Homes For Lombok – Our Indonesia Fundraiser

“Last year, I met Arif; a guide who led (and coached) me up the summit of Mount Rinjani, Lombok. We taught each other phrases and swapped stories about our lives- an experience I’ll never forget.

After Lombok suffered its second devastating earthquake this year, I felt compelled to help Arif and his pregnant wife, who had been directly impacted by the quake; losing their home and running water. Among my family and friends, the Rickshaw team helped raise almost £400 in 24 hours which went towards building materials and a water tank for the community. An amazing achievement, but there’s so much more that can be done.”

One of the local guides in Senaru, Indonesia was also massively affected by the earthquakes, and is just one of many people who have lost her job and her home due to the earthquake:

“After the earthquake happened, our house was destroyed, we all now live in a shelter house with other people. All the people or guides lost their jobs because no tourists want to come here. We have no job now, a lot of us need to get income. We may have no choice but to work as a maid in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. We’ve lost our house and jobs at the same time.” 

Our local partners on the ground have been helping out numerous local projects that help local people get back on their feet, and we want to take part and make a difference, especially after Hannah’s guide’s story. We thought that helping people rebuild their lives and have a roof over their heads would be the most impactful project to support, as the island is already past the emergency state and is moving towards the long-term projects. One of the projects involves building new houses for locals who have been affected by the earthquake. Jantine, who has lived on Lombok for over 30 years, has started a project collecting funds to build bamboo homes to house affected families.

To make it simple here’s a breakdown of this:

Roof 3.500.000 IDR =  £175

Walls 3.500.000 IDR = £175

Door and window 1.500.000 IDR = £75

Foundation 1.500.000 IDR = £75

We want to raise £5k throughout the next couple of months through a series of events, including:

• Movember
• Cycle across Indonesia bike ride
• Plus more! Watch this space…

What else? Ceri, one of our Team Leaders, is over there now, helping Indo with her bare hands as part of her sabbatical. She was initially hoping to climb the Rinjani and after a series of severe earthquakes shook Lombok didn’t quite change her destination and although trekking was off limits, Ceri went to Lombok to help the locals. Here’s what she says:

I had been unsure of what kind of volunteering I wanted to do, I decided to put a message on the Lombok earthquake relief facebook group and eventually I, and someone I got in contact with through the group, set about working out how I could help in some way.

We talked about activities to encourage fun for the children and put together a program for a week-long kids festival full of games, activities and competitions. The idea being they had something to feel excited about that wasn’t just over in a day, and for all the local schools to get involved. There would be football, badminton, traditional games such as stilt walking, stick fighting, cooking classes, traditional instruments lessons, 100-metre sprints and sack racing.

Each day after prayers all the local kids would gather for that day’s activities, all carefully coordinated by the local men. I helped out where I could (the all-important role of judging the 3 and 4-year-olds colouring competition was just one of the highlights!). In between, I helped the English teacher at a school and travelled to another village to teach both kids and adults after school. Spending time with the children was an absolute joy,  they give so much and despite the language barrier we laughed and laughed together.

Please, can you help? Click here, to donate.