Medyarte Foundation

07/02/2020

Klinika w Himalajach rozpoczęła działalność! :-)

18/03/2019

Amazing progress in Marang library

One full year has now passed since the new library in Marang opened its doors to the local children. Liliana, the teacher employed by MEDyARTE, together with Dany a volunteer teaching assistant, have worked wonders with a group of 120 keen youngsters who attend the library on a daily basis. Liliana has recently assessed children to look at their overall progress with the aim of establishing the effectiveness of the Library project. The findings have proved to be quite astounding.
Literacy
Prior to the opening of the facility only 73% of children at grade 1-3 were able to read while now nearly all (95%) children are fluent readers.
Comprehension
In the older age group (grade 5-6) previously nearly half of the children were able to read a passage in a book but could not comprehend it. A year later all children in this age group can read and fully understand the text and feel confident to share the story with other children.
Numeracy
Prior to the library opening 50% of children used to have difficulty in solving simple maths problems and understanding the meaning of maths symbols and numbers. Now only a small minority continue to have such problems.
Dance performance
Finally, from the cultural perspective the number of children who can perform traditional dances has increased four-fold and all of them have became much more confident to do so in public. This amazing progress has happened even before the traditional Dayak dance and music programme has been fully implemented!

Well done Liliana and Dany! We are looking forward to hearing about the children’s national exam results and wish them all luck!

18/11/2018

https://www.radio.rzeszow.pl/ /audycje/16911/zalozyciele-fundacji-medyarte-o-swojej-dzialalnosci?highlight=WyJtZWR5YXJ0ZSJd

15/10/2018

The impact of our projects

01/10/2018

The Dayak people formed the original tribes in the Central Kalimantan region in Borneo: descendants of these people still live in this area and make up the majority of the local population. With the influx of western culture and goods, the Dayak culture has been gradually disappearing. Although there are still a few older community members with traditional skills such as rattan weaving, playing traditional instruments or using a blow pipe, they are becoming more and more difficult to find. This is of concern as cultural identity is an essential ingredient for the survival for any people. It fosters a deep love for their place of birth and by extension a strong instinct to protect and preserve it. It creates pride and self-worth at an individual and community level and enshrines respect for cultural heritage in all its myriad forms.

MEDyARTE has recently opened a children’s library in Marang near Palangkaraya in the Central Kalimantan area in Borneo. The library serves 80 village children and provides supplementary teaching of various school subjects as well as environmental and health studies. Currently students are learning traditional dance and music from two of the older teenagers from the village: although extremely talented they are limited in what they can offer and there is no support from a qualified instructor.

During a recent visit to Marang two trustees personally observed the dedication and commitment of the village children to learning traditional music and dance and were treated to a demonstration of their achievements so far under the tutelage of their friends. The two teenagers who currently act up as instructors expressed their great desire to study at the locally renowned Hornbill Dance Academy; this would allow them to become fully qualified music and dance teachers and teach in several villages in the local area.

MEDyARTE is looking at the possibility of funding training for these two young people over a period of six to twelve months. The intense curriculum at the Hornbill Academy in Palangkaraya would encompass the study of dance, voice and traditional instruments in combination with academic elements which will give context and meaning to their newfound practical skills. Thereafter MEDyARTE would look to fund the initial employment of these teachers in local communities. We are also hoping to purchase a set of traditional instruments which could be used by all the villages in this locality.

01/10/2018

Borneo 2018

15/07/2018

Delivery of Water Filters Event

Katimpun, Central Kalimantan, Borneo 1/7/18

After several months of planning we have finally succeeded in delivering water filters to 400 inhabitants of Katimpun Village in Central Kalimantan. We had wonderful support from the local population who were heavily involved in the organisation of the event and were also fortunate to have the invaluable help of Jeroen van Overbeek who has lived in Indonesia for many years and specialises in the provision of water filters to remote parts of Indonesia. Nevertheless, despite this, there were plenty of unexpected obstacles!

The event had been planned to take place a week after the end of Ramadan to avoid any difficulties of a religious nature and so the filters were supposed to have reached the village by land before this date. What we did not anticipate however was that the local government decided to close all roads during the period of Ramadan. As a consequence, the planned delivery of the filters could not go ahead. Luckily, thanks to the resourcefulness of Jeroen and support from the Nazava Filter Company, delivery did happen – by air!

