Help Dreams Rise in Remote Bali

We are pleased to report that in January, our Pengalusan school renovation, from damage caused by last year’s earthquake, was completed and students were very happy and comfortable to return to studying in their ’new’ classrooms.

Students aged 6-11 years were given their first Covid vaccine on January 3^rd,and students aged 12-18 got their second jabs on February 8^th

The second semester of the 2021/2022 academic year started on January 3^rd and as usual, all students were given new books, pens, pencils, drawing books, coloured pencils, and sanitary kits of masks and hand sanitizer and we resumed Balinese traditional dance lessons for all students, practicing the Sekar Jagat, Puspanjali, Merak Angelo and Panyembrahma dances. In Art classes, students are given more practice in drawing with free themes and incredibly, a 7^th grade Pengalusan student, Anom,painted a temporary Bamboo A-frame shelter, that we will use for fundraising purposes.

On 7 February,students were back to online classes due to the rapid spread of the Covid Omicron variant in Bali, but thanks to great efforts of Balinese people, on March 8^th schools re-opened,returning to normal face-to-face classes.

Grade 12 students Final Exams

From March,students in grade 12 focused on preparing themselves for their National Exams by doing practice questions with the aim to improve their readiness and confidence for the real exam. And finally,from April 11th-14th, 2022 they sat their exams and completed all successfully, we all hope! 

This month students are also preparing for performances such as Balinese dance, poetry, and music for the annual event to celebrate National Education Day on May 2^nd, 2022, which we will cover in our next report.  

EMpower Extra-Curricular Youth Empowerment program 

In January, all our 11^th and 12^th grade students were given a psychology test to determine their interests and talents to help them prepare future plans after graduating from high school. For example, if they hope to continue their studies, they can choose the right major and if they plan to seek jobs, it helps them choose the type of work they want.

Year 7 EMpower class started on February 3rd with the theme “Reproductive Health” for the new student and Photovoices for returning students, in collaboration with Photovoices International.

This April, our team are meeting with all students’ parents to establish voluntary parents’ committee whose purpose is to serve as a forum for parents to channel their aspirations to the school especially for preventing student from dropping out.

Finally, we continued providing monthly staple food packages until February 2022 to ensure all students get adequate nutritional intake during COVID-19. 

Thank you to all donors who have always faithfully supported us so that we can still continue our remote schools’ integrated education programs.