Empowering Marginalized Women through Skills Education as a means to develop Sustainable Communities in Indonesia.

Learning about Permaculture

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In R.O.L.E. Foundation’s Environmental Centre the Bali WISE students help out in the permaculture garden and learn about ecosystems, recycling and up-cycling.

How to implement permaculture?

The students are supervised by the staff and volunteers of R.O.L.E. Foundation and they learn that permaculture is fun and easy to implement. It’s about making the most of every element of the natural system to have vegetables growing in a natural way. Used practices are using rainwater for irrigation, methodic planting to create the necessary shade and companion planting to fight natural enemies and for nutrients to help other plants grow.

Using natural composting

Composting is an important element in the permaculture garden. It helps to fertilize the soil and keep the plants healthy. The compost is produced in the Environmental Centre and the natural ingredients come from the gardens in it. As a result, there are already many plants growing, like this month’s chili, tomato, honeydew, and lavender.

Working for the future

By working in the permaculture garden, the students gain knowledge of environmental issues and engage in problem-solving. They develop a deeper understanding of these environmental issues and they will take it with them for the rest of their lives. And spread the word in their families, their villages and bigger communities.

Get to know the students who are staying in Bali WISE campus.

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Today let’s talk with Saputri and Marry, students who are staying at Bali WISE campus. Currently, they are helping to renovate the dormitories, kitchen, and classroom. From painting the wall, changing the floor, and deep cleaning the room. Their daily activities are renovating, general cleaning, cooking the meal, and doing soap-upcycling. Every day they get used to discipline themselves and tell us how proud they are about it.

The quarantine and COVID-19 crises have changed them. The unique situation makes them curious to discover themselves. How to keep calm and remain peaceful. The answer is discipline. By practicing discipline, they sense freedom. “Change the habits and do the most difficult things first. It’s the only perception of its difficulty that makes it so hard to get disciplined and get to work on it until it feels easy to do it,” said Saputri.

Soap Upcycling During Quarantine

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During the lock-down cause of COVID-19, the students who are staying in the Bali WISE campus are still making the soap-upcycling. Every month they prepare 70 pieces of soap(1 box) and send it via Go-jek driver. How do they keep everyone safe? They use masks, disinfectants, and wash their hands after getting in contact with the driver.

Soap-upcycling at the Zero Waste to Ocean Center

Twice a week, they go to the Zero Waste to Ocean Center to help the staff with permaculture and soap-upcycling. The fresh air makes the students feel lighter and happier while doing the soap-upcycling.

Soap-upcycling at Bali WISE

They make soap-upcycling in class after lunch break until 3 pm. The bar collected from the hotel, they created a new bar by scraping, chopping, drying it under the sun, and re-casting the soap. While they are doing soap-upcycling, they usually have a fun conversation to create a friendly atmosphere in the class. There are two alumni and three vocational students. Sometimes the alumni gave the information about how the training situation in the five stars hotel/restaurant. On the other hand, the vocational students also shared their experiences when they met all the students for the first time from around Indonesia.

The feeling of supporting each other is the best feeling during this difficult time. Giving also connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helping to build a happier society for everyone.

Interview With Alumnae From Intake 42

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Due to the COVID-19, there are 25 Bali WISE alumni staying in their hometown. How are they doing? What is their story? Bali WISE interviewed them and asked the following questions:

Where do you live right now and with whom?

For Alumni who graduate this April, most of them live in their family homes in places like Java, Bali, Ambon and Bogor Area. Besides helping their family in their daily activities, they are focused on searching and preparing for a job. Their daily activities are leading a healthy life, exercising regularly, also increasing knowledge of hospitality and foreign language.

What’s the first thing you plan to do after quarantine?

Get a job and support their family – Almost all of the Alumni gave the same answer. They want to immediately earn money so they can make things more enjoyable in their family. Have enough food to eat, fix the house, and provide the parents with a better life. The other, they want to continue their education by getting the scholarship. Work to pay the school while learning a new skill.

How should you be adapting to this situation?

