9th September 2015.

***UPDATE 9TH SEPTEMBER 2015 – MIRA AND CITRA HAVE BEEN SPONSORED!***

When our Gianyar Area Co-ordinator Manda was visiting sponsored children, she was approached by a member of the community, who told her about two girls living in shocking circumstances.

It was a normal day for Manda – who was checking on all the sponsored kids in her area to ensure they had all they needed. Then she was approached by someone had heard about Bali Children’s Project.

They told her about two children from an extremely poor family. Specifically, she had been told that the two girls in the family were at risk of dropping out of school.KITCHEN

Manda went along to visit the family and was shocked by what she found.

Shocking Living Conditions

Mira, aged 10 and Citra, aged 13 are two incredibly bright girls from Tegallelang who enjoy dancing, singing and learning English.

The family were living in a basement style bedsit with no windows. Their only private area was confined to a small room of 4×3 meters. There wasn’t even a cupboard to put clothes. The housing was dirty, with no ventilation at all, with evidence of rats. It really was a sad scene.

The family all sleep together on one old and dirty mattress.

Citra and Mira did not even have shoes to wear outside of school. Their mother, who works as a basic laborer (making glass),ROOM told us that she could not afford buy clothes for the girls and the family are facing being evicted as they cannot afford the 170,000 IDR (about $15) per month bedsit.

Prioritising Education

Despite all this, their mother has prioritised education for her girls above all else. She has been struggling to keep up and had to borrow money from friends to buy the compulsory school uniforms.

The family are in a spiral of debt just to clothe their children and send them to school. But a sponsorship would change all that. It would ease the pressure of school fees, and allow their mother to pay back the debt. She would be able to move her focus to providing food and shelter for the family.

KITCHEN (2)Put simply, enabling school fees would simply be invaluable.

Both Citra and Mira are keen to stay in school, so one day they can use their education to make better lives. There is only one way this can happen though – through sponsorship.

Can you Sponsor Citra and Mira?

These two girls are urgently needing sponsorship. Although the situation is dire, the girls are some of the happiest people you could wish to meet.

Please contact us at info@balichildrensproject.org to sponsor the girls. Alternatively, you can sponsor Citra & Mira directly by going to our donate page and marking your donation ‘FOR CITRA & MIRA”. Sponsorship for one girl is $40 per month, or to sponsor both is $80 ($40 each).

Ni Luh Citrawati&Ni Kadek Ari MirawatiBefore Manda left, she told the girls we would do our best to find a sponsor for them. She asked if they would mind writing a brief letter to explain their needs.

Update from 9th September 2015

What an amazing response from our appeal to help Citra and Mira gain school sponsorship. We were overwhelmed with the kind people volunteering to help.

In the end it was Tiarna and Danielle from Western Australia who sponsored the girls. What a great job we will have, telling the girls and their parents they have been sponsored by two sisters.

We also want to thank all those wanting to help improve their living situation. With your support, we hope the family can find new accommodation more suitable for the family.

You can still support the family through our donate page or if you are interested in seeing the other children currently on our waiting list here.

Thank you!

 

13 Year old Citra’s Letter

Hello,

My name is Ni Luh Citrawati (Citra for short), I am 13 years old, I live in Tegalalang. I come from a poor family and I live with my parents. They have a job as a laborers. My father works as a statue painter in Tegallalang, my mother is mosaic maker. I have one sister, her name Mirawati and a baby brother.

I am living in a boarding house so we have to pay IDR 170,000 for one month. I just have one mattress, we sleep together. Our house is compound not good and we don’t have ventilation. The sun is not coming to our home. We used the toilet together with our neighbor. We don’t have.

I love to study and I really enjoy my school with my friends. I love English lesson and Mathematic. My hobbies are Reading and Music. When I am in school, I often got the first winner in my class. I really want to continue my school; I really want to help my parents. I go to school from 12.00 pm until 6.00 pm. I am walking from my house to school.

Please help me and my sister to get sponsor. We like to going school. If we don’t have a sponsor, we can’t to continue school.