Escaping Poverty Through Education

The Bali Children’s Project is a non-profit charity registered in USA and Indonesia. The organization originated in the early 1990s, when Joyce Scott and John Cooke recognized children unable to access school. They saw a cycle of rural poverty driven by lack of education, especially for young girls.

They are the first victims when families are forced to economize in times of financial hardship by taking their children out of school and directly to low paying work.

John and Joyce began by informally helping a few children with tuition costs, approaching friends and relatives for donations, and soon developed a network of schools which they supplied with educational material.

The cycle of poverty means many children are unable to achieve their dreams. Bali Children’s Project adopted ‘escaping poverty through education’ as our slogan. It is the idea that if you educate a child, they will have the chance to earn their way out of poverty – changing the lives of them and their families forever.

Programs Grow

In 2004 Linda Moselle Venter joined Bali Children’s Project. Over the years, Linda became more and more involved, significantly increasing programming. She now functions as the Executive Director of Bali Children’s Project.

Linda worked to develop a new team and increase the impact of Bali Children’s Project’s work, including registering as a 501c3 non profit organisation in USA.

In 2006, Bali Children’s Project also registered as an Indonesian ‘yayasan’. This is the Indonesian equivalent of a non-profit. This was a critical time in the history of Bali Children’s Project.

Linda and the Bali team turned the ad-hoc sponsorships into a formalized program that was  monitored both financially and logistically.

They created the formal sponsorship program, monitoring systems and more. The sponsorship program is Bali Children’s Project’s largest program and continues to grow today.

The team grew to deliver many of the programs that exist today – including the expansion of the sponsorships, pre-school support, English learning, sex education, HIV & AIDS workshops and more.

Future

Bali Children’s Project impacts thousands of children and families across Bali. It makes a life changing difference to those who may never have had the opportunity of education.

In the future, we plan to continue growing existing programs as well as adding new programs that help children escape poverty through education.

It is only thanks to the support of individuals and donors that Bali Children’s Project can continue its programs.