In Reply to: Sponsorship posted by Mrs Killer on Sunday, 26. April 2009 at 09:11 Bali Time:
Hi, it's so good when a child can get the opportunity to go to school when the family and child really want this, but just can't afford it - especially for a girl.
Depending on her age and if she had any schooling in her local village as a young kid, or this might be her first experience of school. so age dependent first of all for what you do.
Perfect time to organise her schooling in June as this is their 4 week
school holiday time and they start the new year in July. 3 of my kids have
been waiting many months for july to come around so they can also start.
Only issue maybe staff being at the school to assist you? My experience
with the indonesian education system is quite different to ours, they learn rote memory style out of a text, they sit many, many tests on these texts, teacher marks them and
depending on their totals, they are ranked on their position in the class
and the final mark determines if they go up or not. so if this girl has
had some village schooling they might put her in class 1 or 2. Made had done up to class 2
in his village school so they put him into class 3, he is a bright little
kid and they put him up to class 4 within a few weeks. only problem with
this was i had to then send money to buy class 4 texts! LOL. What I did was
went with Made and his mum to some of the schools close by to where they
live in JL. Mataram. kids in the yard at one close by school were laughing and pointing at Made and in Balinese calling him "a little black monkey", hence i don't use that school!i I guess kids can be cruel the whole world over. The school these kids go to is a private
school in kuta to the Tuban end, the cost increases each year a little as
they progress,but on average it is IDR 200,000 per month, so it depends on
our $ rate what it costs in $'s. I have an account at the BCI bank and
money transfers change the money into rupees and the mum of the 4 kids and
Aunt to 1 cousin who are sponsored, has the ATM card so she can withdraw
it and distribute it properly on my behalf or i do it when i am there. I
trust her 110%. You are welcome to use this bank account if you wish -
Janice a queensland sponsor does it this way. Or you could pay for texts
and the school fees direct at the school, and i buy their uniforms and
stationary from the Supernova store, kuta, up the stairs. Yom can give it to the parents if you have their trust. The school i use is Yayasan Ari Prshanti Nilayam Kuta,unless your friends have a motorbike this one may be too far away from Garlic Lane. When made stays with us at the Losari in Garlic lane he walked to the school one day, my son slept in
so there was no motor bike that day!! If i were you i would go with the
parents and girl or leave it just to the parents and girl, to go to a few
nearby schools that any of their freinds or relatives may attend or
reccomend for various reasons. For junior high if they have a birth
certificate, it makes the process of getting in easier. a bit hard when
balinese don't know their age or birthday, and it costs to get papers
organised. From memory the parents show their KIT? identity card,forget what it is called now, to the school when enrolling. Good luck with this fantastic venture,
i couldn't get the email address to send off so i am posting on the forum, jan.