Few people ever visit these regions that are poor not just in terms of water and soil nutrients, but also in schools, healthcare and employment.

It is from one of these arid zones, Muntigunung, that many of Bali's beggars come.

On any day you will meet impoverished women and their children "begging for a crust of bread and such" on the streets of Bali's wealthy southeast tourist zones.

Their gaunt faces and eyes lowered with the humiliation of begging, contrast cruelly against a backdrop of up-market shops laden with expensive goods, people passing by with enough money in their pockets to cover education costs for a year, money that will instead be spent in one evening over a few beers and a meal.

Changing lives: From having to beg for a living, this Muntigunung woman now harvests hibiscus to make Rosella Tea. (Courtesy of The Future for Children’s Foundation)

Rumors fly about these women, according to the president-elect of the Ubud Rotary chapter, Adrienne Oberoi.

"In the past, I was told these women were part of an organized begging ring from Java. People told me they were not Balinese because Bali has no beggars. These women are Balinese - they are from the Muntigunung region. This area has no water. Without water nothing grows," says Oberoi of just one of the many myths surrounding the incredibly harsh existence suffered by beggars, myths that effectively exonerate the "haves" from not giving to the "have nots".

A volunteer public relations officer for Ubud Rotary, Concepcion Lara, says the level of poverty that villagers of the Muntigunung region face is one of the most severe in Asia.

"I have heard these villagers' average income is 10 US cents a day. The United Nations minimum subsistence income is 10 times that level at $1 a day. That makes the people of Muntigunung possibly among the poorest in Asia," Lara says.

Responding to the root cause of Muntigunung's extreme poverty, the Ubud Rotary Club is this year, through its Halloween Party Fundraiser (for The Future for Children's Foundation) planning to help bring water to 35 villages across this dry zone where people use almost all their available energy in the search for water.

The Future for Children's Foundation has also established village cooperative businesses such as Rosella Tea from hibiscus, and hat making that brings in much-needed income.

To date, seven villages have developed water sources through The Future for Children's Foundation at a cost of $50,000 per village, with another 28 villages still waiting for the precious water that could transform unproductive land into viable crops.

Ubud Rotary Club last year raised funds to purchase a desperately needed ambulance for the maternal and child Bumi Sehat Foundation. To date the club has $16,000 for the ambulance and is still short $2,000.

Across the country, Rotary (founded in Indonesia in 1927), raised around Rp 400 million in relief funding for Sumatra's earthquake victims, established clean water projects, funded educational projects and funded more than 10,000 cleft palate operations and more, according to Rotary's district governor, Thomas Aquinas.

Rotary has 90 chapters across the country, from Sumatra in the northwest, to West Timor in the country's southeastern corner, and each of these clubs works quietly in the background for their communities.

"Our next major project is raising public awareness across Indonesia of the hereditary blood disease, Thalassemia," says Aquinas.

He explains that many people carry the gene as Thalassemia Minor, which, when carriers marry and have children, results in one in four of their offspring having the life-threatening Thalassemia major.

"With this disease people need blood transfusions monthly for their whole life. I was in Jakarta last week and in just one hospital they treat 1,500 victims. In a ward there were 40 children having blood transfusions. There is no cure for this disease - only transfusions.

"Rotary will begin educating the public about this disease and that people planning to marry should first have blood tests to see if they are carriers," said Aquinas of another Rotary project, that like the Ubud Rotary Club's fundraiser for the Bumi Sehat ambulance and "The Future for Children's Foundation" will save lives and also vastly improve the quality of those lives.

According to Adrienne Oberoi, it is the make up of Rotary Club members that allows the world wide organization to undertake such a diverse range of humanitarian projects.

"I joined many years ago when I was working as a volunteer in Jimbaran's School for the Deaf. I was teaching sign language, trying to raise funds for the school and lots more - on my own. I was invited along to a Rotary meeting when they were planning a wheelchair delivery for a person who had been housebound for seven years following a stroke - they were changing people's lives with these wheelchairs.

"I knew this was something I wanted to be part of. Rotary is effective, I feel, because of its mix of members. It is not all business people, but rather doctors, engineers, economists, teachers and designers. So if you need help or advice on a project there are experts to turn to," Oberoi says.

Rotary is also highly structured and therefore gets the job done, she added. "There are weekly meetings so when you join you know that projects discussed are going to be carried out."

For more information on Rotary in Indonesia visit www.rotaryd3400.org

Charity event

Helping the people of Muntigunung is a project that has struck deep into the hearts of businesses across Bali, says volunteer public relations officer for Ubud Rotary, Concepcion Lara.

"This year we have made a lot. Every major hotel across Bali has donated, as well as organizations in Australia, Vanuatu, Laos and Thailand. Their generosity has made up the backbone of fundraising through silent auctions, door prizes, costume prizes and more," said Lara of the spirit of support for the Ubud Rotary Club's annual fundraising event, the Halloween party at the Arma Resort Water Garden on Oct. 31.

"It will be a real Hollywood event, with all the money raised going to The Future for Children's Foundation," said Lara.

Costumes for the fundraiser are available for hire and will be on show this Sunday at Gemala Jewelry on Jalan Raya Pengosekan between 12 and 5 p.m.

Call 081 3370 14678 for Halloween Party Fundraiser tickets.

Popular

Airlines weigh Middle East cancellations after US strikes in Iran

Indonesia, Germany see new programs for migrant workers training

Iran threatens US bases in response to strikes on nuclear sites