July 24, 2011

Bleeding Hearts (For Art) Unite!

There is this little island in Indonesia called Bali.  Perhaps you've heard of it?

Is it just me, or is it shaped like a chicken? (Not making fun, I'm just saying.)

It's a beautiful place.  A major tourist destination with resorts and spas.  There's this really famous book in which a woman finds herself and falls in love in Bali.  It's a movie now too.  Perhaps you've heard of Eat Pray Love?  Great book.  One of my favorites.

Unfortunately, this is all I've ever known about Bali.  And unfortunately, it seems that all of this little island's beauty is masking a harsh reality.  Widespread poverty among its locals.

Very near Bali is the country of Australia.

Bali is there in that string of islands to the northwest of Australia (right there in the middle of the picture).

Apparently Aussies enjoy taking little jaunts over to Bali.  One such Aussie who has done so is a big-hearted blogger whom I've mentioned here before, Edenland.  Recently, Eden wrote a post titled Meddlesome Do-Gooding in which she spoke about a charitable organization called Project 18.

"Foundation 18, Indonesia runs a group home based at Ringdikit and education outreach program offering sponsorship to children who remain in the care of a family member.  Our five year goal is to have every child in Ringdikit fully immunised and attending school at least to senior high school level."


After reading about Project 18 a fellow blogger, Stay At Home Babe, decided she wanted to do something.  So she came up with a little idea called Heart For Art.


"Heart For Art is not a charity, legal entity or official anything. It’s the title I’m giving to the movement that WE (you & I) are going to start. We’re going to make art, by ourselves, with our kids, with local artists or school art classes, and we’re going to send it to these girls. Then they can send pictures back to us. Simple, right?"


Cool, right?  What's also cool is that I didn't stumble upon this directly.  Yet another blogger I follow, Mama's Monologues, wrote a post about the Babe's idea.  And I went, "Oh hey, I read about this org on Edenland and even already put the button in my sidebar!"




Help Foundation 18 to continue to educate kids in need.


If YOU would like to mail some pretty pictures to the children in Bali to let them know there are folks all around the world thinking of them, there are 2 addresses to choose from:

Less expensive for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere:
UK address
Lerner Farrington
Attn: Heart For Art
18 Suffolk Rd
Lincoln, LN1 2UG
UK

Or, directly to Australia
Cate Bolt
Attn: Heart For Art
PO Box 239
Glass House Mountains, Qld 4518
Australia

More info
Project 18 has 9 girls in the group home aged 3 – 13. There are also 24 more children in the education outreach program. They take a family into the program – if there are 3 kids, 2 school aged and one toddler, they provide for all of them. Project 18 pays for the cost of their education, gives them clothing and a monthly staple food donation (usually 10kg of rice, sugar, eggs, milk powder, formula for babies, water, oil etc). These children still live with a family member, usually an uncle or grandparent, but still get the benefits of the program. There’s a long culture in Bali of sending children to orphanages when there are living parents simply because the parents can’t afford to keep them. Project 18 refuses to take children who have families, if their home is safe.

Other ways to help
*Web Hosting Services: Wanna self-host, want discounted rates and know that the cash from your hosting service will go to an amazing cause? http://www.project18.org.au/blog-hosting/
*Make a purchase from the Foundation 18 Inc. shop or Etsy shop.
*Buy a ‘brick’ of Fairtrade chocolate and help P18 build a ‘chocolate classroom’.
*Make a one off, or regular monthly contribution directly to Foundation 18, Indonesia
*Grab a banner or button from the Project 18 website and add it to your blog or website.
*Follow Project 18 Inc on Twitter and on Facebook. (Use the #Heart4Art hashtag on Twitter too)
*Participate in Auctions for Education – pick up a bargain and know the money is going to Educate kids.

What I love about this, and why I wanted to write a post too, along with at least 10 other bloggers so far, is that this is about regular people just like you and me wanting to do a little good.  And it's about an online GLOBAL community of people who want to use their little corner of the Internet to help spread a little love.

After the tragedy in Norway on Friday, as well as a local mass shooting yesterday, this kind of thing reminds me that most human beings are good and kind and care about the world around them.

Happy Sunday!


PS: Linking this post up as one of my faves of this week! Thanks to Adventures in Mommyhood!


2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk about about our beautiful girls in Bali. I was just looking at a picture of them before I found your blog post and looking at them always makes me smile. There's so much good in the world, it doesn't always scream as loudly as the bad but it's always there. Thanks for being part of the good.

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  2. What a great post you put together. So glad you joined us, hope we can make a difference some how.

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