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

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.

Interview With the Students at Home

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Due to the COVID-19, there are 14 Bali WISE vocational students working from home. How are they doing? Bali WISE interviewed a few of them and asked the following questions:

Where do you live and how do you continue the Bali WISE education?

All of the interviewed students live in their family homes in places like Kalimantan, Bali, Ambon, and Jakarta Area. Besides helping their family in their daily activities, they study daily English language and the theories of hospitality. That can be a lonely job sometimes, but they have learned not to be afraid to ask questions when something is not clear. They practice job interviews with their family members, which is a beautiful way of involving the family into their education.

What do you miss the most and what have you learned to appreciate?

They have learned to appreciate the time with their friends more than before. Most of them said that they are missing the time at Bali WISE the most. Friendship has grown between the students at Bali WISE, and they still have contact and encourage each other to be positive during this difficult time.

What’s giving you hope right now?

They all answered: family and friends, family is hope. By thinking of family, it gives them the motivation to be successful people and the desire to help their family. In this way, they are already planning for the future and working on the progress. And they are prepared to work hard for it.

What are you learning from this experience?

Summarized, the answer was to accept circumstances as they and make the best of it. The current situation cannot be changed and we have to live with it. But there are other things in life that are good and inspire gratitude. Use the past as something to learn from and become better in the future.

So, after returning to their hometown for an unknown period of time, the Bali Wise students still face the future with optimism. These times can be used for self-discovery and improvement. And have quality time with family and friends.

In next week’s interview, we will learn about the 2 Bali WISE students who stayed in the Bali WISE skills center during the COVID-19.

 

COVID-19 Update

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Acknowledging COVID-19 issue, Bali WISE started a lock-down from 1st April 2020. The Bali WISE staff started to work from home. Almost all the students were sent back home to continue their studies safely from home. The few that stayed at Bali WISE campus couldn’t go back to their families.

Students of intake 42 and 43

The students of intake 42 will not graduate anywhere soon due to the spread of COVID-19. The students of intake 43 should have their training this April. Unfortunately, we had to postpone I and we hope the training will be continued starting in June.

All students are safe

Before the lock-down, the students were given knowledge about how to prevent the transmission of viruses. Now they stay at home as much as possible, do regular cleaning, wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap, wear a mask when they go outside and keep social distancing. We are still in touch with all of them and they are all safe.

Their daily routine

All students report daily to us at 5 PM about the activities that day. It includes online learning of languages, coding, and hospitality. The students who are still living in Bali Wise Campus, are learning a new language such as Spanish, Russian, or Spanish. Twice a week, they get some tasks like creative painting, making bags from recycling clothes, or soap-upcycling.

Finding jobs for graduated students

The students who already graduated from Bali Wise are having a hard time finding a job. We are helping them apply for jobs, finding resources, preparing for the interview to encourage them to keep hope.

We stay positive

So, we stay informed about all the students, know what they are doing and how they are feeling, and we keep searching for new opportunities to help them. We are very proud of them, even though they are a bit worried, they stay positive and are patiently waiting for the moment they can pick up their lives again. We hope to see them return soon!

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