In 2006, we got a visit from a wonderful young family from Switzerland to our offices. Christophe and Lene Fischer, from Jouxtens-Misery (Lausanne) had in tow their three delightful children: Eva, Jonas and Tom (in 2009, age 10, 8 and 4). They wanted to sponsor children’s education and they began by providing KEMBALI scholarships to 12 children. This grew the next year to include 9 hearing impaired children and in 2009. They are now sponsoring a total of 31 children, in addition to Eva herself sponsoring one (she walks a lot of Dogs to get the funds!) and both sets of grandparents sponsoring one child as well.
The Fischers come to Bali twice a year and always include YKIP as part of their itinerary. Not only do they help with our KEMBALI program, they bring over kilos and kilos of used Clothing and toys that people put on their doorstep to bring to Bali. The YKIP staff always spends time at their Balinese villa, playing in the pool with the children and sharing meals And fun stories. They are like family to us to YKIP.
The YKIP director, Rucina, went to Switzerland in April 2009, stayed with the Fischers and conducted a fundraising evening for their friends, where she got everyone up doing Balinese Dance and many of those attending subsequently sponsored children in our KEMBALI program.
In August 2009, the Fischers brought together 30 of their friends (15 of those children) whom we took to visit the school children in Seraya Barat, East Bali where many of them have sponsored children. The kids danced for us and even sang Frere Jacques (en Français!) and then the Swiss children sang and shared photographs of them doing their most favorite activity. We played games together and brought together two sides of the globe through music and fun.
One of the girls in Seraya Barat lives in a tiny shack with her mom, grandfather and auntie. The walls and roof are made out of plastic tarp. Jonas, when he was seven declared to his family, “I want to build a house for Wayan”. And he has already, in 2009, raised over 500 Euro! We are seeing if we can work together with Habitat for Humanity to make this a dream come true.
It is amazing that in this day and age a 7 year old would come up with the idea to build a house for a poverty stricken girl, all on his own and fundraise the monies to see it materialize himself.
Both Eva and Jonas love Bali and the Balinese and have already become philanthropists. Little Tom says when he goes shopping with his Mom “Are we buying that for me or is that for Bali?” and he says it without a whine, just a simple question. Would there be more children like the Fischers in the world!
