Bali Library

Tyas, myself and Freya standing on the library land     (left to right)


My name is Samara and I'm 16 years old.

I have just returned to the Sunshine Coast after living in Bali for the past 2 years.  I was in Bali because my mum was working as a volunteer with Australian Volunteers International who are funded by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Mum worked with one of Bali's largest NGO's, Puspadi Bali, who help people with physical disabilities.   www.puspadibali.org

While in Bali I used my craft  skills to fund raise for a number of local causes; for example to help Bali's animal rescue org BAWA and to give a paralysed single father transport so he could take his 13 year old son to school and re engage with life.

The biggest project I am doing is this one.

To build a library in the village of Bungaya.  Bungaya is 2 hours drive from Bali's capital Denpasar.

I am doing this project with a Bali teenager, 14 year old Tyas.  Tyas is the daughter of Puspadi Bali Director I Nengah Latra.  She is a student leader at her school & loves books.

I am the published author of the children's craft book How To Make Fairy Houses and with my book in many Australian libraries I have had a long relationship with libraries.

So when the Indonesian Government mandated that children must read for at least 15 minutes a day in an endeavour to improve the reading skills of Indonesian children, but very few schools have libraries, Tyas and I thought this was a perfect time to build a library in Bungaya, her village.

The library will include a Bale (an open structure used for community gatherings) and a small kitchen/toilet block and will cost $20,000 to build. This is the amount of money we need to raise.  The building will be done by Tyas and I along with teenagers from the Sunshine Coast and Bali all of which will be managed by the staff of Puspadi Bali.

Being able to access books and build their reading skills  will help to give kids and teenagers  of Bali a better future. It also meets the UN's Sustainability Development Goals:

Goal 4 Quality education (because of better reading skills)
Goal 8 Decent work (because of a better education)
Goal 1 No poverty (because a good job means less poverty).
Goal 5 Gender equality (the library will be used by girls as much as boys)

The library will be built next year in March 2017 and if anyone would like to join Tyas and I and help build the library in Bali then please let me know.

Please watch the video Tyas and I have made to meet us and for more information on our project. The bit at the end shows a Puspadi building program for 1 of their paralysed clients and this shows you how we will build the library, with our hands.

I have also attached the  beautiful library building plans that were designed by Nicole Thompson from Journeyman International in the USA, a firm who do free building design for NGO's worldwide.

Please support our project and help to build the bridge of friendship between our countries and give the young people of Bungaya village, one of Bali's oldest and poorest villages, a better future.