Jeanette and Bernd Schmitt and their daughter Luisa on Friday paid a visit to the house of Agung Erawati, who recently passed away from AIDS, spending their last days in Bali visiting the mourning family.
The family from Frankfurt, Germany, was upset to find that Agung Erawati’s family lives in a dilapidated house.
Jeanette said she felt privileged to see the other side of Bali. “It’s the seventh time we’ve been back to Bali. It is like our second home. Everything is perfect. The sunrise, sea, and the sky. But this is the other side of Bali.”
“We just do a little thing today,” she said.
The family wore tees inscribed with “If everyone does a little to help, together we can help a lot”, the tagline of Melia Hotel Bali’s popular charity program.
Guests staying at the Melia donate US$1 from their accommodation rates to be channeled to social programs, including to renovate the house of Agung Erawati and pay her two children’s school tuition.
Erawati died on her 44th birthday on Feb. 24. She spent the last three years of her life at her poor parents’ house, which is nothing but a decrepit shack.
Ironically, the shack is only five-minute walk from Mangupura, the sprawling and glistening office compound of the Badung regent, once dubbed by the home affairs minister as the largest and most luxurious regency administrative center in the whole country.
The old couple treated their daughter in a house with tarpaulins for walls and no proper bathroom.
Erawati began showing symptoms of the AIDS virus three years ago and was identified by a physician at Wangaya Hospital, Denpasar.
Since then, the woman received assistance and counseling from AIDS activist Ni Made Putri Stuti from Dua Hati Foundation.
“I first found out where she lived when she failed to show up at the clinic for her regular treatment of antiretroviral drugs,” Putri said.
Erawati’s first son Gede Pertama is now in the 10th grade, while her second son Arya Dharma is in the ninth grade. The two have only been told that their mother died because of HIV.
Putri, who currently assists 130 families in several regencies across Bali, sent the family’s profile to the Melia hotel management, which have social programs concerning HIV-related issues.
I Gede Suarsa, the hotel’s director of human resources, then invited Tri Hita Karana (THK) association to organize a scholarship program for poor students in Bali, including those affected by the disease.
THK is a local principle that stipulates the harmonious relationship between man, God, nature and fellow man.
Two sons of Erawati will get a full scholarship until they finish their study in high school.
Gede Pertama is only one among hundreds of families of poor HIV/AIDS patients in Bali.
