Don’t Forget the Poor…

TTS Bali Project

Don’t Forget About US

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland has come and gone (February). I followed with some interest as the world economic woes seem to be having an impact on everyone. The world’s poor didn’t have a seat at the table, but U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon spoke for the “bottom 1 billion”. In 2008, the Forum gathered to declare 2008, the “year of the bottom 1 billion”. Now in 2009, I quote Ban:

January 2009… Happy New Year!

TTS Bali Project

Returning home from Bali is always with mixed emotions. I suppose the same can be said for returning from any “vacation” back to the realities of everyday life and work. Maybe it is accentuated by returning from a tropical climate to the (relative) cold of Japan? As usual, I had an amazing and extremely productive time in Bali working on our projects.

TTS Bali Project November 9.2008 Update

TTS Bali Project

As I start my 6-week countdown to my return to Bali, I was wondering how my friends, the Foundation Team and the families of all of our sponsored kids and students are coping with world economic events? I got an interesting, yet simple email basically saying that people, “keep on keeping on…”

Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel Foundation

Volunteerism and involvement with Foundations or charity groups can be an amazing journey that often evolves over time. This has been my experience with the Peduli Sesama Helen Flavel Foundation (HFF). The internet has become a great forum for introducing like-minded people. Just over 3 years ago – in fact on the very trip when I met Gabrielle and Omid on my plane home to Japan, I met Helen Flavel for the first time in Bali. Through the internet, I had heard about an Australian woman who had started a foundation to educate the poor children in North Bali. After exchanging email, I visited North Bali and met Helen and Dewi (our LC director) on the site where the Learning Center was just being constructed. Sometimes things click in an indescribable way. I felt an immediate connection with both of them. On behalf of the Aurora Bali Project, I dropped off story books and educational materials, left money to help build bookshelves for the yet to be completed Learning Center, and most importantly committed to sponsoring 2 children. This is where the sponsorship of Rudi and Meiling started and where our journey with the HFF and the LC began.

Bali Summer News 2008

Having Just Returned from 4 weeks in Bali,

I am full of enthusiasm for our project ? both in a sense of accomplishments and in a sense of future plans. Four weeks seems like a long time, but after cramming so many activities in, it really zoomed by!

TTS Bali Project, Introducing Volunteer Coordinator Syd Joseph

How it all Started

Hi!  My name is Syd Joseph and I am the founder and volunteer coordinator of the Aurora Bali Project (ABProject). When I think about the connections and path that led me (and us) to this point, it makes me wonder if things are “meant to be” or if things come about because of effort and planning, or most likely, a combination of both? I’ll tell you the story of how I came to meet Omid and Gabrielle and let you be the judge…

TTS Bali Project

… Striving to educate and improve the lives of children and their families in Bali, Indonesia.