Bhakti Luhur Partners

I. PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS:
Liliane Foundation, is a Dutch organization who aims to give individual children with disabilities access to medical care and social rehabilitation, this organization is already a long time partner for the Yayasan Bhakti Luhur (YBL). For more information about Liliane Foundation I like to refer you to the website www.lilianefonds.org/english/

Terre des Hommes (TdH), is a Dutch children’s aid organization supporting projects in the field of education, health care and independence in four different areas worldwide, also in Southeast Asia with the regional office in Jakarta. The cooperation with the Yayasan Bhakti Luhur (YBL) started in 2008 when TdH granted a request from YBL to support an Inclusive Education program in NTT (Flores, Timor and Sumba islands) in order to guarantee the continuation of this project for which YBL already started a pilot project in 2007. The aim of  YBL with this Inclusive Education program is to prepare visual impaired children (blind, low vision), hearing impaired children (deaf, low hearing) and mild intellectual disabled children for inclusion in the regular public schools. In order to achieve this goal also the parents, schools and communities have to be informed about this program and teachers of the participating schools have to be trained. This program is carried out and implemented by special trained field workers of YBL. After inclusion in the regular schools the children and teachers receive guidance and assistance by special trained inclusive education counselors (TPK) of YBL and the children will be monitored at a regular basis as long as this is needed. The results so far are promising but it’s a lengthy process and therefore YBL is grateful for the indispensable support of TdH. For more information about TdH I like to refer you to www.terredeshommes.nl/languages/en

Dark & Light Blind Care (D&L), is a Dutch organization with the aim to fight against avoidable blindness and for inclusion of handicapped people in the society.
The cooperation between D&L and the Yayasan Bhakti Luhur (YBL) exists already for a long time in which D&L provided for the funding of the study of visual impaired students at the secondary schools of YBL and also for the funding of equipment needed by the visual impaired children like walking sticks, riglets, stylus, spectacles and tape recorders for school.
Since 2008 D&L is supporting an Inclusive Education program in East Indonesia (Maluku and Papua). The aim of  YBL with this Inclusive Education program is to prepare visual impaired children (blind, low vision) and hearing impaired children (deaf, low hearing) for inclusion in the regular public schools. In order to achieve this goal also the parents, schools and communities have to be informed about this program and teachers of the participating schools have to be trained. This program is carried out and implemented by special trained field workers of YBL. After inclusion in the regular schools the children and teachers receive guidance and  assistance by special trained inclusive education counselors (TPK) of YBL and the children will be monitored at a regular basis as long as this is needed. The results so far are promising but it’s a lengthy process and therefore YBL is grateful for the indispensable support of D&L.
You can find more information about D&L at www.darkandlight.org/

Christian Blind Mission (CBM) is an international Christian development organization originating in Germany, committed to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in low income regions of the world especially in the field of visual impaired children.

In 1997 CBM started the cooperation with the Yayasan Bhakti Luhur (YBL) with the financial support for the training of social workers at the YBL training centre in Malang, East Java. In the same year CBM supported a pilot project for the implementation of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) in Tanimbar.

The support of CBM for the work of YBL was continued and from 2005 until now they provided for the costs (staff and test equipment) of the Low Vision Department of YBL in Malang and also for eye operations. Many visual impaired people and especially children could be helped thanks to the indispensable support of CBM.

Please read more about CBM at www.cbm.org

Netherlands Leprosy Relief (NLR) is committed to a world without leprosy and its consequences. NLR promotes the independent social and economic functioning of leprosy patients and their families. By supporting scientific research NLR wants to improve the effectiveness of leprosy control.

In 2009 the cooperation with YBL began with a project in East Java at which an inventory of leprosy patients took place and later these people and their families received help to set up small business. In 2010 a new project in the neighborhood of Malang, where the main centre of YBL is situated, was started. In this project around 80 ex-leprosy patients are assisted with their integration into the local community and the local society will be prepared for the acceptance and inclusion of these already from leprosy cured community members.

