Beautiful Flores
 |  |  |
Several months ago we met Janine Asselbergs. Since 2009 Janine has been helping on the island of Flores. A beautiful island, belonging to the Timor archipelago, east of Komodo. Future for Kids and Janine have many things incommon. In the beginning of June we met each other and Janine has explained her activities. Janine and Future for kids will examine together in what way Future for Kids can make a positive contribution to the children on the island of Flores. Janine will travel to Flores again in August for about five weeks. After her trip we will meet again and will discuss the possibilities.We will give a donation to Janine for initial help.
Janine: “Due to personal circumstances I was able to get in contact with a mission in Poco (12 km north of Ruteng in West Flores) and I could make myself usefull. That was in 2009. I worked for two months with the Sisters Daughters of Wisdom, who are committed to women’s emancipation, little kindergarten, food / cooking projects for mother and child. During my work there I saw a lot of backlog in this area, Manggarrai, including education, health and hygiene. I suggested to the Sisters to expand operations. Initially I sponsored my own new ideas, assisted by family and a few friends.
In short, every year I went back to review the progress and to discuss projects with the coordinator of the small monastery there (four sisters and several postulants). Soon I realized that I had to do fundraising to maintain the projects and to create new initiatives. There is now a micro-credit where mostly women can borrow money to buy a pig (over 60! already) or a sewing machine. We have an infant / toddler classroom building (total costs about € 5,000) in a remote village, so the children don’t have to walk for a hour or more to the kindergarten at the monastery. We also have a fund for eleven orphans, for whom we pay secondary education and counseling.
Because of the high infant mortality (two children per month in the five surrounding villages) because of poor hygiene and poor nutrition, we started a awereness project about food. A project to improve hygiene is also scheduled. In August I will go to Flores for the fourth time. Everything is small and is slow (the Manggarrai is a very traditional area but that is slowly changing), but there is improvement and progress and the people are very grateful for what we do.
Flores, one of the beautiful islands of Indonesia, certainly does not receive a lot of governmental support. The work that these sisters do in distant Poco is impressive and deserves to be supported. Any contribution is welcome and certainly the slogan Future for Kids should be applicable for Flores.”