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Thursday, March 23, 2006 

Roslin Orphanage - Part 1

Buoyed by the high I got from my recent photodocumentary trip to Calcutta Rescue, I embarked on a short stint to Kupang, West Timor last week at the invitation of a friend. Pak Budi and his wife Peggy run the Roslin Orphanage which is situated in the outskirts of Kupang. They were hosting a visit by a number of young Singaporean adults who were spending 2 weeks performing community work in and around the Kupang area.

The group was comprised mostly of polytechnic and university students, while others were just starting out on their careers. I had originally thought it might be interesting to observe how a group of pampered Singaporean youths adapt themselves in an environment that was lacking in many of the basic conveniences they were used to but was pleasantly surprised to learn that most have been on such trips to places like India and Cambodia in the past and their expectations were quite realistic.

I'll be breaking this post into 2 parts, the first of which will focus on life at the orphanage and the second will be a short photodocumentary of the student group as they work in their new surroundings.



Starting the day off with a bath and a fresh set of clothing.




This little one followed me around before asking for a photo of herself.




Breakfast time.




The children aren't put up for adoption as Budi and Peggy adopt a holistic approach to their upbringing, preferring to perform the role of foster parents to all their young charges. They firmly believe in instilling a set of sound values in the lives of the children and that's why they tend to take in kids only at an early age.




The children are given a proper education to at least a secondary level and the more promising charges are given a shot at tertiary schooling.




Given the environment that the kids are in, they tend to exhibit early signs of independence. Many are able to feed themselves from the time they're under 2 years old. Most would have been toilet trained by this age too, diapers have no place here.




The orphanage is entirely self funded by Budi's salary from working in Singapore and through some personal donations. They receive no government concessions.








The Roslin Orphanage is just one of the many projects which Budi and Peggy are managing. In addition, they provide a mobile library service, employment opportunities to the locals in their stores and farms, running a college which provides technical education and a whole host of other community activities too vast to mention.

Labels:

WOW
the pics are amazing
i miss them LOADSES
its Christine btw
im cpt. Soehardi's Daughter

love the pics

hi there,

its shoe here,

the pics are great,

im already missing that place by looking at ur pics,

hopefully we still have the chance to play a game of bluff

Christine - Too bad you couldn't make the trip, was hoping for a camera buddy.

Shoe - Welcome back! How'd you find the blog url? I was going to send out the link after I publish part 2.

althought most of us are physically here, our hearts still linger at timor.

i found it try google. was searching for mona's blog actually when i found urs.

will be waiting for the part 2 yea

Hey, it's Mona. Got your URL from Shoe...and yeah, I miss those kids too. The trip was very enriching. And man..I cant wait for Part 2.

hey , it desiree.the photos are amazing.now i miss the kids even more , a pity that you couldnt stay with us for the whole trip.

A friend mentioned the good works of Pak Budi and ibu Peggy to me few weeks ago and she gave me pak Budi's phone number in New York last night. This morning when I called, pak Budi was in the shower and we only had a little chat. After made few phone calls including the one to SQ JFK office, finally I had a chance to talk to pak Budi this afternoon. We spent almost two hours on the phone. I told him I was really impressed by what he and ibu Peggy have done and really appreciate their sacrifices to make it happens. I promised pak Budi that I would try to contact people I know and see if we could somehow help him in whatever means we could. As part of that, I just googled to get his website address and came across your blog. Thanks Pal for setting up this blog to spread the words and thanks for all the great pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing the part 2 and would let people know your link too.

For Christine, please tell your mama that you all did a good job. God Bless you all. Hope pak Budi has a pleasant trip home tonight.

awesome pictures...

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