food
- Thread starter cosmos
- Start date
I attempted to do the same thing last month but in my opinion, you're better off just giving the money to the family so they can shop themselves. They'll get better deals in the local pasar than a bule would and they can also choose the food they prefer.
We also send money to several families in Lipah and Penestanan. They can then buy whatever food they need and as Jack says at much better prices than we could. We also donate to a lady who prepares and delivers cooked food the the elderly and infirm in her area. There is also a guy on the internet who has raised small sums of money and this is then spent at his local warung. The owner of the warung makes up gift packages costing about A$4.00 each and distributes them to the people he knows are in need. We can’t just sit back a tell people how much we love Bali we have to do something positive.
We've tried a couple of different methods with differing results - the days of Bule getting significantly worse prices than locals is over by the way - long story short - best way is to give money to a local trusted person to buy "care" packages from local suppliers/warrung (otherwise when this is all over they will have gone bankrupt too if everyone only buys for a few rupiah less at Lotte or Carrefour} and distribute to local people they know are needy. We've found 5kg rice, oil, 12eggs, noodles, coffee, salt and sugar comes to about IDR100,000 and it's landing where it's needed. Only real problem if you live here is being contacted by other locals and getting asked if they can get on the next delivery - the barrel isn't bottomless unfortunately.
“Giving” food or money to an individual or single family in a village is a noble gesture.
However, please consider this. The other non-recipients might get jealous and ostracise the “privileged few”. I’ve personally seen this happen on several occasions when I used to “sponsor” children in various villages across Bali. (I stopped after about 10 years.)
What to do if you really want to “help”? The “answer” is to try and help the whole village, not just pieces of it, so that (hopefully) everybody benefits. Even that can be difficult if the village head is corrupt.
An alternative is to assist organized groups that are already set up to help villages help themselves. For instance, the East Bali Poverty Project, but there are many others. The caveat there is trusting them to be delivering what they claim.
The bottom line is that it’s not always as “easy” or “straightforward” as you might think on your own.
However, please consider this. The other non-recipients might get jealous and ostracise the “privileged few”. I’ve personally seen this happen on several occasions when I used to “sponsor” children in various villages across Bali. (I stopped after about 10 years.)
What to do if you really want to “help”? The “answer” is to try and help the whole village, not just pieces of it, so that (hopefully) everybody benefits. Even that can be difficult if the village head is corrupt.
An alternative is to assist organized groups that are already set up to help villages help themselves. For instance, the East Bali Poverty Project, but there are many others. The caveat there is trusting them to be delivering what they claim.
The bottom line is that it’s not always as “easy” or “straightforward” as you might think on your own.
I don't know them personally but they will be as good (or as bad) as any other charity here on Bali. The question always arises as to how much of your donation actually lands with the needy. The Red Cross are renowned for having the finest white Land Rovers to motor around in with 2 bags of rice.
Maybe ask the charity for pictures?
It's done and dusted months and months ago. Come to think of it all the pictures on the wall were a long time ago. Yeah anything is possible over there I do agree, but I was in Sanur at the time, didn't have that many ties and felt like doing something nice so I tried. Work a bit closer with Mrs family in karangesm these days.