Mt Agung Relief Effort Update

As many of you know, our school has been diligently helping out with the ongoing effort to support the displaced refugees from the villages around Mt. Agung. The BIS Mt. Agung Relief Team has been working closely with the East Bali Poverty Project [EBPP] which is an NGO focused on providing various forms of aid from sanitary needs to food and games.

EBPP have works predominantly in the Tianyar region which lies in between Mt. Agung and Mt. Abang on the crater of Mt. Batur. This area is one of the poorest areas of Bali and now with the Mt. Agung crisis, the people living here have spread out to many camps across the island however they are mainly condensed in Kabupaten Buleleng. Our team is currently working with the EBPP to help out with the effort in trying to provide them with money and supplies and we are even trying to get some of our team members to go up to Buleleng to help out in the camps.

Our group has been organizing ways to incorporate support from students and teachers in school. Our first fundraiser was a Raffle, an initiative set up to help raise funds for the EBPP. Tickets were set at Rp 10,000 each with the chance of winning a pizza for 2nd and 3rd place and for 1st place having a teacher serve you a 3 course meal. We are very grateful for the donation from Trattoria in Sanur for providing the meals and for their assistance to our cause.

Currently, we are launching another project which is to bring out a sticker to serve as a way of spreading awareness about the situation and its effect on the Mt. Agung refugees. These stickers will be an easy way for people to show their support by posting them on their cars, motorbikes and other items. We plan on selling these stickers at the PTFA Holiday Fair on April 11th at the BIS CAS stand. These stickers are just to keep tourists, locals and expats aware of the fact that this is still an ongoing problem despite the general feeling of safety generated by the news and updates surrounding the issue.

For other future plans we hope to have more students actively involved in this program as it is a great learning experience and allows for a more active role in community.

Thanks!

BIS Mt. Agung Relief Effort Team

[Max Raymond, Naomi Michael-Lohs, Daniil Uryupin, Alba Romero, Jae Yeon Lee, Sean Seedwell]