Because of the COVID-19 and the physical distance, most of them are staying at home. It has been four months, time flies. It is already half of the year. It was stressful and overwhelming. But, they somehow made it to adapt by disciplined themselves. They schedule their activities for studying hospitality or websites, looking for a job, helping their family doing housework. Not to mention, they also make a plan to reach their goals.

After you graduated from Bali Wise, what things that you already have done/tried to make you evolve?

After they graduated, they maintained disciplines the same as when they were living in the dormitory at Bali WISE campus. Wake up early, make the bed, clean the house, have a healthy breakfast, short workout, and study through the internet or books. They also practiced cooking and making cakes. They learned a lot of beneficial hospitality and daily life knowledge from the Bali WISE campus and continue to improve it.

If you got an interview online or personal, how would you feel about it? Tell the experience.

They will be nervous and try to answer the questions in the best possible way. Some of them feel happy and challenged. To gain the confidence they practice the job interview with their family. Write the things they need to improve, discover themselves more about what they want to achieve.

What do you wish for us all to learn from this experience?

They wish their friends can go through the day with enthusiasm. They keep the faith and believe that all of this will be over. These experiences are teaching them to be more patient and accept every circumstance. The situation teaches them to cooperate. Such as helping each other, wiser to face every situation.

Interview with students at Bali WISE

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During the lock-down cause of the Covid-19 crisis, 5 students are living in the Bali WISE campus. What is their story? Bali WISE interviewed them and asked the following questions:

How do you experience the Bali Wise education at the campus during the COVID-19 crisis and the quarantine?

During lock-down, every day, they start the day by cleaning the Bali WISE campus area. Take care of plants and pets. Every twice a week, they will go to Eco-park to learn about environmental education and help the staff to do farming. They are glad that they are doing great during this crisis. Not only looking for the bright side but also do something about it.

What do you miss the most?

They have been doing the tasks from Bali WISE, sheltering in Bali WISE dorm, for 2 months now. They feel lucky to be able to study and learn a lot of new things from the campus. They don’t have any complaints about their current situation. For them, there are not that many things they miss about doing activities under quarantine. But there is one slight thing they have come to realize.

Quite a bit is about missing the feeling after campus, the relief after class. They used to talk face-to-face about their dream, uplift, and support each other. Also, having a good laugh and a great time with friends before going to sleep.

What things have you realized you don’t need?

The Covid-19 crisis has taught them to be more critical about managing the money — There was a time when they had out of control over their finances. Because of friends and advertising influence, they bought unnecessary stuff, affected by discount items too, especially online shopping. They realize it’s become wasteful.  Since they start to study at Bali WISE, they have become aware of the habit and are taking real action to stop it. It needs a strong mind and discipline.

What’s the best thing that happened to you recently?

“I became more appreciative of time and opportunity. We may think that gratitude is a feeling. It is much more than that. It is simply living in the real world, in which everything is a gift.” Said one of the students. They get to get to know themselves. Now everything has become critical. It helps them to think clearly about what is valuable. Every time they have free time, it’s an opportunity for them to talk to their family and friends. It’s the best thing to finally realize that they have someone whom they can call home.

What’s giving you hope right now for the future?

People who care, love, and support them. They are Family, friends, and Bali WISE staff. Hope is always there within them, no matter how hard it is sometimes. Not to mention their hopes are also themselves. Nobody could be there sometimes. They want to succeed and be independent. They are willing to do their best for their good later in the future.

What do you wish for us all to learn from this experience?

The responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the situation of uncertainty, panic, and fear are grateful and never give up — These times can feel like an uncontrollable whirlwind but, it doesn’t mean that they have to give up on their dream and can’t be grateful. They learned that if they constantly look at the bright side, it gives them positive energy and stay optimistic. We can overcome these situations.

Thus, even though they are not back in their hometown, they keep faith that things will always get better. Comprehending how difficult the situation is, they remain kind and supportive of each other.

For the next week’s interview, we will learn about Bali WISE Alumni.

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