Support Teachers in Remote Village of East Bali

REPORT FROM THE FIELD: A Teachers Perspective on Teaching Children in East Bali

By; Eka, EBPP English teacher

I always look forward to school days as day worthwhile days where students can optimize their potentialthrough learning provided by EBPP education program. EBPP teachers always put their best effort to make the students ready for the biggest step in their life. Because education is an essential need for people wherever they are and they must have enough education as their life stock.

My name is Eka, one of EBPP’s 12 high school teachers. I’m from Lombok and joined EBPP in 2011 to teach English from elementary to senior level. I live the beautiful village of Ban with my husband, who is also a teacher in EBPP.

EBPP has 6 schools and every day I go to a different school located on steep roads around Mount Agung and Mount Abang. I really enjoy teaching at EBPP because of the different experiences I have every day, although the road is so difficult and we go on motorbikes on steep and slippery roads. Going to our schools I can also usually see the greatness of Mount Agung from the distance, even though we know that Mount Agung is still on high alert, which means we have to be careful for any unexpected situations. But this situation doesn’t affect our team’s dedication in teaching our lovely students.

One of our biggest motivations to keep teaching is we always know that we are never alone fighting for our students’ better future. We are so thankful to the people who already support, and help us. This month, we get help from Tarryn Biswas, a young teacher and artist from England who is volunteering to teach English through art at all our schools throughout February and March.Tarryn’s lived in Indonesia for over a year now andher program is intended to build on students’ vocabulary and English skills through visualisation. This is a unique technique because the teacher can combine skills and learning methods to provide a form of visual learning that can be delivered to students of all abilities and levels. Tarryn’s presence in EBPP does help us a lot, by giving new knowledge and teaching skill that are beneficial for our education progress in the future. We hope there will be more people like Tarryn who’ll visit and teach us more new knowledge and skill.

Recently, the heavy rains caused many leaks to our Pengalusan School roof, but we are so grateful to a local Golf Club that has funded the renovation, with many repairs to its roof, ceiling, and windows. Right now, together with the residents of Pengalusan hamlet, we work to make a comfortable study centre for our Pengalusan students.

By continuous support from our donors, especially through Global Giving, we are able to improve our students’ life standards step by step. For us, the teachers, we become more motivated and dedicate our best effort to teach the students in these remote areas. Our donors also help us to help the students reach their goals.

Thanks to Global Giving who has helped us with the sustainability of our program so that our program can continue helping the children of East Bali to reach their goals.