HISTORY OF YAYASAN

written by Ni Luh Suriani, Ni Luh Karyani and Ni Nyoman Winda Amani

Yayasan Widya Sari was founded by Mr. Wayan Widiana, Mr. Ketut De Sujana Mahartana, Mrs. Luh Kerti, Mr. Gill and Mrs. Cherie on the 5^th of May 2008. The idea came from Mr. Wayan Widiana and Mr. Ketut De Sujana Mahartana. Back then most of the children in Tianyar were too poor to continue with their studies at school and had to support their parents by working in the cities at a young age. The Yayasan should give the children an opportunity to go to school and continue with learning. In the beginning the school only had one room for studying and an office with one computer, which was in Mr. Ketut's house. The room was very simple and only big enough for 35 students, but got improved with time.

After a while more and more children came to the Yayasan and the space wasn't big enough anymore. So a new building including a classroom and an office was built. This classroom was completed by adding tables, a whiteboard, a cupboard and books for reading. As time went by the Yayasan got more and more tables etc. that were sponsored by Bob Romijn (Holland).

First new building including classroom and office

Because the school kept growing the Yayasan increased their amount of teachers. Mr. Gede Sutapa, Mrs. Luh Sutiani, Mrs. Utami Handayani taught us English, Mr. Nyoman Sita Setiawan taught us Indonesian, Mrs. Sri Wahyuni taught us Mathematics and Mrs. Puput taught us Japanese. But nowadays the Yayasan focuses only on English and Computer courses, because the subjects just mentioned are already taught at the local school and English and Computer literacy are a very important issue in times of globalization.

Volunteer Flur (England) with the B2 class

As the Yayasan kept getting bigger volunteers from Holland, France, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, China etc. came to share their knowledge with the students.

They came from four different organisations. The first was WINS, the second Helpx.net, the third Direct Volunteers and since Summer 2013 Vp Bali, which now supplies the most volunteers. Mostly there are 6 to 7 volunteers at a time that teach English.

The Yayasan has to cope with some challenges while it is growing. Improve the ability, knowledge and confidence of the students as well as the spirit to study are challenges inside the Yayasan itself. To make the conservative people in Tianyar realize what a chance this new institution is and to assure the safety and comfort of the volunteers are big challenges as well. To face those challenges you should always always give motivation and explain that there is only one way to fled from poorness: Education. The communication between the Yayasan and the society is still going on and has to be improved. Not just the teachers but also the students should share the information with the society and spread the message of the Yayasan across the community. It seems to work. More and more parents in Tianyar want their children to come to Yayasan. Right now the Yayasan has a 110 students!

YAYASAN’S PROGRAMS

written by Ni Made Sukreni Aprilianti, Ni Ketut Puriani and Ni Luh Suardani

Before the different buildings of Yayasan Widya Sari were constructed, the school already had some programs that last until now. Some of these programs are the English courses, the Computer courses, the Dancing classes and the sponsorships.

ENGLISH COURSES were held six times a week, Monday to Saturday. Our first English teacher was Mr. Ketut. At that time our English was only good enough for “Hello”, but during the time we learnt a lot from Mr. Ketut and were able to introduce ourselves and speak better English. Back then there were a lot of students willing to learn so that Ketut started to search for another teacher that could help him with the classes. He found Mr. Gede Sutapa who taught us more about the English language. After a time two volunteers came to assist both teachers. They were called Paulin and Susana (Holland) and a lot of fun! But they went back home after two weeks. Because there were so many children coming to the Yayasan, Mr. Ketut divided them into four groups from A to D. Group A for example was taught about the numbers or how to introduce themselves. Group B for example was taught about pronunciation or how to write and speak in correct sentences. Group C and D were taught about grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation. Nowadays there are so many children that come to Yayasan to learn English and we have so many volunteers to teach them!

COMPUTER COURSES When the Yayasan Widya Sari was founded there was only one computer that we used one by one. Back then we were not able to write or work on a computer, so Mr. Ketut began to look for a teacher. He found Ms. Eka, who taught us how to work and type on computers. She was still in college so she could only teach us three times a week. But in 2010 Paula and Brent (New Zealand) came for six months to teach group C. We learnt about Excel, Word, typing on a keyboard and how to use the Internet. Since then we learnt how to write E-Mails to our sponsors and to do research on the Internet and year by year we got more and more computers.

DANCING CLASSES Yayasan Widya Sari offers Traditional Balinese Dancing classes to the students on Sundays. Dances such as Tari Pusperesti, Puspanjali, Condong or Gopala are being taught. The children who attend the dancing classes are only in elementary school and taught by Mrs. Wayan, who comes from West Tianyar. During ceremonies in the temples near the Yayasan Widya Sari the students contribute to the festivities by performing their dances. Back then we had no official room for our dancing classes so we used a simple place that was once filled with cows to learn about the different Balinese dances. Nowadays we use one of our classrooms to dance together!

