A retrospective of the first six months
On 11 September of this year, the entire board of Kolewa Foundation met in Alphen aan den Rijn, where the foundation has been registered since 10 years. The first item on the agenda was the opportunity for every board member to comment on their own performance, their mutual collaboration and the tasks to be carried out. Board member Angela de Witte celebrated her 5th anniversary at Kolewa and fortunately decided to stay on as a PR member.
Then we looked back on the activities and finances during the period from January to July 2017. A lot of work has been done in both Indonesia and the Netherlands. Shelter home Rumah Bicara accomodated as many as 57 children and their companions for a shorter or a longer period of time, enabling the children to undergo surgery in one of the Balinese hospitals and recover from the procedure afterwards. Income and expenditure are fully in line with the 2017 policy plan.
This new website was launched in the Netherlands and the first “new-style” newsletter went out. In additon, various funds, service clubs and schools were approached and requested to support our activities financially. The first six months inspire confidence, in terms of commitment of the Indonesian team, the donations that were made and the interest in our work from private individuals from both the Netherlands and abroad. There were many pleasant interviews with students and volunteers who are interested in a stay in Bali at Kolewa.
Legalisation of the Kolewa Foundation in Indonesia
Apart from the budget to be drawn up, the discussion on the draft 2018 policy plan included the official legalisation of our activities in Indonesia.
The last couple of months, chair person Syta Plantinga has been working hard on setting up the Indonesian version of the foundation. After several years of having worked on a sound and solid organisation with an excellent location and a committed team, it was time to be registered at the Department of Human Rights in Jakarta, Indonesia and also at local authorities in Bali, such as the Dinas Sosial. The name Yayasan Kolewa Harapan Indonesia, having its registered office in Denpasar, has been entered into the records. In popular speech it will remain the “Kolewa Foundation”. The logo will also remain the same.
As the Dutch board, we expect this to bring new fundraising opportunities. We now have an official local field partner.
But even more importantly, it is the next step towards self-reliance of the Indonesian team. The local board, in which founder Syta Plantinga has taken a seat, also consists of Ni Luh Juliani (chair person), Luh Dessy Widayani Uttari (treasurer), Putu Nusrani (secretary) and Fenny Lourens (supervisor).
Although perhaps not much will change in practice, we all see this as a positive step forwards and we will be happy to inform you in detail about the projects for 2018 in the policy plan, which will be pubished on this website shortly.
The meeting started at 4 pm and was concluded to everyone’s satisfaction around 8 pm.
Leave a Reply