I love Indonesia. One of my dreams is to visit every one of the 2000 islands that make up Indonesia. On one of my trips, I was very fortunate to meet Jos, who is from Rotterdam (Holland). I met him in Yogajakarta, (Batik Capital of the world) and we have kept in touch through the years.
On that same trip, I went to Lombok (beautiful island) on my way to see the Kimodo Dragons. (highly recommend) I did something I rarely do- hired a guide to take me around the island. His name is Beddy (dimastours@yahoo.com) he speaks English and is very informative. We are still in touch as well.
Jos, since has made several trips to Indonesia- and in one of those trips- they visited a small deserted school in the hills by Senggigi.
They climbed for 1.5 hours to get to the school, to find a building that was built in 2002 for 36 kids and now there are almost 200 kids at this un-renovated school.
Jos and his girlfriend came up with a great fundraising plan. They had the kids make drawings, which they took back to Holland to print on T-shirts. They have just launched a website, Face This in which they sell the T-shirts (warning- foreign language) . With the money they raise they will supplying the school with funds for re-building. Jos speaks English and if you have any questions- please feel free to email him at josvanderhoek@gmail.com or info@facethis.nl
Indonesia has had it share of man-made and natural disasters. Tsunami’s, Ferry boats sinking, earthquakes, floods, bombing and freak storms. That said- if so inclined, buy a T-shirt, or even visit Indonesia, I highly recommend it.
Resources
Lombok “the island of new adventure”