In Reply to: School reports from Bali? posted by Tuberose on Tuesday, 23. January 2007 at 14:14 Bali Time:
We have 370 sponsored students, attending over 120 different schools. These are in three different regencies. We tried to collect reports when we first started the sponsor programme, at that stage we only had 60 students. Only to find that the teachers would be away or the reports were not ready. It became too expensive time wise (the volunteer would have to take time off work to get the information) and also the cost of the petrol. Our volunteers don't get reimbursed for their time or for their out of pocket expenses.
We do not have the people power or the resources to make numerous trips to the schools. The Bulelang Regency is a massive area covering all of Northern Bali, coast to coast. If we had to go back repeatedly to collect reports, we would need to pay someone. To be honest,we have stretched the sponsorship money, as far as it will go. I don't want to have to increase the fees.
When I send out the renewals, I'm able to tell the sponsors what level in percentage terms their student has obtained for the year.
Many of our sponsors visit their children and ask the teacher personally how their student is doing.
Leonie, when you visit in April you can ask the teacher how well your student is doing at school.
For the sponsors who can't visit, they can email to me asking for an update. I then contact Bali and ask for one of our team to respond to the request as soon as they have time to visit the student's school and village.