"YAYASAN WIDHYA ASIH" ORPHANAGES

Bali, Indonesia - Founded in 1975

The Widhya Asih is a system of orphanages, comprising of seven homes, spread out across the island of Bali in Indonesia. 

Set up by the Protestant Christian Church in Bali ("Gereja Kristen Protestan di Bali”) in 1975, the Widhya Asih takes in poor, abandoned and orphaned children of Bali.  Today, many are victims not only of poverty, but also of terrorist bombings in Bali, and the recent Tsunami that hit the western island of Sumatra.

The Widhya Asih Foundation, headed up by Drs Nyoman Suwitra (pictured above). Nyoman, himself a beneficiary of the orphanage, administers the management and funding of all seven homes.

In 1970, when the family planning program was launched in Bali, the local belief in reincarnation, and the lack of education, hindered the program’s efforts to reduce the size of families.  Consequently, Balinese families continued to have multiple children of 10 or more.  Parents encountered great difficulty feeding and educating all their children.  In addition, many adults were killed in the National Revolution of 1965 that left a great number of children orphaned. 

By 1975, the need to rescue these children, aged between 6 and 13, had become critical.  The Protestant Christian Church of Bali built its first orphanage home in Denpasar and took in 50 children.  After a year, the children were noticeably healthier, better disciplined and better educated compared with other poor children on the island.  As a result, poor families began to send their children to the orphanage.  Over the years, more and more homes were opened to accommodate the rising number of children who were either sent or rescued. 

Today, there are more than 450 children, with ages ranging from 5 to 22, living in the 7 homes.  At the upper end of the age range are the young people who have the intellectual ability to attend university and so they remain in the care of the orphanage system until they graduate and find work.  This ensures that they have the best chance at life.

Besides having their basic need for food and shelter met, the children are enrolled in Indonesian public schools.  Caregivers at the orphanage teach the children cooking, tailoring, crop farming, livestock breeding, painting, dancing, music and computers.

When the children are grown, some return to their villages to pioneer new villages, others start their own businesses with the skills they’ve learned, and still others find jobs in the workplace.

The Widhya Asih Foundation needs financial support to pay for the running costs and maintenance of the homes, to provide for the children’s basic living expenses and school supplies, to purchase books for their in-house libraries, and bicycles for the older ones to find and get to work.  Occasionally, financial support is needed to secure medical help for children who are born with serious disabilities.

It may be that you are planning a holiday to Bali and would like to arrange to visit one of the orphanages and perhaps bring along some gifts for the children. We can help arrange that for you too by putting you in contact with Mr Suwitra!

For more information and/or if you would like to visit or help these children, then please click here for further online details on this website.

Click here to contact us personally. We will endeavour to reply to you personally within 48 hours. Thank you!

You may also like to explore the "Widhya Asih Foundation" website!