A few months ago, I took a group of high end clients to Bali. The plan included spending some time with the local women and helping them out.
...It was an eye opening experience.
We got to see how the women and children in Bali live when they have nothing.
Often, these women are homeless & on the street begging.
If they are lucky enough to have a roof over their head, they are often still on the street begging.
The roof over their head means a room with a space of around 2.5m X 2.5m.
It's completely normal for an entire family with 9 children would live in that space and that space only. They have a shared toilet and shared kitchen outside of the building.
The rent on that space is the equivalent of about $35AUD a MONTH... many can't even afford that.
The Centre that we visited is helping women change their mindset and show them how they can do more than just beg on the street.
So they don't have to take their babies out in the hot sun to beg for money when they are just newborns.
The women are learning a skill where they are able to be productive. To be able to make items to sell at markets to make money to provide for their families.
The children are then able to learn basic schooling in hope that they pass a test so they can go to proper school.
We purchased two laptops to give to the Centre to help the children have access to information that they wouldn't normally have. There is internet access in the area but access to devices are limited because they just can't afford them.
We also bought fresh fruit, basic food items and treats like biscuits for them.
In the gift bags we gave to all the women there was shampoo, soap, body wash, body lotion, hand sanitiser, tooth brush, tooth paste and deodorant.
...most of them didn't even know what any of it was.
The look of confusion on their face about the deodorant was so sad.
These things we take for granted every day are not always available to everyone. It's easy to forget how good we have things here in Australia.
In Bali, you can't just buy sanitary pads. So we took over a suitcase full of them.
The shock and gratitude they had was incredible to see.
These families have nothing. They don't even have chairs to sit on.
I was completely overwhelmed with how bad it actually is over there.
I'm also incredibly grateful for how lucky we are to have basic necessities including access to clean water, toilets, sanitary and personal care items.
Check out some of the pictures from our trip:
If you do want to donate money or items to them check out http://www.balilife.org as the organizers are trying to raise as much money as they can - $35 a month would give one family a roof over their head.
