The Beginning

Every child is a gift from God. Working on this belief, THF believes that every child deserves a chance to grow up in an environment of love and abundance. With that in mind, THF decided to try and bring some cheer into the lives of children that are a little less fortunate than the rest of us.

With the sponsorship of W3-O Design Lab, THF will be able travel farther and hopefully do more, especially for those in countries that do not receive much coverage. After much research on the internet, the only charity organisation that had any information on the web was the SIDHI ASTU Orphanage (Tuka Orphange) in Tuka Village, Bali-Indonesia. It is precisely due to this reason that THF was formed; to be an information provider and a link between the various charity organisations and all those who want to help.

After liaising with the person-in-charge (Sister Esther) at Tuka Orphanage, a list of items which they need was generated. After much planning and discussion, it was decided that a flea market to sell second-hand clothing and goods was the best way to raise funds for the children. Additionally, clothing and goods in good condition could also be donated to the children.

 

 

The Fund Raising Effort

Staff and volunteers of THF and W3-O Design Lab began collecting clothing and goods from friends and relatives. W3-O Design Lab supported THF by providing all the logistic funding and storage space needed to consolidate the collected items. They even managed to collect a working PlayStation 1 console from their clients to be donated to the children in Tuka Orphanage!

THF also had the support from Anita’s (Staff of W3-O Design Lab and a volunteer) youth club (The Last Generation) from church to help in the setting up of the stall, to selling the items right outside their youth church service! THF also managed to secure a booth at the Lime Flea Market to sell the items that were collected and managed to earn quite a decent amount from just one day of sales.

In total, the flea market initiative managed to collect a total of $1,428. The break-down is as follows:

$334 – from the Lime Flea Market
$1,094 – from the stall set-up outside The Last Generation’s youth church service

On top of that, W3-O Design Lab topped up the money dollar-for-dollar collected from the flea market and the stall set-up, increasing the total to $2,856. The generosity of W3-O Design Lab was only matched by the bigger heart of THF’s Friends who pledged a donation of $1,244 for a grand total of $4,100 (24 million Rupiah)!

The Programme for the Children

In the midst of raising funds, THF did not forget about the other important component of charity work – a program for the children that will allow them to have fun and hopefully learn something at the same time. It was decided that one of the activities for the children would be for them to design a Christmas card and the winning design would be duplicated as the design for W3-O Design Lab’s Christmas card this year. Once again, the generosity of W3-O Design Lab shines through as they pledge to sponsor goodie bags and prizes for the overall winner as well as consolation prizes which included items like books, bags, water bottles, stationeries, and even socks.

The Preparations

The call for second-hand items met with great response. There were people who donated clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, and even books. Volunteers from W3-O Design Lab and THF began to sort out the items according to those for sale, those that are small enough in size and in good quality to be given to the children in Tuka Orphanage.

With the clear direction of helping the children, volunteers began to pack the items in boxes, luggage, and wrapped (as prizes) so as to enable smoother proceedings during flight. The thought of the children kept the volunteers going even though there were a lot of items to be packed and sorted out. There were absolutely no complains from the volunteers even though a lot of them had come after work to help out in the packing and sorting.

Showtime

The crew arrived in Bali in good spirits and in good weather with everyone raring to go. Everyone was excited and a little nervous about what the children’s reactions might be. Nobody knew if it was going to be awkward and whether the children would open up to us. All these questions were answered when we arrived at the Tuka Orphanage. The wide smiles on the children’s faces said everything. They were infected with their enthusiasm and everyone went about interacting with the children with a buzz.

The children kicked off the event with a few songs. Their angelic voices and innocent faces touched everyone’s heart and one volunteer (Renny) couldn’t help but shed a tear. In a bid to connect with our young audiences, the volunteers also presented a few songs to them, with the rest mingling amongst the children. After the brief ice-breaker came the main event: the Christmas card design competition.

The purpose of the Christmas card design competition was to give the children a chance to showcase their creativity as well as a way of boosting their confidence – that as long as they put in the effort, everything they do is beautiful. The children were broken into smaller groups, each with 2 volunteers acting as ‘teachers’. All the drawing materials were sponsored by W3-O Design Lab and were meant to be given to them after the competition.

After the children were done designing their cards, the judges (some of the volunteers and Sister Esther) got together to deliberate the results. While that was happening, a small booth was set up for the children to have a little afternoon snack with biscuits and chocolates that the crew bought for them. Once the results were ready to be announced, the children were ushered back into the room for the award ceremony. The prizes were laid out on a table and the children were buzzing with excitement. Willy (MD of W3-O Design Lab and staff of THF) was appointed to be the person to give out the prizes, and he made sure to explain their decision for every award given. If there was apprehension over how the children might react if they did not win, it was definitely unfounded during the award ceremony. Every child was excited and cheered for their friends when they won, and even when they didn’t, they were still happy for their friends.

The crew lingered for a while longer after the award ceremony to take pictures with the children and generally were just reluctant to leave. When it was finally time to leave, the crew left with a bitter-sweet feeling in their hearts – knowing that they had done something to brighten up the children’s day and yet wishing they could have done more.

Every child is a gift from God and nobody deserves to be left out. This trip to Bali Orphanage was supposed to be about helping the children, but instead, their warmth and innocence moved the crew and helped them to open their hearts instead.

 

Special Thanks

to all those involved, for without them, nothing would have been possible:

Anita
Joey
Renny
Grace
Willy
Paulyn
Jeraldine
Damien
Amos
Wee Tat
Joyce
Bobby
Jyh Yeong
Richmond
Poh Ling
Laura
Elnia
Anton
Nico
Sister Esther
To ALL our buyers and especially those who generously asked us to keep the change
To ALL our generous donors
To EVERYONE that donated clothing and goods to us for our flea market
To EVERYONE that helped to spread the word on the flea market