The outside classroom used for the dancing classes on Sundays

The SPONSORSHIP is one of the programs of Yayasan Widya Sari as well.The sponsorship is given by the volunteers who came to the Yayasan to teach English or by people who saw the program on the Internet. The sponsorship is very important for the children, because their sponsors pay the school fee so that they can go to school. The children who are already being sponsored should write a CV, that Mr. Ketut can send to their sponsor. All the children that Mr. Ketut has found sponsors for, must fill in a recommendation form for the mayor of Tianyar. When the students have a sponsor they first write an E-Mail about how thankful they are and then write E-Mails twice a month to tell their sponsors about their activities and progress at school and at home. In addition to that they also have to send a report on how they use the money for school given by the sponsor every six months. This money must only be spent on the education fee and school needs.

The sponsors are from countries all over the world. The criteriums for a sponsorship are the self-initiative of the students to study, the attendance at Yayasan, discipline, attitude and a recommendation letter of the mayor of Tianyar.

Until now 60 students of the Yayasan Widya Sari have a sponsor!

NEWS AND PROGRESS FOR YAYASAN

written by I Gede Suwandi Saputra, I Gede Juliawan, Ni Luh Hanti Cita Dewi, Ni Nengah Wangi Sukma Dewi and Ni Ketut Sridevi Natalia

We children of the Yayasan Widya Sari want to tell you about all the news and the progress for our school. In the last year we got some new buildings and started some new projects.

The COMPUTER ROOM for the Yayasan Widya Sari was built in May 2013 to give the children an opportunity to learn how to use computers. The Education and Sport Government of Indonesia provided the money for the building, but the fund was only for the building itself. A Singaporean company called EMC Singapore sponsored the computers and laptops.

The building of the computer room finished in 2013

The idea came from Mr. Ketut the founder of Yayasan Widya Sari, and was to provide a space for the children to learn how to use and write on computers. The building was completed by adding a fan, air conditioning, laptops, a whiteboard, tables and chairs and was sponsored by Mo Park (U.S.A), Jan van de Pol (Holland), and Mr. Ketut.

The inside of the computer room

In addition the children now have the opportunity to write E-Mails to their sponsors or to use the Internet to do research for school and homework. It is also an advantage for the small children of the Yayasan, because they are familiar with the use of computers before they are taught about it in school. So in times of globalization this computer room is a great and important progress for the children of the Yayasan Widya Sari.

The new GUEST HOUSE that was started in February 2014 and will be finished in the beginning of June 2014 provides more space for the volunteers to stay. The idea for the building came from Mr. Ketut and Jose from Vp Bali. The total cost of the building is Rp 120.000.000 and sponsored fifty-fifty by Vp Bali and Yayasan Widya Sari. The house will have a bedroom with beds for four volunteers, one shower room, one Western bathroom and one lounge including a kitchen. For our school it means that more volunteers can come to teach English, and the number will be increased from 6 to 8 volunteers. So the children of the Yayasan Widya Sari can be taught by more people from all over the world and increase their English abilities.

Working on the Guest House in April 2014

GARBAGE PROJECT When you walk through Tianyar, you can see a lot of garbage. It lies on the street, the beach, in the market and our gardens, but garbage is bad for nature. That is why we started a garbage project in Yayasan in March 2014 to minimize the amount of garbage in Tianyar. The students collect garbage in their houses or on their way to school and bring it to the Yayasan. Then they get different points for the different categories such as plastic, aluminium, steel, glass and paper. For a large plastic bottle for example, they would get 10 points, for a small one they get 5 points and for a big 1kg plastic bag they get 100 points.

The student who has the biggest amount of points in the end of the month, is the winner. The best three are crowned during a big garbage party with performances from the different classes, games and a lot of fun!

Winners Ketut, Sugandi and Koni on the podium, March 2014

There are two different types of winners, one for the highest amount of points and one for the highest amount of plastic bags.

For the highest point score the winner in March 2014 was I Ketut

Suratnyana with 15.795 points, followed by I Gede Sugandi with 8.784 points and Ni Iuh Koni with 7.874 points.

For the most plastic bags the winner was I Gede Kariase with 300 bags, followed by Ni Iuh Rani with 300 bags as well and Ni Iuh Koni with 275 bags. Congratulations to all of them!

All of the students who participate get prices such as writing utensils.

When there is enough garbage, Mr. Ketut calls a company that picks up the garbage with a big truck and recycles it in Java. The money that he gets for the garbage is used for buying the prices for the garbage party. But that money is not enough, so sponsors are very welcome!!