Enjelina is her name, and she is 15 years old living in Kupang. The gum tumor began when she was seven years old, at that moment she had a toothache problem, and she went to a local hospital in Kupang. There the doctor took out one of her teeth. After that, day by day, she felt a lot of pain and again her parents brought her to Yohanes Hospital in Kupang. Again the doctor took out four teeth. At that time the doctor already saw a small lump on her gum, and the doctor gave advice that they had to come to the hospital for a next treatment. Because of they are coming from a low-income family, they decided to stay at home not back to the hospital due to the lack of money.

When she was 12 years old the gum getting more and more swollen, growing bigger and made it difficult to eat and drink. She was also not going to school anymore because she got bullied by her friends in school. We hope that you can help and support us because we want to bring her to Denpasar Bali for surgery. Before we already had an experience like this,one of our patients already recovered from gum tumor after successful surgery. We want to bring back her smile. For that we need financial support from Kolewa friends, in order to cover the expenses for traveling, hosting and medical treatment.

Please donate to our MANDIRI Account :

Kolewa Harapan Indonesia BMRIIDJA 1450011912793

NL79ABNA0980910668

Kolewa Address: Jalan Pulau Sebatik No. 14 Dauh Puri Klod Denpasar Barat

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At this moment, our employee Widia finds herself in Sumba, in the area around Tambolaka. Sumba is one of the poorest islands in Indonesia. Tourism doesn’t have a huge influence over here yet (it is in its starting phase) and therefore the tourism does not have a lot to offer. The population is often struggling to try to survive due to the enormous drought over there and medically seen there aren’t a lot of treatments possible. Since one and a half year, Widia travels to the island every month to scout, to pick up children and to bring them home again. This is an intensive and very risky job because of the bad infrastructure and sometimes the job can be heartbreaking. Together with our local scout Silas, Widia visits village after village to offer the families with schisis children help.

Just now, Widia sent us a couple of photos of the small Daniel Bulu. In front of a, from a western perspective, shabby green house, the mother of Daniel sits with baby Daniel in her arms. The mother looks into the camera, shyly smiling. She is still so young! Actually too young to deal with all the things that are happening to her right now. After 9 months of pregnancy, she gave birth to a child with a multiple cleft lip. This all happened one and a half month ago and still, she and her family are shocked about the event. Of course, the mother loves her child, but she also knows from her experience that children with a condition like this will have a tough time in the close and primitive thinking community where she is a part of. When Widia en Silas paid the mother a visit, it turns out that the future of small Daniel isn’t the only problem.

IT CAN’T BE MINE! It is not the first time that I have heard a reaction like this in Indonesia. Regularly, it happens that the father of the child can’t believe that the child with the hare lip is really his. The young mothers are then sent away by the fathers, back to the parental home to never return back to them again.

This also happened in this case. The mother of Daniel is on her own right now and has to take all the care of the baby. But one thing is for sure: Daniel is her child, she loves him and together with us, Stichting Kolewa, the mother won’t give up on him. We’ll first make sure that Daniel will quickly gain weight. We’ll provide him with healthy baby milk and he will be operated in Bali, as soon as he is 3 months and 5kg and when we have found a sponsor for the travel and verb costs. With such a cleft, there is still a long journey to go, but we will take this road together.

We can use a lot of help to achieve is this! Your financial contribution is very welcome, a future with a smile for a small baby Daniel!

 

A new Afas- schoolbus for deaf and badhearing children in Bali. Daily special education in Denpasar for kids from Karangasem to give them chances, friends and a future by learning sign language. A great donation and step forwards in our Kolewa foundation schoolproject. With this Hi-Ace bus we can accept more kids in our program and sent them to school. We are very grateful and the kids… they love it!

 

Via this website you can become a regular donor of Kolewa Foundation or make a one-off donation towards the much-needed schoolbus for deaf and hearing-impaired children in Bali. I look forward to your belated birthday gift!
In 2009, I, Syta Plantinga, arrived in Bali intending to revive the previously established Kolewa Foundation. In possession of a hundred second-hand hearing aids, I went looking for contacts in the world of the deaf. In Denpasar I found a nursery school that is linked to a local hearing care professional and at the Denpasar General Hospital I met ENT specialist Dr. Eka. Step by step, the network was expanded, as was Kolewa Foundation in Indonesia. We’ve since grown into a registered “Yayasan Social” (NGO) with a shelter home for children who need medical care (e.g. cleft lip and palate treatment’; we have a school project for deaf and hearing-impaired children and with our outreach team we scout on many of the poverty-stricken islands within the Emerald Belt. We help where we can, within Kolewa’s focus areas.

Since 2009, we’ve continued focussing on deaf and hearing-impaired children and their families. With the help of Dutch volunteers, speech and language therapy students and the local midwife in Rendang, I started to identify children with a hearing impairment in Karangasem, Bali. In Nusrani Putu’s house we were given the opportunity to provide information, speech therapy and sign language. The eight-member Kolewa team didn’t know sign language so they first took classes themselves!

Every Sunday we are in Karangasem. The group is growing and growing! Not only are the children educated, the parents learn how to communicate differently, too.
When we first started, the children were isolated, scared, suspicious and illiterate. Today, 15 of them take the Kolewa schoolbus to Denpasar every day to get special education. The rest of them loyally take our classes and hope they will one day have the same opportunity. We have our own textbook and materials, and twice a year there’s a family gathering for children and parents so they can exchange experiences.
And me?… My birthday was at the end of August. In “Rumah Bicara”, our shelter home in Denpasar, a big surprise awaited me. A suprise that gave me, as founder and an advocate, a go-getter and a “mother”, goose bumps… A wonderful film, especially for me. Giving me every reason to go on helping children emerge from isolation and every reason to go on for that larger schoolbus!