A good year for SYI

 The kids at PASK still have many needs to be met, but SYI has had a great year thanks to some very generous supporters.  This year SYI assisted PASK with more than $3000 worth of food and school fees. PASK is working towards sustainability by utilizing a portion of the food funds that SYI supplies to purchase plants for their vegetable garden and small livestock such as ducks.

The Easter Eggstravangza held in the Spring raised over $2500. The ladies of Made with Love Bakery are already gearing up for an even bigger Eggstravangza in 2014.  Check back here in March for details about how to get your delicious chocolate Easter egg. 

In July, local workers broke ground on the much needed boys dormitory at PASK.  Recently, SYI received the final donations necessary to reach our $16,000 goal!!!  The dorm is currently being completed.  I anticipate photos of the finished building later this month. (A gigantic thank you to Novita Mawo for sending photos and updates while attending school for public health!) I couldn’t be more excited about this accomplishment!  Thank YOU for making it possible to give such a wonderful gift to the children of PASK. 

Our new fundraiser held in December was a holiday appeal in the style of Heifer International.  This new venture, in which donors could earmark their donation for items like flocks of chickens or ducks, school tuition, goats, dorm furniture, etc. raised $1540.  Donors gave money for 3 flocks of chickens, 2 flocks of ducks, 5 garden patches, 2 mattresses, 2 blankets, 1 goat, 2 child sponsorships, and 1 semester of tuition. We have pledges for additional gifts that are anticipated in early January.  If desired, a card went out to a gift recipient in whose honor the donation was made.

 Also, other individual donors and supporters in Indonesia have taken an interest in PASK thanks to Ibu Martha Hebi.  In response to their need for new shoes, several persons stepped up and sent them shoes for Christmas!

SYI has much work ahead of us, but we continue to be overwhelmed by your generosity and the difference it has allowed us to make in the lives of our friends at PASK. In the coming year, SYI will continue to support PASK in whatever way we can.  We want to offer these 40 children a happy, healthy childhood and the opportunity to better their circumstances. 

We are also in the beginning stages of planning a trip to Sumba to visit PASK in the summer of 2015.  If you are interested in traveling with us, please send me an email: sumbayouthinitiative@gmail.com

A BIG THANK YOU to all who participated this year.  We hope you will consider SYI when making donations in 2014 as well.