Art auction to aid Bali orphanage
The work of 25 local artists will be auctioned on Friday night, December 14, as a fund-raiser for an orphanage in Bali.
The Point Church has organised the fundraising art auction the help the Widha Asih Orphanage Foundation.
It will be held at the Richmond Room, starting at 6.30pm.
The works to be auctioned on the night are done by the likes of Joe Stark and Kim Michelle Toft, as well as emerging artists.
Entry will be by donation. The lucky door prize is a Mark Waller print.
The auction follows a trip to Bali this year for two local woman, Angela Parr and Trudy Simmons, which didn’t take them to the usual tourist places popular with Australians.
They were on a self-funded trip to visit six of the seven orphanages run by the Widha Asih Orphanage Foundation, an arm of the Christian Protestant Church in Bali.
The orphanages house more than 600 children – but only about 10 per cent are orphans in the Western sense of the word.
The others come to the orphanage with their widowed mothers left to fend for themselves, or with abandoned wives.
Angela said that in Balinese culture, widows are not necessarily taken in by their family, and the Hindu-based culture frowns on divorce so some men simply disappear.
She said the Indonesian Government gives little support to these women, and so they are left to fend for themselves.
But Angela and Trudy were heartened by what they saw in the orphanages.
“The children were all attending their respective schools, were well nourished, happy and generally engaged in meaningful activities,” Angela said.
“Most of the orphanages develop crafts, artistic talents, or farming, which can then become small business enterprises.
“The children took pride in their surroundings, their micro businesses, their schools and their school uniforms.
“Some of the children were even able to continue on with their schooling right through to University level.”
PICTURES: Some of the works to be auctioned, and students from the orphanage.
