My friends from the BTF know that through the Helen Flavel Foundation I have sponsored a family that live up in a village in Sambangan near Singaraja.
For the past two years I have put the two girls aged 13 & 15 through their schooling.
I have been up to their village three times, met their parents, gone to their school meeting the teachers & their school friends thus having a great time leaning about how they live.
The house they live in with no floor is a shack made up of old packing cases & bits of wood.Two rooms if you could call them rooms & a place to cook.
The small piece of land that it is erected on was loaned to the parents by some friends because they had no shelter at all.
On our trips up there we went to the local market & bought them rice, dried fish, other foods & toiletries to keep them going.
I got them a gas bottle & stove for their cooking & later on a 14" Sanyo tv from Makro for a total of about $100.
Took a couple of suitcases from Melbourne of pre loved clothes also to help out.
Bad luck struck in October & they were told that the owner wanted his little piece of land back & they were told to pull their shack down immediatly & move on.
To me thats not good enough & you dont treat people like that.
The first part of the plan was to speak to Helen to see what could be done & so through her contact Nyoman Sukadana a small block of land was offered to them to own providing they could build a proper house on it.
I was sent a copy of the title with all the signatures & seals on it from the Buleleng Regency, Sukasada District & Sambangan Village stating that they now own their own land.
The second part was my end of the bargain to put the house on it.
The building materials were procured & in two weeks a house was built consisting of three bedrooms, living room, nine windows & a few other bits & pieces including electricity.
All their relations & friends worked day & night to erect it & the family move in at the end of this week.
I arrive in Bali tomorrow, going up to see them on the 2nd Janurary & im sure a house warming party will be in order.
The total cost of the house believe it or not was $A1500.
They should now be set for life as we all know what its like owning our own house.
They have had a good Xmas western style & Im sure I have also.
A few of my friends that are also sponorsing through Helen have also done this.
Thanks Helen for helping make this possible.