It’s graduation time in Bali!

It’s a wonderful time of year for many children who finish the academic year, break up for winter holiday and move up a grade or even into a new school!

We say goodbye to many kindergarteners, who make the big step up to elementary school, as well as 41 high school graduates who would have dropped out if they had never been sponsored through Bali Children’s Project.

Our work goes on. As students move from elementary to high school, or junior high to senior high, new problems arise.

Kindergarten Graduations

It’s been an emotional few weeks at the kindergartens dotted all over rural Bali. Up in the mountains, on the north coast of the beach and deep in orange farming areas, young learners have achieved something never thought possible before.

From the 26 schools supported by Bali Children’s Project, 664 young learners graduated from school!

It’s not just the fact that they have graduated though – it’s the way in which they were educated. All of these students have had better access to kindergarten education.

Every student from every one of these schools was previously only receiving very basic education. In many cases, parents didn’t bother to send their children to school because the previous schools were so bad.

After renovating the schools, training the teachers and providing a full complement of supplies, early stage education has been revolutionized in rural villages.

Gone are the days when children would be going to school in leaking, broken, damp buildings with no supplies. Parents are now desperate to give their kids early stage education and it’s all available.

Over the years, thousands of children will benefit from these schools. It’s all thanks to donors who have helped us to change fortunes for children in rural villages. You can help us continue to do so, by seeing our Schools Support page, or our Fund a School page.

Tough Times Ahead

As older students move up a year, it also present a whole new raft of children desperately hoping to stay in school. High school in Bali requires entry fees and an array of other fees that mean many children from poor families end up having to drop out.

Poverty hits families in many ways. For children from families who can’t afford the fees, the reality is that they will have to drop out. Without an education, future opportunities are limited to basic laboring or farming. Such is the cycle of poverty that exists in rural Bali.

In fact, based on government statistics – approximately 1 in 5 students will never graduate from school.

Our sponsorship program finds those 1 in 5 children and gives them the chance to graduate – opening up a new world of opportunities that were previously locked.

We’ll be adding many new students seeking sponsorship onto our Sponsorship Waiting List, which is updated in real time. You can help these children to escape their poverty, through education. We’ll continue to appeal for sponsors to help the neediest of children through school.

Forty One Graduates

The burden of knowing there are hundreds (if not, thousands) more children needing sponsorship is eased by seeing how sponsorships change lives.

It is one of the happiest times not just of the year, but in their lives, when students finally graduate from high school. It could have all been so different for this year’s forty one high school graduates.

They all faced dropping out of school and a future of poverty. However, these 23 girls and 18 boys now have graduated and will be moving straight into paid work or further education.

In July, we’ll be celebrating with out graduates by holding our own graduation ceremony. Stay tuned for more!

Elementary Needs

Although elementary school is free, supplies and materials aren’t.

The same children who can’t afford high school go to elementary under equipped. Most of the time they have no shoes, backpacks or even pens and pencils to write.

For these children, we run a School Entry Backpack program. With our 2019 Backpack Appeal coming to an end soon, we’re on a final push to raise more backpacks before the new school year starts.