Update from The Bungaya Village Library

Last year our 11th grade students became involved in the Bungaya Village Library project that is being spearheaded by a former BIS student, Samara Welbourne. BIS students helped gather funds for the building of the actual library, collected book donations and also helped in the actual building of the library.

The library is now almost fully functional but progress has been delayed due to Mount Agung. It is at present currently being used for the following purposes:

• As a drop off and collection point for aid including aid from the Australian Government.
• To house 14 people with serious physical disabilities who were left behind when their families had to evacuate. These people could not be evacuated on scooters as most are paralysed so they were located by the NGO managing the library Puspadi Bali and brought to the library. The library was built to be fully accessible by everyone, with wheelchair ramps etc, so it is one of the few buildings in Bali that all can access. It also has a small kitchen so is well suited to this purpose.
• To provide classes for the many children evacuated from their villages who can no longer attend their schools
• Providing different seminars for evacuee adults in an endeavour to keep them occupied as they wait permission to return to their homes and villages.

Message from Samara Welbourne: “What originally was thought to be a gift of literacy to one village, has now turned into giving this gift to 20 villages. Again I would like to thank everyone from BIS who helped fundraise for the library and I hope you are happy to hear about this amazing update.”

Message from Pak Latra from Puspadi Bali:

Dear Cherrell and supporters,

Thank you very much to keep going to do fundraising for Bungaya Community Learning Centre. We had very successful event yesterday. Mostly 150 Mount Agung refugees (children and young adults) came to Bungaya Library Centre supported by 50 volunteers from Bali Eko Tours Ubud, Sloka Institute Denpasar, Bali Blogger Community, Yayasan Rumah Sehat (We Care Foundation) and Puspadi Bali staff. A lot of activities has been done such as drawing, reading, singing, writing stories, photo and video stories. People were coming from 20 villages around Bungaya village.

We hope that Sam and Puspadi Bali can raise more money to build the bale, so we have more space to do more activities in the future.

There are 14 Mount Agung refugees are staying in Bungaya Library Centre. The good news is our library, bath room and the kitchen is completed. The water and electricity installations also completed. Furniture and book shelves is needed in the future.

On behalf of Puspadi Bali staff, persons with disabilities and all mount Agung refugees, we would like to to thanks to you for your great support.

Our student leaders, Meike van Nes (Grade 12) and Daniil Uryupin (Grade 11) are looking for volunteers to get involved in this fantastic experience. They are also looking for further donations of Indonesian language books. They recently organised a basketball marathon in school to collect money but if you are interested in making a donation please contact Meike at mvannes18@baliis.net