In my gap year, I knew I wanted to travel. I didn’t really mind where I went, as long as I could do a solo trip. A friend of mine had travelled before and added volunteer work to her trip. I got curious, and through her I came across the amazing projects from Volunteer Worldwide.

I found the community project in Bali, and as soon as I read the description I got excited. What appealed to me most was that the project was really broad, so there would be plenty of different things to do. I loved the idea of not only travelling but also giving something back to the people who welcome you into their country. I couldn’t think of a better way to do that than volunteering, so I decided to sign up.

The time finally came this past January and I hopped on a plane to spend two months exploring Bali on my own and doing volunteer work. After a long journey I arrived at the project and was greeted by a very friendly woman, Dessy. She is the owner of the project and started it completely on her own. She runs the entire project with her own funds and donations.

As the project description mentions, the work can be really varied. I mainly spent my time helping at the little school that Dessy runs from her home. There are three groups spread out across the day. The first group comes from 9am-1pm and includes the youngest children aged four to six. These kids play, learn the alphabet, do arts and crafts, practise drawing and learn to name new animals in English using picture books. Their lessons are taught by Sri, the teacher who lives and works with Dessy.

This group also gets a healthy lunch in the afternoon. It is prepared fresh every day in Dessy’s kitchen. Dessy also teaches them values that she finds important. For example, she believes strongly in raising children with the idea that men and women are equal. In Indonesia this is still often not the case. By teaching the kids to respect one another and themselves, she is already making a real difference in her village on topics like these.

The second group consists of slightly older children who learn to read and write at Dessy’s school. They are taught in Bahasa, the Indonesian language, and their teacher is Orfa, who also lives with Dessy.

After gaining a bit of trust from the kids, they were just as excited for the lessons each day as I was.

The last group that comes in are the older kids, roughly between eleven and fifteen years old. They attend school themselves but come to Dessy’s place to do homework or to learn English. I took on the English lessons during the three weeks I was there. I really enjoyed teaching them because I could see how eager they were to improve their English. 

Outside of school hours I also joined Dessy or Sri a few times to deliver food to the poorest families in the village. We would check in on them and have a little chat. We also went to the birthday of a girl from the first group who lived a bit further down in the village. I felt really lucky to experience moments like that.

During the weekends Dessy took me on different trips and to various places. You are truly immersed in Balinese culture that way. I absolutely loved it. One weekend we went to Munduk, a little village in the centre of Bali where there is a similar project to Dessy’s. We went there to teach the children and to cook for them.

Another weekend Dessy took Sri and I to Singaraja, a large city in the north of Bali. We went there to buy new supplies for the project. Dessy asked for my opinion on many things, which really made me feel part of the decision making. It made me feel genuinely involved in the project.

Being in a place like that made me feel that I could truly contribute and make a difference, even if it is only a small one.

I would definitely recommend Dessy’s project. The location is in an area where hardly any tourists go, which means you get to see stunning places you might not usually visit, but you also get to see the other side of a tourist island like Bali. There is real poverty in Bali that you do not see in the tourist hotspots. Being in a place like that made me feel that I could genuinely make a difference, even if it is only a small one.

This project is also very easy to combine with travelling around Bali or the rest of Indonesia. Dessy is an incredibly kind woman with a heart of gold, and she runs the project with complete dedication and nothing but good intentions. She is already doing amazing work and I am sure she will only keep doing better with your help.

My advice if you are unsure? Just go for it and discover everything the island has to offer, and of course the project itself.

-Aniek