During our first public event, we had some questions from the audience. We passed them all on to the organisations, in order for them to answer them. Here are their answers:

BaleBengong

How does Balebengong find new projects?

The projects are based on the current situations we face in Bali particularly and in Indonesia generally.

The idea of the project “Voices of the Climate Change Victims”, for instance, emerged from the water crisis the local citizens faced as a result of the recent extreme drought in Bali.

Some farmers in the highest mountain areas could not access water for their rice fields, something that is very important for their livelihood. The same circumstance happened also among the fisherman and seaweed farmers in the different areas of Bali. We think that it's an important matter to share their stories to the broader audience.

Another project tries to tackle hoaxes in Indonesia. Based on our experience, the issue becomes more and more important due to the rise of the hoaxes in Indonesia for political reasons. On the other hand there is also much effort to tackle this challenge in Indonesia.

What has BaleBengong tried so far to get access to international development money from bigger (charity) organisations and why has this failed?

We had some experiences accessing funds from the international development like HIVOS for different projects such as monitoring the national health insurance using citizen journalism media in 2016-2017. However, for small NGOs like BaleBengong it is a challenge to access these funds from international donors, as accessing these require sufficient knowledge and network.

How many people use the platform www.BaleBengong.id ?

Currently there are about 600 registered contributors and about 200 active contributors. There are 1,500 unique visitors accessing the website daily.

You have a project fighting false information. What kind of false information are we talking about? And how is the false information affecting the people?

The false information that we are currently facing are from various topics such as the eruption, tsunami, earthquake, health, etc. The last case was in November 2019, when the earthquake happened in North Bali and then local citizen immediately shared information that the tsunami will come immediately after the earthquake. The false information then followed by the panic situation who escape from the beach area to the higher area. In fact, there was no tsunami after the earthquake.

Therefore, we think it's very important to share the knowledge to local people in Bali about whether information is correct or not.

BGBJ

How has BGBJ raised funds up so far?

BGBJ raised funds through landfill tour, selling merchandise, our hostel, cooking classes, offline and online fundraising.

How many people live on the landfill?

Around 24,000 people are living on the dump

Do you plan on starting projects to tackle the garbage problem overall through information, recycling etc.?

Yes, we plan projects to tackle the garbage problem and there is already an animation video about waste and recycling. We are planning a project to tackle the plastic issues in the future and we hope to launch it in 2020.

Hi I’m Eleni, an 8-year old girl. How many kids cannot go to school?

Hello Eleni, nice to know you. Around 30% of kids at BGBJ can't go to school because the lack of motivation from their parents and some of them must go to the landfill to work helping the family instead of going to school.

KAMA

How many women have already access to the projects of KAMA?

All in all, about 15 women and 5 men.

NYO

Is it hard to get access to financial support of bigger, international development and charity programs?

I can say that it is hard to get it. Funding is one of the biggest challenges for small organizations like us. Most international development and charity programs do not approach local organizations. What local organizations do is to approach them for cooperation, but it is sometimes not easy to get funds there because of the exigence of criteria and their agenda. Some of those criteria are the application for funds only in the period of call for proposals, the recommendation from other international partners, working more than ten years, to have someone you know within (lobbying).

Currently, our organization survives financially thanks to individual donors. Unfortunately, the donations are low, but we are still struggling for how we can cooperate with international development and charity programs. Thank you to SpendeDirekt for support not only help us to raise funds but also for advisory.

Do girls also have the opportunity to play football?

In Rwanda, culturally soccer is for boys, not for girls. Playing soccer increases self-esteem, builds leadership skills, and allows girls to have a visible role in public life. Through participation in Ladies' Turn, a generation of young women in Rwanda is developing the confidence to be agents of change in their communities, one soccer game at a time.

At our organization for our financial ability we started with a football centre for the boys, as long as we have a big support, we planned to have a mixed Football Centre (boys and girls). We know that giving each girl an opportunity to shine before her community and of course, have a fun through football!

Through football participating girls are seizing their right to play soccer in their neighbourhood field. This not only prepares leaders of tomorrow; it shifts their community's beliefs about what a woman can accomplish both on and off the field.