Program Reviews

After a long hard journey of 24 hours , I came to Bali night. Agus was waiting me at the airport , in the car we were talking about Bali.

I was really looking forward to IHF, there were all volunteers, some were eating and others were going to sleep. I also went to sleep .

The next day, I woke how I met the middle classes, children ... the center is amazing, very nice and very large, I feel very comfortable here, with pool too.

The kids are great, they are eager to learn and they are very funny, they always ask me things about my country, my family...

I really like the culture of Bali, the lifestyle of the people , especially how everyone is respected and climate , of course

I still have four months here, I hope enjoy here like these early days.

My name is Kerri. I am currently a volunteer at the Bali IHF center. To an outsider, the center provides supplemental English, Math and Computer classes to children who live in the area. To anyone who knows a bit about the IHF or who comes here, knows that it offers so much more than that. The center is a place for the kids. On any given day there are children running around, playing cards, talking with the teachers or just hanging out. The center gives them a safe place to go and provides them with opportunities and resources that most of them would have never had without the IHF. At the IHF - the children are the number one priority. I've learned that you can do a whole lot with a little and that sometimes it's the smallest things - like taking the time to have a conversation about the latest Indonesian pop song - that mean the most.

My name is Jing from Beijing and I’ve been working here at IHF Bali center for 3 weeks now. Before coming here, I had worked as an English teacher at a secondary school for 3 years, and the experience helped me quickly blend into the work vibe at IHF Bali, especially when it comes to working with the young.
Here at IHF Bali, we offer supplementary classes to underprivileged students from primary to senior high school. Almost all the courses are taught by helpful volunteers from all over the world. Apart from the knowledge we try to share, it’s also the abundant care, love and joy we bring that the kids cherish dearly.
One would be naïve to think that we are here only to give and teach. The fact, however, is we ourselves are undergoing a process of self-reflection and transformation. By spending time with the local, getting to know the culture and trying to see things both through their lenses and ours, we are learning, day by day, and gaining understandings about a once unfamiliar land, which we now feel connected with. Isn’t it one of the marvels of life?

My name is Esther Manzanera and I am a WorkStudy Volunteer in Bali. I have been here for two months already and I could say that this experience has changed my life so I would recommend it to anyone! Since I arrived to the center I could see how easy was to help the children most in need. I have enjoyed the happiness of the kids which is is the most grateful thing that you could have. They don´t worry about the material things, about having the best Play Station or iPhone. They don´t need those things to be happy, they will be smiling everyday, even linving on the most basic conditions. The life in IHF shows you a different way to understand the world where you learn to value the most simple things!

A dream becomes true: Already as a little girl I dreamt of going to Africa to help children there. It was about five years ago when I saw a documentary about Africa that I decided, I wanted to go right after high school. To me it appeared the best time to go, since all my studies were done and I could not study for anything else, because I have no new classes yet. After spending weeks, looking for the right organization I finally found the advertisement of International Humanity Foundation. ‘This is my chance, to help without having to get financial help from my parents and relatives!’ and immediately I applied.

Now that I am here at the children’s home in Nakuru I am learning new things every day. Currently I am the youngest volunteer here which I sometimes get to feel in the way that I have no experience in particular situations. I am very grateful to have many very friendly and open people around me who help me.

Working with the children is often a challenge I must say, because not only is the culture very different, but also their perception of the world. I am surprised by some things the children ask me, which to me are very normal and logical to me, but they had never heard about it.

A regular day here starts at 5:30am for the children – except for weekends – when they get their tea and towards 6am they start leaving for school. After all of them have left – or at least all the ones that are not sick – we have time to do our online tasks, go to the hospital with sick children, help our cook cooking lunch, going to teacher-parents meetings, going to town to buy necessary utensils, and whatever else is needed. At lunch time some of the children come back to eat and some stay at school and eat there. Only the smallest ones stay here for the afternoon, all the others have to go back to school. In the evening, since they are in different schools they come home at different times, and we start playing games with them – they love football! – or help them with homework. Sometimes there are also big activities planned, though more on weekends than during the week. Saturday and Sunday are the only two days when we look after the children all day long, so these are our most exhausting days – fun never the less!

