BCF Education programs in Lombok

Our involvement in Lombok started in 2016 on the tiny island of Gili Meno. 

Today, we have education projects in 14 elementary and high schools in North Lombok: Medana, Tanjung, Sigar Penjalin and the Gili Islands. 

In 2018 a disaster struck and an earthquake damaged most of the school buildings in North Lombok and the Gili Islands. 

After 3 months children went back to school in temporary shelters while Bali Children Foundation took part in the immediate emergency response and provided assistance with learning materials, teachers, and health and food relief.

By late 2019, with the support of a great range of donors and the Australian government, Bali Children Foundation has expanded to all the Gili schools and many mainland schools.

Then Covid-19 hit and schools were again closed. Lombok students missed significant learning opportunities for 4 years. And as a result of interrupted learning, their literacy and numeracy scores are concerningly low. 

We are currently addressing the learning losses by delivering our Remedial Literacy and Numeracy curriculum for Grade 1 - 3 students.

We are grateful that we could deliver these lessons in our newly upgraded classrooms and libraries.

To prepare the students for jobs in the tourism industry we also provided Grades 4 - 12 with English as a Foreign Language classes.

Sadly, many of the classrooms that were damaged by the earthquake have not been replaced. Bali Children Foundation has stepped in and repaired and replaced many classrooms. But schools are still overcrowded with massive size classes that can be up to 40 or more children. Some schools may not have teachers and few with any functioning toilets.

Today’s event is to support continuing room upgrades, providing qualified teachers delivering Remedial Literacy and Numeracy classes and English as a Foreign Language curriculum for the children of Lombok and the Gilis.

There are many excellent hotels in Sire Bay, including the esteemed The Legian at Sire Bay. If we can support the children’s education, providing them with the necessary skills, they will have the opportunity to graduate and benefit from these well-paid jobs. With education intervention, we can provide a bright future for these children who have been so dreadfully impacted for the last four years.