$ per kilo and resell it over the border for more than 30$ the same kilo. There is hardly any proper education and most of the children need to help out in the fields anyway. A high percentage of babies are born with birth defects due to malnutrition. There is no basic health care available and criminality is starting to pick up due to the abandoned and homeless children hanging around the surf spots where tourists stay.

 

 

 

What does HARAPAN do?

In practice HARAPAN works on several levels:

• Education > Help improve education giving at the local schools by training the local teachers in English and in any other subject they teach at school.
• Health care > Build a small medical centre and have at least one doctor in the community who can perform free medical care. If someone is in need of even the most basic care they are not able to get it. Because this would mean they need to fly over to Bali and pay for a hospital, doctor or medication.
• Establishing a cooperative > to coordinate all the production of the population. By selling as a unity instead of single families they have a better chance at negotiating a stronger and fair price for their harvest. Also, teach them to produce new products. This would not only add new financial opportunities as well as a change to their very unbalanced diet.
• Build refuge for up to 40 abandoned children, which have been ganging up and call themselves The Lakey Peak Boys. These homeless kids all ended up at Lakey Peak where they of course get into trouble begging and stealing. HARAPAN motivates them to go to school and keeps them active with learning them to surf and other activities.

–     And finally, setting up a Surf school and homestay > to create new working opportunities for the local population by giving surf lessons, rent and repair surfboards and offering accommodation.

The ultimate goal

In short, Carlos’ ultimate goal is to help Hu’u become a self-sufficient community. A daunting project that can use all our help till the time is there that the community can support itself.  Literally every cent you give to HARAPAN, someone in the community fiscally benefits from it.

For example, just the day we were flying back to Bali to indulge in the crazy scene of Canggu, Carlos flew out with two mothers and their young sons who were in serious need of medical care. Simple procedures, but without there would be no future for them. The days before Carlos was actually going around all the local tourist restaurants collecting money so he would be able to pay their flight tickets and food.

Help or donate?

If you are looking for a real involvement, this is the project! By giving to this cause you actually help create a future for kids who, without HARAPAN, would have none.

• Donate directly on the HARAPAN site (http://proyectoharapan.org/en/donate)
• Leave a donation at our guesthouse HARAPAN savings jar and we’ll make sure it gets to Carlos and his team.

Want a bit more hands on action? If you’re planning an amazing surf trip to Bali, make sure to go and spend some time at Lakeys’. Not only for the amazing surf, but also to give some of your time to this amazing project. Contact (http://proyectoharapan.org/en/contact-us) Carlos and his team in advance to see what you can do or bring; toys, (note)books, pens, surfgear. Everything is welcome.

Carlos makes regular updates about what is going on at HARAPAN. Check out the Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/HARAPANPROJECT/) or go on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/harapanproject/) to see for yourself what kind of amazing things HARAPAN is doing.

Bagus Bagus!