We are facing many difficulties with that many children around us – 70 children is quite a number to me! Problems like illnesses – meaning going to the hospital and waiting there for several hours – making sure the children are good in school, which means tutoring, helping with homework, doing extra work with them for practicing, and many things more. Every day is a challenge, and I like to every day have a new “task” to achieve.

So far all my experiences have helped me grow mentally, and to understand this completely different culture. Already now, that my third week is over, I think about how sad that it is that I only stay here for two months. I wish I could be here for longer, trying to have a bigger impact in the lives of those children, showing them how much potential they have and how they can use it, giving them the love they deserve, giving them an idea what life is all about, how important education is… I could go on with this list. I really think they are great children and I am happy to see that there are people from all over the world, willing to give them their time and influencing and teaching them, everyone in their very own way.

My name is Rong Fu, as a work study volunteer in Jakarta center, I am responsible of teaching activities such as English and art classes and undertaking international assignments from four different teams in IHF. My initial purpose of volunteering is quite straightforward--to help those in need, but gradually I find that in the process of voluntary work, what I have learned is no less than what I have taught.What I have gained from this work study volunteer experience is learn how to swiftly accommodate myself to a new environment and people from various culture and background, and the most important, how a grassroots NGO as IHF, operates to realize its commitment to children in need.

My name is Yuxuan Zhu. Originally from China, I'm now studying Economics and Psychology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Being a volunteer is not new for me; but this is the first time that I have devoted such intensive time and effort into an undeveloped country. I'm really touched by the kids in the center.

Being a volunteer teacher was what I wanted to do for a long time. Now the dream came true. As a counselor of overseas education, I helped Chinese high school students to pursue higher education in American universities. I wondered if I could do something for the students who lived in wholly different backgrounds. When I knew IHF had centers in Jakarta and Bali, I applied without hesitation.

I arrived at Jakarta center on March 3, and began to teach Chinese for junior high school students in the first week. In the following two weeks, I also taught English for the younger children from age 6 to 12. Familiar with common characteristics of teenagers, I got along well with the junior high school students, and they learned Chinese fast with strong passions and good methods. I was happy that they liked my class. It was a small challenge for me to teach young kids. Without any experience in teaching children, I prepared for the class more carefully. It was more difficult for us teachers to teach young children because we also needed to maintain discipline in the classroom. The goal of education was guiding students to study, think and explore. It's more important for children to learn something in IHF because of their limited learning resources and poor conditions. I felt fulfilled when the kids acquired English vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation that I taught.

Besides teaching and doing online tasks, I harvested friendship. Hanging out with the co-directors and local volunteers made me excited. We knew more about each other as well as the city in our spare time. I would miss the students and co-directors after leaving Jakarta at the end of March.

I learnt about International Humanity Foundation online. From a background of economics in college, I chose to come to a Southeast Asian country – Indonesia - to see the difficulty and potential of the economic and social development in one of the poorest places, and Bali in particular because I was interested in the huge economic inequality on an island thriving with tourism and traveler-oriented services - so far, Bali and IHF have delivered all my expectations.

Living in a small Indonesian village proved to be even more difficult than I thought. The level of underdevelopment is far worse than anything I have ever experienced. I have complained about the inconvenient living conditions and the often malfunctioning wifi. I have biked up the mountains on a recruitment trip and seen for myself the kind of mistrust the locals have in a US-based NGO like us. I have been constantly surprised by the local kids’ excitement upon seeing a foreigner and their lovely ‘hello’s and ‘good morning’s.

