Sponsor Caroline Elsaesser of Agus Aries

Agus Aries’ two children

Kadek Novi Wijayanti (the girl) and Putu Kelvin Rama Wijaya (the boy)

Agus Aries came to Shambala like a deer at dawn. His sensitive nature, his loving heart and his total dedication to doing whatever needs to be done, made us pray that he may find a kind sponsor. He is now father of four children, but living on his own, as his fathers remarried wife would put stick between him and his dad, so that a harmonious life at home was not possible in the extended family.

This however made life hard. It mean that Agus had to find a house to rent, something that most Balinese in the rural areas still don’t have to do. They usually are fortunate enough to be able to share the land with the extended family, when possible.

As much though as we might dream nostalgically about the extended family in the West, where isolation and loss of cohesion in the families abound, most Balinese young families now wish to move out on their own if possible, except when the family life is truly harmonious.

One child is being sponsored by Caroline Elsaesser,www.caroline-elsaesser.de from Germany.
She has been very generous and thoughtful and has already paid 50% of the building cost for a Kindergarten right here in Bondalem!

The cost of one years school uniform per child is about 100 % of the average monthly income for one working person in Bali. Now consider, that Bondalem has about 80% unemployment, and that this father has three children, and things can look very bad for many children.

Each school year increasingly higher monthly school fees have to be paid, per child, above the daily food money. Without proper schooling the parents often can only afford their children to go to the minimal levels required by the government.

We are grateful to Caroline, who has taken on six families and is helping them cover their cost of school, school books and uniforms to help these children go through school. We envision this to be possible through High-school if possible.