David's AW News: Angels & Babies

Greetings from Pantai Lembeng, Bali

I'm sat in the Beach office of AW-Advantage, where Raul (the IT wizard) is deep in consultation and concentration with his small team of programmers.. 

You might have noticed things happening on our websites recently.. New search bar, new discounts, a revamped Gold Reward System and a new way to display product prices.

It's a lot more complicated than you can imagine.. but big changes are coming soon.

Actually I'm feeling a little traumatised.. I have just come back from a trip to the nearby Bali Babies Home.. and made an important decision.. (see below)

Last week I was telling you about 7 surprising surprises... if you missed it you can catch up here. 

This week has been manic.. lots of problems that need fixing, suppliers to see and deals to be renegotiated.

We went to see one of the families that are making Hati Hati Angels and managed to catch them in full production mode. 

Off the beaten track, in a traditional wood carving village in family compound down a little back alley we found them..

Family team..

The father told me he had been carving wood since he was 6 years old.. so for 50 years and his father before him. The whole family are involved, the son cuts the raw suar wood into the rough shape, father and daughter skilfully carve the angles, and the wife and grandmother are doing the sanding and polishing. The grandchild is in charge of feeding ice cream to the pet dog. We took pictures and chatted to them as they continued working. They told me that they make about 25 angles in one day, so that's just 5 per person per day.  So slowly no? Fortunately Ringo has a collection of other artisans making the same shape.. but we can never keep up with demand.

I asked them if they was happy doing this? Yes they said smiling, it is their life they love it, and the job gives them freedom to attend the many Balinese ceremonies, do some farming and be involved in the complex Bali community. Yes they could get work in boutique hotel at the end of the village, but the demands of that kind of job means the cultural life suffers.

We take the carved angels, and then another artisan does the finishing, that's painting and polishing. Later we laser carve the angel name on the base in our warehouse. 

Hati Hati Angels was one of the first products we developed in Bali.. Hati Hati means "Take care" - and over the tears we have never been able to buy enough to keep them in stock.. Regular customer will know we are out of stock more than in.. and sadly as the artisan in Bali gradually dwindle and take jobs outside the villages I fear that this kind of product will be more and more difficult to source.

Bondhan made a little video of our visit..

This morning we took a trip to see the Bali Baby Home. It's our second visit.. last time was in February, 6 months ago. Actually I wanted to meet the founder of this amazing project. A guy called Burhan.

What I didn't appreciate on the first visit is that this is a relatively new venture.. only two and years old and in the last 6 months has done amazing things. What they do is create a safe space for young mothers who have been ostracized or run away from their families because of a pregnancy.   Burhan told me that on average one baby is abandoned somewhere in Indonesia everyday. Left on the side of the road, in rubbish bin or sometimes left outside his home. Indonesian society especially in the rural areas and remote islands is so unaccepting of pregnancy out of wedlock, and abortions are illegal in Indonesia, so young girls often run away and sometimes to the comparatively liberal island of Bali.

Burhan told me they have saved over a hundred babies in the last two years that otherwise might be dead. And he and his team work hard at reuniting babies and family.. he will go to remote village find the family of girl - negotiate the safe and loving return of girl and baby. 43 babies have been successfully returned to families. Part of the process is that every baby has an Instagram account, so that grand parents can see how cute their kids are and hopefully melt hardened hearts.

We arrived just as Barham also returned from a four day trip to Java where they are setting up another home, the house where we met is the toddler place and all the little ones were excited to see him crowding round and calling him papa.  They have volunteers come from Europe right now two girls from France, the mothers who are here all pitch in and local ladies help, you can see how they are all devoted to the energetic and charismatic Burhan. I sat with him and he told me the whole story..

On behalf of Ancient Wisdom we offered our help, there is a large house next to the existing home which last time we came was clearly over crowded. It belongs to a Japanese businessman who has agreed to rent it to the charity, so we agreed to cover the rent and some extra for services. Also a lump sum big enough to do meaningful work, and pay off debts.

He told me that they are not short of nappies and baby food, tourist arrive everyday with boxes of supplies, in return for a tour of the building. They have so many donations that he sends a truck every month to Java for use in the other two homes he has set up.

You can find out more here: .BaliBaby Home.

Our plan is to develop a product line from Bali, where a chunk of the profit can on that line goes directly back to the home. In this way you can help support what I believe is a super worthy cause.

So Angels and Babies..

Regular readers will know we have a children's home in India we have supported for many years.. You can read about it here.

Our plan is develop relationships with on-the-ground people in all the areas we do business in. I hope you are coming along for the ride. And help us to support more people.

Moving on..

There are new products coming online..

New discounts on almost every product! 

Take care and more news next week.

Hati Hati!

 

David