The idea of the Kuta International Disaster Scholarship (KIDS) partnership was formed at a meeting of the Bali Recovery Group (a consortium of NGOs, individuals and other organizations formed when the Bali Bomb 2002 occurred) at the end of 2002. Yayasan K.I.D.S. had been started by staff of the chain store, COURTS, and was formally registered in December 2002 as a charitable non-profit organization to support the education of children who had lost one or both parents or had a parent who had been permanently injured in the Kuta bombings in October 2002. David Wood, Sara Pramana and a number of volunteers from COURTS instigated the idea to provide scholarships to these children. Mark Keatinge of YKIP had the same idea and a partnership was formed.
The shared mission of the two organizations was to ensure that the children of the bomb victims could continue their education as long as they wanted (and funds permitting). A new joint organization called YKIP- YKIDS was formally established on 23 June 2003 with a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both sides. Based on this agreement, YKIP handles the major fundraising and finances while YKIDS is mainly in charge of outreach.
The YKIDS volunteers from COURTS searched for data on the children, visiting all of them in their homes and trying to assist them both morally and materially as well as giving them the courage to think positively and get on with their lives. Other organizations did this as well, and their efforts were consolidated in a database, stored originally with the Bali Hati Foundation, that is now with YKIP. This was organized through the Bali Recovery Group. Since this project began in 2003, we have supported 132 children whose parents were either killed or injured in the bombing. The children of injured parents who have since recovered and returned to work are no longer supported by YKIP-YKIDS. The number of children supported decreases as they graduate from school. This program is intended to continue until all children have graduated from university in 2026.