As it turned out this was not the only unwelcome surprise. On the morning that Jeroen was due to board a plane from Denpasar (Bali) to Palangkaraya (Borneo) to start educational sessions in the village, the notorious Bali volcano, Mount Agung, exploded. This resulted in Denpasar airport being closed. Amazingly, Jeroen managed to travel by bus to Java, from where he took a plane to Borneo and arrived in Katimpun just in time for the event. His journey lasted 28 hours instead of 4!

The people of Katimpun were very enthusiastic about the filters and incredibly grateful for their arrival. At least one member of each family attended a gathering in the local library where Jeroen instructed everybody on how to assemble and maintain the filters while Rhamah, the local midwife, gave a presentation that had been prepared by us in the UK about the importance of clean water supply and ways of preventing waterborne diseases. The event continued for several hours with many questions, banter and laughter.

Jeroen wrote after the event:

“We had a lot of fun during the distribution. The villagers were super happy and thankful for the water filters. It was a fantastic experience, they were very attentive.

After having introduced the filter, we called the women in groups of 5 and started the distribution of the 104 water filters. Each woman was asked to assemble the water filter under the supervision of the team, so they would know how to do it at home. This is a crucial step and the women understood that. So they were patiently waiting for their turn. Before going home with the water filter, every woman thanked me on behalf of MEDyARTE. It was very touching. ”

We really hope that the water filters will make a significant difference to the health of the local population. We are looking forward to following up their progress in the village.

18/06/2018

27/05/2018

“It was such an amazing day when we had the opening ceremony. The party started at 2pm on Friday. We had around 200 people who came. Amongst them there were David Metcalf and his photo tour group. We also had our NGO friends who work on other education projects, the local media and a few government people joining in. We prepared local sweets to be served after the ceremony: these were all prepared by the ladies from the village. Everyone was so cheerful and happy; children performed dance, music and poetry for the guests. Thank you for supporting us with this project!“
By Aini Abdul
________________________________________
On 13th of May 2018 the second learning center for Ransel Buku was officially opened in a small village of 250 people called Marang, about one hour by road from the city of Palangkaraya which is also accessible by boat.
This village of Marang has little or no support from the government in terms of education, teaching or materials. That has now changed thanks to MEDyARTE, and their kind and generous support!
The entire village came out to watch the official celebration and opening of the learning centre. I would say over 200 people were present including most of the parents, who were as excited as the children!
There were traditional Dayak dance performances by the children from Katimpun Village where the first learning centre is located – they have been taught dancing for the past 2 years in an effort to preserve the Dayak culture among the young. They were very proud to be able to show off their dancing abilities and everything they had learnt.
The children from Marang Village watched with great interest as they had never seen anything like this before.
The Spirit of the Hornbills Dance Academy, which gives dancing lessons to children in Katimpun village library, also came from Palangkaraya and donated their time to join in the celebrations.
The new teacher that MEDyARTE supports made a speech and one of the older Marang children read some poetry which had a lot of the mothers crying.
It was a very emotional day and the children were so excited to show the guests their new library, which they had spent many days painting. It looked beautiful with many books on the shelves that the children couldn’t wait to read.
Magic happened that day!
These children now have hope and feel very special because people like Gosia care about them and believe in the importance of a good education.
Thanks once again, it will be exciting in the future to watch the development of the children and help them achieve their dreams.
By David Metcalf, the photographer who helped Ransel Buku to build the first Library in Katimpun village

27/05/2018

Opening of the library 13th May 2018

Our first library in Marang, Central Kalimantan, has now been officially opened.
This project was an exciting and on occasion frustrating journey with many challenges along the way but ultimately exceptionally rewarding and worthwhile.
We were very lucky to work in partnership with Bornean NGO and consequently benefitted from hands-on support, invaluable background knowledge and an enthusiastic local population keen to get personally involved.
A lot of work was done voluntarily by inhabitants of the village, eager for the library to be completed.
The opening ceremony was very emotional for all present.
We are incredibly proud to have achieved so much. Hopefully this will be a sustainable development which will make a lasting difference to many young people over the years.
You are warmly invited to read some first-hand accounts of the opening ceremony here.

25/04/2018

25/04/2018

Opening celebration of library in Marang / Kalimantan