You can read more about the NLR at www.leprastichting.nl/English/

II. PROJECT SPONSORS:

Wings of Support (WoS) started as a private project by a KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) captain who was struck by the misery of many children in the developing countries he was flying to. Now the organization is run by volunteer staff members, both flight crew and ground personnel of KLM and Martinair, but currently other companies are also supporting the work of WoS.

After the Tsunami on 26 December 2004 which cost many lives and destroyed complete villages, also in North Sumatra especially in Aceh province, WoS decided to help by providing for a minivan as mobile medical unit and with the building of a new house (Wisma) for YBL in Medan where child victims of the Tsunami could be taken care of. This project was carried out with support from other organization like KLM/Air Cares, Liliane Foundation and Sharing Success. In this Wisma, named Biru Nan Aman of Blue Arc, YBL is taking care of 15 handicapped children and orphans. This project was finished in 2006.

More about WoS on www.wingsofsupport.org/en/

The Patatas is a Singapore based non-profit company believing that social work must be scalable and sustainable. The Patatas are part of and is supported by Potato Productions Pte Ltd, which is directed by Mr. Lee Han Shih.

Mr. Lee is a member of the Lee family and in 2007 the Pilot project for Inclusive Education of YBL in Flores, Timor and Sumba (NTT) was financed by the Lee Foundation, the CSR part of their business. The Inclusive Education program is still going on with good results.

In 2010 The Patatas donated 2 camcorders for the training department of YBL and later that year they granted a request by YBL for the printing of 400 copies of the book “Helping Children Who Are Deaf”, published by the US based Hesperian Foundation, which was translated by YBL in Bahasa Indonesia.

Read more about The Patatas on www.thepatatas.com/

Bossers & Cnossen (B&C) is a Dutch hardware supplier and provider of IT solutions for the non-profit and business market in the Netherlands. In 2006 B&C donated 132 secondhand but good computers who needed maintenance, upgrading and new software, this was done at the Deltion College (DC), a Dutch community school, by IT students under the leadership of a project manager in 2007. The computers together with special keyboards and software for handicapped children were shipped to Indonesia by the end of 2007 and arrived in Malang beginning 2008. Read more about B&C on www.bnc.nl and DC on www.deltion.nl/english/

Royal (Koninklijke) Visio is an assessment centre in the Netherlands for visual impaired children. They also give information and advice about guidance, education and living with a visual handicap also for multi handicapped people.

Beginning 2007 the first contact between Visio and YBL was established in which YBL requested help from Visio for the training of teachers, therapists and fieldworkers of YBL in order to make them capable of giving computer training to blind and low vision children.

This request was granted and in November 2007 a trainer from Visio came to Malang to give a 2 weeks training to 12 staff members of YBL. Special software donated by Dolphin UK was installed and special Braille readers, donated by Visio, were connected to the computers. With this special software and hardware visual impaired children are taught how to use the keyboard of a computer what is supported by a speech synthesizer in the Indonesian language and they can check the typed text with the Braille reader.

The trainer of Visio has given 2 continuation courses in 2008 and 2009 and now the trainers of YBL are teaching blind and low vision children of YBL as well as children from outside.

For more information about Visio see www.visio.org

Royal (Koninklijke) Dutch Kentalis is an organization in the Netherlands which provides diagnostic, care and educational services to hearing impaired, deaf-blind and autistic people.

An independent part of Kentalis is Kentalis International Foundation who shares their experience and knowledge with professional organizations in developing countries.

In 2009 the cooperation between Kentalis and YBL started with a 4 weeks training given to specialists, teachers and fieldworkers of YBL by specialists of Viataal (now part of Kentalis).

The contents of this training consisted of total communication with hearing impaired and autistic children, testing of children with hearing problems by using an audio-meter and making audiograms and information about maintenance and adjustment of hearing aids.

Kentalis also donated 6 decibel-meters and 3 (expensive) audio-meters.

A continuation training for specialists and teachers of deaf, multi handicapped (hearing impaired and also blind or with mental restrictions) and autistic children will hopefully take place in 2011. More about Kentalis and Kentalis International on www.kentalis.nl English version.

Charity from USA. In October 2010 YBL received a Braille Embosser from a church community in Utah, USA. Now the blind and low vision children can print their own documents they make on the dedicated computers for the visual impaired.