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Yayasan Widya Asih is home and shelter to children coming from poor families throughout Bali. It is where they can seek for better quality life and education. It has seven orphanages scattered in Singaraja, Karangasem, Bangli, Negara and Denpasar districts. Commonly each accommodates between twenty to fifty children. For daily drinking water, they rely on water from the well and government water company, PDAM. Tthey cook it and drink. For this amount of children, cooking the water consumes a lot of energy and fuel until they finally can drink it. Furthermore, what they can drink is very limited.

We installed a UV water filter in the orphanage. Orphanage staff has been trained to change the filter and check for proper water quality. The people there are amazed at the ease they can now access clean drinking water without the trouble of boiling it first and then letting it cool down.

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The post Donation of Basic Necessities (Food and Clothing) to Orphanage in Singaraja, Bali first appeared on Fishing & Living.

The manual is part of our current community initiative to improve the safety of the fishermen.

The post Fishing & Living released Safety at Sea manual for small-scale fisheries first appeared on Fishing & Living.

The Fishing & Living Initiative provided new sporting equipment to a local elementary school in Lombok, including new uniforms for the soccer team.

The F & L team also provided teaching supplies to a new kindergarten in Lombok. The kindergarten has just moved into a new building and is limited on resources.

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A local Indonesian music band celebrated the launch of their 5th album by hosting a beach cleanup environmental campaign on Mertasari Beach in Bali on July 27th. The Fishing and Living team were one of the sponsors of the event. The event consisted of cleaning up trash off the beaches, planting mangroves, and educational activities for children and adults.

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On July 25, there was a big flood in Negeri Lima village, Central Maluku district and the flooding wiped out the village as it is located right downhill of the dam. The rain poured heavily for days and the dam broke down. The water rushed down to the village at high speeds and was reported to reach 5 meters high. The villagers had to flee from their village and stay in refugee camps during the last week of the Ramadhan. Some people are still reported missing.

The devastated village is
located only 5 minutes from our Fishing & Living Data Collection Station in Assilulu, Ambon Maluku so we sent help and support to the IDPs (Internally Displaced Person). Our enumerators in Assilulu received donated money from our office in Bali to purchase rice, instant noodles, eggs, and cooking oil. They made sure to deliver it directly to the IDPs.

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MDPI visits elementary students in East Lombok to learn about the functioning of the ocean in an interactive awareness event

One of the fishing communities in which MDPI works is Labuan, East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. Unfortunately, we still see that not all of the fishermen are as yet fully aware of the importance of sustainable fishing . The school where most of the children of the fishermen are students is called SDN 9. It is fair to presume that some of these children may follow in their father’s footsteps and become fisherman . So, the MDPI team sees this as a perfect place to instil awareness to children of the fishermen on the importance of sustainable fishing ….. with the hope of creating a generation of environmentally conscious and sustainable fishers for the future.

An MDPI initiated socialization activity was held last March 8, 2014 , at the elementary School SDN9, Labuan Lombok . Participants of the activity were students from grade 5 and 6.

Presentations on the importance of sustainable fishing; the impact of ocean dumping; protected marine animals and their importance in the ecosystem were given. Additionally, we tried to provide an understanding of the various fishing gears , both selective and environmentally friendly as well as less selective types such as trawling and then destructive fishing gears such as bombing and poison. An important point of emphasis was that we are all part of the next generation of sustainability in Indonesia.

In addition to delivery of these presentations, the MDPI team also introduced the theme of a sustainable fishery through fishing games and watching videos . The fishing games aims was to determine the actions of the participants if they become fishermen and emphasize that animals such as turtles , dolphins , whales , manta rays, and sharks are supposed to be protected and not to be caught . The video which was most enjoyed by the children was one which tells about the journey of life cycle and survival rate of sea turtles in the wild .

To determine the level of student understanding of the material that was discussed we then conducted a question and answer round with the participants. From the questions and answers given by the students, it can be concluded that most of the participants have started to understand the theories and ideas we tried to transfer to them.

Both the teachers and the students were enthusiastic and happy with the conducted activity . Mr. Junaidi, the principal welcomed us immensely and said that the school will continue to support events like this, because he considers them to be benefits for the future of the children in understanding these extra-curricular lessons . The school also hopes that the activities undertaken by MDPI in SDN 9, Labuan Lombok this march is the first of many such events to come!

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Basic training in First Medical Response (MFR) for FairTrade Fishermen and Fishing Industry in Ambon, Maluku

  As part of the Fair Trade pilot program being implemented in Anova supply chains in Eastern Indonesia, MDPI, Fishing & Living’s partner on the ground, held a Fair Trade sponsored,  first response medical training for a selected number of fishers, processing plant staff and villagers. The idea behind the training was to ensure that an adequate number of trained persons are available in each village or landing area to accommodate any emergencies which may occur related to fishermen or fishing activities.

20 people participated in the training: 8 people from Assilulu, Ambon based fisher associations, 4 from Buru island based fisher associations, 4 MDPI Staff and 4 from our partner processing facilities in the region.

The head of the national search and rescue agency (Basarnas) for the Maluku region opened the training and explained that the training would be conducted using 2 methods, theory and practice.  Additionally, Lalu Hizbulloh, MDPI, motivated the participants to describe real life situations. Field conditions for fishermen are very prone to accidents and rural fishing villages have limited access to to health centres and hospitalss.

The trained individuals are now confident to help anyone subject to minor accidents, at least to such a level that the transfer to the nearest hospital is possible. The participants were specifically chosen to ensure that trained individuals are spread out between all the villages participating in the Fair Trade project. In addition to the training, medical posts were created in each location where there is a trained first responder. Each village was given an extensive medical kit with materials and medical products to support the trainee in conducting his/her duties as local first aid appointee.

MDPI would like to thank Fair Trade and Anova LLC for their kind contribution in making this training possible.

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