Food Security Indonesia Project #54085

Women and Children Pandemic Food Security in Bali

by Yayasan Bumi Sehat, Ds. PKR Nyuh Kuning

Project Report | Jul 5, 2022
Pandemic Food Security Project is Fully Funded!

By Team Bumi Sehat | Project Leaders

Thank you for supporting Bumi Sehat's Pandemic Food Security Project, which is now FULLY FUNDED!

While the pandemic is certainly not over, we're cautiously optimistic these days in Bali as tourists return to the island. Thousands are arriving weekly. Many workers who were laid off or had their hours cut back are returning to full time jobs. Cafes and restaurants are full again, most shops are open, and drivers and guides are able to get work.

As people resume working, income is flowing back to Balinese households and living standards are starting to slowly rise. People put other household expenses on hold in order to buy food during the last two years. Many families can now pay school fees for their children and reclaim motorbikes or cars that were sold for cash.

All places aren't sharing evenly in the flow of tourist dollars, but gradually money paid for goods and services, and for wages, is spreading out through the wider Balinese community.

Thanks to your continued support of this project, almost 1800 households were able to eat at least one nourishing meal a day during a difficult time. We were also able to run an elder meal program, as Balinese elders will often forgo eating if there is little food for the family, to ensure that younger generations get enough to eat.

Bumi Sehat will continue to offer a sembako, or food box, donation program for the rest of this year, but we'll be able to cut it down to weekly and eventually monthly donations.

Thank you again for your donations to Bumi Sehat's Pandemic Food Security Project. Please continue to help support our projects as we still have much work to do across Indonesia. Please follow us on Facebook as well, if you don't already.

Links:

Yayasan Bumi Sehat main website

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May 4, 2022
Pandemic Food Security Project is 90% Funded

By Team Bumi Sehat | Project Leaders

Thank for you supporting Bumi Sehat's Pandemic Food Security Project.

Our Pandemic Food Security project is now 90% funded. Our team will be travelling to Munti in North Bali next week as there is still need for food donations despite tourism slowly returning.

Starting last month, the Indonesian government restored Visa on Arrival services and thousands of tourists are arriving in Bali weekly. We expect that the return of tourism means that living standards in Bali will start to improve. The number of jobs are increasing and workers who were laid off are being asked to come back to work.

Thanks to your continued support of this project, almost 1800 households have able to eat at least one nourishing meal a day during this difficult time. Our team combines food packet delivery with mobile health care and has been able to deliver basic health and prenatal checkups and supply free prenatal vitamins to pregnant women, which helps with their nutrition.

We were assisted by one of our corporate donors, Uniqlo, which gave Bumi Sehat boxes of clothes to be donated and which our team gave out along with fresh veggies, greens and toys for the kids. We also had an anonymous donor who gave Bumi Sehat around $355 USD worth of food on our last trip.

We'd like to highlight one of the women (and her family) that your donations have helped. The family comes from Munti Genung in Bali, a poor, arid part of the island. The mother is usually found begging around Ubud. This is the only way she can get income as the soil in her village is very poor and there isn't enough rain to grow much food. She came to our Nyuh Kuning clinic to deliver her baby, a beautiful little girl. Several of our team took her back to her village and made sure she and her family had food, vitamins and clothing.

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Jan 4, 2022
Update on Pandemic Food Security Project

By Team Bumi Sehat | Project Leaders

Between September and November of 2021, Bumi Sehat distributed 1,857 sembako packets of food, which includes a 5 kg bag of rice, a carton of eggs and a liter of oil, essential staples of every Balinese household and the backbone of every meal. Our services have been focussed on north-eastern Bali, primarily villages in the Karangasem and Kintamani districts. Some of our local donors with gardens have been providing vegetables and fruit for the sambako, and our own Bumi Sehat gardens have been harvested to add greens, veggies and chilies for the families who need them.

We also distributed 520 food boxes in our home village of Nyuh Kuning.

Typically, the women in a family cook food early in the morning and then leave it in the kitchen for people to come and eat meals during the day. Farmers might eat a small amount of leftover rice before they set out to their fields at dawn and then come back for a main meal in the middle of the day.

Many of the families that Bumi Sehat is delivering sembako to may only be able to eat one meal a day right now. We are trying to deliver packages more often, but there is so much need and road access is difficult, so our team can't get to many villages more than once in a month. However, we know that they are getting good quality protein and nutrition with the eggs and fresh vegetables, as well as what they can raise or grow themselves in their own compounds. Most families keep chickens for the eggs, and may have a small space to grow food, however, our sembako are a vital addition to their diet.

The heavy rainy season we're currently experiencing in Bali has caused flooding in some of the higher villages where we deliver food packages, which may mean that gardens are also washed out. We're watching the situation and trying to get back to affected areas more often.

Thanks to your continued support, hundreds of impoverished Balinese are able to eat at least one nourishing meal a day during this difficult time. Our team combines the visits to deliver food packets with mobile health care and has been able to deliver basic health and prenatal checkups to over 1800 households, and supply free prenatal vitamins to pregnant women, which helps with their nutrition.

One of our corporate partners, Uniqlo, has also generously donated boxes of clothing which we have been handing out along with the vitamins and sembako. Many villagers may only own one or two sets of clothing.

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