Volunteers at IHF Bali started an art project to decorate the center. We asked the kids to draw the ‘IHF hand’ on a piece of paper, write down their names and decorate the drawing as they wish. The kids dived right into it and created many remarkable drawings. Their creativity and imagination surprised me. Moreover, I was pleased to witness their excitement over such a small art project. Every day after the English classes, most volunteers complain about how hard it is to discipline the small kids and get them to focus on the class material. We college students are used to sitting in a lecture hall, staying concentrated for couple of hours and taking in as much information as we can. However we forgot that it is more important to encourage creativity in children. Many of them may not be good at following instructions, especially after a full school day, but they are eager for opportunities to show their individuality. In a collectivist country like Indonesia with strict cultural and religious constraints on personal choices, the small projects we create might give the kids the best moment in their day.

More than everything, I am deeply touched by some kids’ eager for knowledge and passion for English learning under an incomplete and shockingly corrupt public education system. This makes me realize that the free education provided by IHF Bali is working against the social norm and that we have a long way to go to prove our legitimacy and credibility. When we talk about NGOs and volunteering work in the US and other developed nations, we focus on the generosity of the donors and the sophisticated process of recruiting qualified volunteers, yet we have often forgotten the importance of reaching out to the locals and working our way best into the cultural and religious traditions in the area we work in. These traditions, however little merit they may have, are far more powerful in a country like Indonesia than our optimistic western ideology of free education, democracy, equality, and individual merits.

Many NGOs like IHF are great international efforts to relieve poverty and provide education opportunities, nevertheless we all need to realize that the overarching goal of our work is to serve the ‘local’ community, to benefit the ‘locals’, and through a long and hard time to influence the ‘local’ values in a positive way. And this is the hard part: to establish our trustworthiness in a remote Indonesian village and to get them to welcome our good intentions, however unrealistic they might seem to an Indonesian person. I am yet to reach this goal, but this one month experience at IHF Bali has definitely made the picture clear to me. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity.

My name is Emmaline Stotter. I'm nineteen years old and currently on a gap year before starting at Edinburgh University in September 2013. I've always wanted to go abroad and volunteer, but never understood why I would have to pay thousands of pounds to help build a community or bond with children. I wanted it to be personal, I wanted to see for myself that I was making a difference or doing at least something to put a smile on someone else's face.
I chose to come to the IHF centre in Chiang Rai Thailand, as my mother is originally Thai and I was born here, but was brought up in Europe forgetting most of my Thai. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about my other culture and language, as well as bond with the real Thai children and learn deeply about their world I wish I was more bonded to. The centre is located in Chiang Rai - its beautiful here! I could imagine living here and that thought doesn't come around often! This centre is a home to 12 children from the Lahu Hilltribe. They live here in order to gain a proper education. All of them attend a Thai school nearby.
We wake up around six in the morning to wake up the kids for school. We prepare their breakfast and see them off on the school bus around seven. At 4 we pick up the primary school kids and walk them home. Shortly after, the high school kids return home by bus. We have snacks and relax. After washing school uniforms we get busy with activities, whether its completing sponsor letters, doing origami or one of our frequent AMAZING dance battles led by the great Jiraporn! We help each other to prepare dinner for everyone and we make sure the place is clean before lights out.
My time at the centre is coming to an end and to my amazement, I have learnt so much more then I ever expected. As well as me reminding the children to say 'thank you' and 'please', they have reminded me to keep calm, be patient and to enjoy the moments. I've also learnt a lot of cooking from these amazing chefs! This is one big reason I traveled abroad - to work on my bad aspects i.e. to become more patient and calm, to be able to discuss things with others and not argue and to never waste the time you have. These kids have really put huge smiles on my face everyday I've been here and after leaving this centre I will not forget them and will try my hardest to stay in contact often. I hope to sponsor one of the new comers who shares an interest - photography! I am very grateful to every one here for their kindness and for letting me get to know them and spend time with them. I will miss them dearly and wish them all the success in their futures.