In Reply to: hmmm one hopes so... posted by bopgirl on Saturday, 17. February 2007 at 12:58 Bali Time:
or not, it is opening up a lot of discussion points to be considered. Fortunately, I get to see most sides of the sponsorship thing.
Probably less than about 15% of the people who get involved drop out after the first year, for whatever personal reasons. No doubt a little like a holiday romance - the novelty wears off.
On the other hand, a lot add another child to their list later on.
From the other side, though, we are seeing that enrolments have increased since we got involved, by at least 15%, and I'm sure the birth rate hasn't increased at the same rate, so the encouragement given to the community for their children to gain a basic education is having an affect.
The drop-out rate at our schools over the 6 years in Elementary School is below 5% compared to the average across Bali of 29%.
Last August, I visited 3 schools in Pancasari, up past Candi Kuning. There is no student sponsorship happening up there, but we told them we would try to get books, bookcases, desks and chairs for a library in each of them. However, they had to prepare an area adequately for them first. The community has pooled together to employ 2 full-time librarians to work within all 3 schools. We opened all 3 of those libraries last Saturday. I could not believe the difference in the schools. The buildings have all be cleaned up and the gardens & grounds are looking immaculate.
The teachers and the children are all taking pride in their schools now, and I can only hope this attitude flows over into the education.
All of these results are because other people are taking an interest in them and not just because of 'sponsorship' but because of 'caring'.
Most of this comes from Forumites.
There are so many aspects of working with children that could benefit from open discussions, and I am more than happy to get involved in answering any queries.
Cheers
Noel