ASRI Kids

If you have any questions feel free to email us:

ASRIkids@gmail.com

-Thank you!

This summer our family traveled to a town called Sukadana in Borneo, Indonesia where my mom was volunteering as a doctor. When we found out my sister and I were not excited. The thought of spending the summer before high school in a small town half way around the world was not thrilling. Little did we know that 1/2 of the tropical forest left in the world is in Indonesia, and it is being cut down at that rate, and that the runoff from the mountains is polluting the ocean and rivers. Or that there are only 30,000 orangutans left in the world and they are all in Borneo and Sumatra. Near the end of our trip my family went on a three day boat trip to Tanjung Puting National Park to see orangutans, but we were confused when didn’t see any Indonesians. It was shocking that people would come half way around the world to have the experience of seeing orangutans, but the kids that live less than four hours away had never visited them.
When we first got to Sukadana we were homesick and hot. But sometime, during the second week of our trip, when we met the neighborhood kids, things began to change. It was one morning when we were walking on the beach and my sister was doing hand stands, I turned around and to my surprise there were about a dozen kids watching and imitating her. The next day as we sat on the porch of our newly painted yellow house, we noticed the same kids playing in our neighbor’s yard, we decided to teach them Uno and as soon as we brought out the cards they came running over. We spent the rest of the afternoons playing card games and going on walks to the beach or forest with our new friends. They showed us their town and we told them about ours. They showed us strange insects, where to walk and where not to walk, what berries you can eat, how to climb a coconut tree, and what a rubber tree looks like. The afternoons became something special to look forward to. In the mornings while the kids were in school, we helped out at the clinic. The ASRI staff and volunteers are unique, their goal as a clinic is to improve the health of the people living in the communities surrounding the Gulung Palung National Park and to improve the health of the environment. The clinic is special because they will give anyone health care even if they cant pay with cash in which case they let them pay with chickens, baskets, mats, vegetable, or anything else, you name it. One evening we went to a community outreach program which ASRI does twice a week in small villages near Sukadana. The whole town came, they smiled, and laughed and everyone participated,they played trivia games and won toothbrushes, they served snacks and watched movies. Later that week one of the volunteers was talking about Africa and how there is more money in conserving the wildlife than in destroying it because there are so many tourists who will pay so much money to go visit it. He said that until people have another source of sustainable living they will continue to cut down the forest. Another problem is the amount of litter in the streets, since there is no garbage collection system people throw their trash anywhere. After leaving Sukadana we decided to create a program to give back to the community that taught us so much. Our project consists of a five week class in which the kids of Sukadana will learn about deforestation and waste disposal. They would choose a project to make Sukadana a better community. For example they can make compost and recycling bins to distribute to different families, or they can help plant seedlings for reforestation. At the end of the five weeks the older kids would make a presentation about what they had learned and present it at the community education, in exchange for this they would be brought on a three day trip to Tanjung Puting National Park to visit orangutans. No matter how many conservation experts you bring to Sukadana these kids are the ones who have the  biggest chance at making a difference. 
We hope you have enjoyed reading about our experience. We are trying to raise $4-5000 for our project.  Each dollar will go a long way. For example, $10 will  pay for snacks and supplies for one child for the entire program.  $100 will pay for one child’s entire trip to the rainforest. 

If you would like to make a donation to this cause please visit www.healthinharmony.org and click on “donate now.”  Make sure that in the comments section you indicate that the donation is for the “ASRI kids program.  You can also mail in a donation to: 
Health In Harmony
4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd, #246
Portland, OR 97214
USA
(Again in the comments portion of your check, please indicate that the donation is for ASRI kids.) 
Please feel free to pass this letter around!

Thank you, remember, any donation counts, we only get one chance at
saving the forest. 

Ana Sofia and Lucia