Chirstmas Party at Seeds of Hope

Amy is an incredible and inspiring woman who lived in Bali and volunteered at Seeds of Hope  for almost 5 months.

Having to return to Australia when her savings ran out, she left with a promise that she would return and celebrate Christmas with the children.

People like Amy have a profound effect on the children at Seeds of Hope who value her friendship and contiunuing support.

So, on behalf of everyone at Children of Bali and Seeds of Hope – Thank you Amy, we are looking forward to seeing you here again soon xx

Here is Amy’s Christmas story!

“Early December saw the end of my work contract in Perth and I had 4 days to buy, wrap and pack 64 Christmas presents for each child at Seeds of Hope before flying to Bali. Luckily I had spent enough time at the home to know what some kids wanted in particular and bought those things, along with a selection of sports equipment, toiletries and games. Returning home with two big red carry bags over each shoulder, both filled to overflowing – I could almost relate to Santa!

On arrival in Kuta I hired a motorbike and made my way to Seeds of Hope in Denpasar. I stored all the gifts in a spare room and then continued up to the north of the island, a village called Kaliasem, near Lovina Beach.

There I stayed for the following week researching ideas for a children’s education fund project of my own. This project will focus on microfinance loans and empowering women to keep their family together. Some of the children I spent time with in this region often went a whole day with only a bowl of white rice, some had no running water and most, no electricity – a far cry from Seeds of Hope and almost a different world to the one I had left behind not only in Perth, but just 4 hours away in Kuta.

There is no denying that Seeds of Hope is a wonderful place for children with no other options. But through my experiences in visiting five of the thirty two children’s homes in Bali – of different religions and levels of support – I feel it is very important that children stay with their mothers if at all possible.

In Indonesia, and of course also at Seeds of Hope, children are placed largely due to poverty – but other conditions such as re-marriage – where the new spouse does not want the burden of “someone else’s” children to support – find children abandoned. This means that they cannot be adopted or fostered, because they still legally have parents. It means that they may never experience a real, nuclear family environment with individual care and attention. I believe that this is vital to a child’s emotional development.

For a Christmas party game, during the week I slowly made a large Santa piñata in my hotel’s garden from newspaper and glue which when completed, I took on my bike all the way back to Seeds of Hope the night before the party.

After dinner, Yulia and I quietly worked away in my room where we made paper lanterns and streamers, snowflakes and Christmas angels. We had to stay up very late until the last child went to sleep so we could carefully decorate the eating hall and surprise them in the morning. We finished at 2am feeling tired but contented at our efforts.

The children woke at 5am to squeals of delight (from which I then awoke!) as they entered the area for morning prayers. Yulia and I started our cooking duties early after I returned from the supermarket with all our ingredients. We were making coconut ice balls, garden salad (her favourite), biscuits, popcorn and fruit salad. I would have loved to see people’s faces as, albeit slowly,  I rode through the streets with her sister Ambara hanging on, on the back, all the shopping bags hooked at each side of the handlebars and 4 huge buckets of ice-cream sitting precariously between my knees!

Sandra had asked the children what they would like for their Christmas party dinner and they had voted – spaghetti and French fries! Not very traditional but that’s what we made and by 6pm along with all the other party food, we had prepared a feast!

Novi hosted the party by microphone with a variety of singing, dancing from different age groups and a prayer of thanks. I dragged out the presents which were divided into a pile for girls and a pile for boys. Designed to be more like a ‘lucky dip’, the children knew that everything was to be shared and enjoyed together. If you had chosen a pair of shoes that didn’t fit – swap it for something else!

Everybody seemed happy with the fun of lining up, choosing, unwrapping and show-and-tell, and when the chaos of that activity died down a little, we then went outside where poor old ‘Santa’ awaited his fate.

At first the children looked at me horrified when I explained the rules of the game “We don’t want to break it!” they complained. But then Nyomen took the initiative. I blindfolded him, spun him around and after his first big ‘whack’ from the foam baseball bat, everyone wanted a turn!

Finally Umbu took the last shot and Santa’s head tore off. Candy and biscuits and small toys went all over the playground and in the stampede, I literally had to lift both Yundari and Jerri up over my shoulders from risk of being trampled in the fun!!

Full of sugar and adrenaline, the children played outside with small fireworks till late at night while Yulia and I (with the help of some of the older kids), cleaned up the kitchen. By the time we had finished we were all very, very tired.

So very, very tired – but also very happy. The party had been a wonderful success.

I would like to say THANK YOU to the following people for their financial support of this event.

Without you, none of this would have been possible.

Margaret Moss

Martin Maylin

Minh Dang

Alex Bernstein

Emma Rorlach

Rachael Hall

And especially Anne Bremer and my parents, Anke + Peter Bremer