Why our projects include
The needs of children who require support are usually very complex. Their lives interweave with the lives of other children, their families and the wider local community. We spend a lot of time getting to know these groups of children and understanding their daily lives. Our talented and insightful staff then tailor-make a project so that it directly responds to the needs of the children whilst balancing issues within the wider community.
Wherever possible we create projects which are based on business models rather than aid models. This is because we want to help communities to develop and grow stronger instead of being caught in a cycle of dependency. These include Micro Finance Schemes and our very own Ethical Shop, both promoting the value of long term trade instead of long term aid.
But in some cases there is simply a need for a period of ‘Dead Aid’ (food relief, medicines or materials which will run out and require on-going funding). This is usually the case when a community has suffered the effects of a natural disaster (i.e. an earthquake or Tsunami) which has crushed the usual infrastructure. Indonesia sits of the tectonic ‘Ring of Fire’ which means natural disasters are relatively frequent so these projects are an important part of our work.
We also believe strongly in the role of education so we have created a number of Slum Schools in the poorest areas. Being given the opportunity to grow out of poverty is crucial and these schools are a great way of doing that.
