Our Latest News & Stories

This week, in the Youth Empowerment gender lesson, our high school students reviewed a short movie entitled “Purusa, Utama?” that vividly illustrated the harmful effects of patriarchy in Balinese households and evoked strong emotions because of its relevance to their own lives. Several students related closely to the characters, especially the abusive father figure who enforced strict discipline by raising his son with corporal punishment, while giving his daughter endless do

What does real learning look like in a Guidance and Counseling class? Sometimes, it begins with a simple yet powerful question: ‘ How do you feel?’ In today’s session, students explored three fundamental emotions — happiness, sadness, and anger. Through small-group discussions, drawings, and personal sharing, they reflected on real situations from their daily lives. The goal was not only to talk about emotions, but to understand them. As the session unfolded, the classroom be

My English lessons this week focused on something simple yet powerful: helping students find their voices. In Grades 7, 8, and 9, I introduced vocabulary through themes drawn from their daily lives — at home, the beach, at the market, at school, and at the temple. Because the language reflected their own environment, students connected with it quickly and responded with genuine interest. In Grade 7, students explored food vocabulary and taste words such as sweet, salty, spicy

The Annual Kecamatan (sub-district level) Sports Competition, held in March 2026, is an official sports event for students and forms an integral part of their sports development system. Thus, we have selected 2-3 students to represent EBPP by competing in chess, long jump, high jump, running events, and shot put at the elementary, junior high, and senior high school levels in each category. These students have already started the first week of their training as part of their

Hello, my name is Komang Nyos. I am an EBPP alumnus from 2022 and a scholarship recipient currently in my sixth semester at Dhyana Pura University, Bali, majoring in Public Health. Returning to EBPP as a guest teacher was a deeply meaningful experience. It gave me the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences from university life while encouraging students to stay motivated and confident about continuing their education. During my semester break from 4–6 February, I retu

Food security is a fundamental pillar of community health and well-being, particularly for people living in remote areas with limited access to public services. Inadequate access to nutritious food can lead to malnutrition and undernutrition, especially among children. In Desa Ban, many families live on the steep slopes of Mount Abang and depend on dryland farming for their livelihoods. For generations, farmers have practiced traditional intercropping, primarily cultivating c

For two meaningful weeks, EBPP once again became a space for learning, collaboration, and reflection with the return of our volunteer, Chris Frankland . This visit marked his fifth time at EBPP, continuing a long-term partnership that has steadily grown through shared practice, trust, and reflection. Chris first introduced cooperative learning in 2024, as an invitation to rethink classroom interaction and student engagement. Over time, teachers explored, adapted, and applied

Mathematics is often perceived as a difficult subject by many students. This challenge is not only experienced by EBPP students, but also by learners in schools around the world. Such perceptions can negatively affect students’ motivation, participation, and confidence in the learning process. When students feel that mathematics is intimidating, they tend to become passive and disengaged in the classroom. To address this issue, I have increasingly implemented cooperative lear

Last week, EBPP distributed iron supplement for 63 female students across our Manikaji, Darmaji, and Daya learning centres. There was a total of 315 iron tablets, with each student receiving five tablets to be consumed over five weeks. To commemorate Hari Gizi Nasional  (National Nutrition Day) on 25 January 2026, we took the iron supplement together with the students as a symbolic and practical act of staying healthy by fulfilling daily iron needs. This collective moment als

As a Guidance Counsellor at EBPP School, my role is to support students in understanding themselves and planning for their future. One simple yet meaningful tool I use is the Dream Tree—a creative medium that helps students visualise their dreams and map out the direction they want to take in life. Through this activity, students are encouraged to reflect on their goals, while I gain deeper insight into their potential, interests, and career paths. Every student has a dream,

Proper sanitation is one of the most essential basic needs for family health, especially children. Limited access to sanitation facilities often leads to various preventable health issues, such as diarrhea, fever, skin infections, and other sanitation-related diseases. In Ban Village, many families still do not have access to basic sanitation facilities such as toilets and thus some community members are forced to use nearby bushes around their homes. This situation not only

During the rainy season, we have been planting vegetables and shallots in the Darmaji School garden. This time, we harvested around four kilograms of eggplant from last year’s plants, and each of us could take some home to enjoy with our families. Since we shaped our previously steep dry land learning garden into terraces, stabilised with Vetiver grass, some crops—like eggplants—can continue being productive because they are no longer easily affected by erosion. Seeing this r

As the new semester begins, schools play an essential role in kickstarting students’ enthusiasm for getting back to learning, with a key focus at EBPP being to strengthening literacy! Literacy goes beyond reading and writing—it also includes understanding information, thinking critically, and expressing ideas clearly. At the start of this second semester, literacy activities at EBPP schools serve as a strong foundation for creating a positive learning culture. Through regular

Hi! I am Tini, a Grade 9 student from Pengalusan School. Every morning, I begin my day by sweeping the house and washing the dishes. Starting the day with a clean and tidy home makes me feel calm and ready. In the afternoon, I weave bamboo—something I truly enjoy. It’s not only a skill I love, but also a way I help support my family. This is how I spend my school holidays. Learning responsibility, patience, and life beyond the classroom.

As 2025 draws to a close, the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) Education Team held a Coordination Meeting as a key part of our evaluation and sustainable planning process to reflect on the progress of the educational programs over the past year, while also formulating concrete steps to address the challenges ahead. During the meeting, each department presented performance reports, program achievements, and the challenges encountered throughout 2025. The discussions were open

As part of EBPP long-term strategy to support and develop students’ interests and talents in the arts, we recently initiated the ‘EBPP School Music Group’ designed as a supporting activity to develop students’ creativity, discipline, and self-confidence through music. This group brings together selected junior and senior high school students from our Bunga, Cegi, Pengalusan, Manikaji, and Darmaji schools’ individual music groups, who show interest in developing skills in play

EBPP’s extracurricular music program took an exciting step forward this semester, expanding from modern music to including traditional Balinese music—especially Rindik, a bamboo instrument known for its soft, calming tones. Although Rindik is new to our students, many showed immediate interest and enthusiasm to learn. Every afternoon, after completing their academic lessons, students come down to the EBPP Ban office for practice. They begin with the basics: recognizing pitche

The beginning of the rainy season is always a time we look forward to. Together with my friends, I feel excited again to work in our learning garden and to help my parents on our family farmland. We immediately apply all the skills we have learned about dryland farming, making every activity meaningful and enjoyable. The first thing we did was build a cubang —a rainwater storage reservoir that will be essential during the dry season. We also planted various vegetable seeds, b

One of the teacher’s roles is not only to teach writing skills but also to help students express their ideas confidently. To support them with this, I introduced a simple and fun activity, initially to my Grade 9 students: learning speech texts . In this lesson, students were divided into groups and given topics to discuss, such as: “Why is maintaining cleanliness important in school?”  Each group talked about the issue, identified the main message, and drafted a short speech

This year, with the rainy season arriving earlier than expected, Darmaji students welcomed this bonus with great enthusiasm, as I guided them to focus their recently acquired skills in dry-land organic farming in making preparations at the beginning of the rainy season. The students began by repairing existing water channels on the terraced fields and constructing new terraces to expand planting areas and prevent soil erosion. Their teamwork reflects not only their growing ag