Making a difference...can we?

After spending some time with a number of expats and listening to their stories of establishing a meaningful life in their retirement, it seems that many of them have become involved in some 'good works' here.

Bali may be a stunningly beautiful place for visitors and provide a memorable holiday with an intriguing culture, fabulous food, and endless opportunities for relaxation and reinvigoration, but for many of the Balinese, life is far from good.

It's easy to be swamped with worthy causes and to be inspired by the hard work and great outcomes many of the expats achieve through initiating or supporting projects.

Whilst the countryside looks green and lush as a result of the wet season conditions are usually arid and dry, especially on the mountainsides. 

Last week we went to hear a Swiss banker called Daniel Elbe speak about his 23 years of work in one of the most arid and poverty stricken parts of Bali on the steep rocky mountains to the east where rainfall is poor and mortality rates are high. Many of the women begging on the Ubud streets with their small children walk the long distance from Muntigunung  every few days in desperation for any money.
His project called Muntigunung Social Enterprise ( see www.muntigunung.com) studied the problems carefully before focusing on very practical solutions and getting the mountain village people involved They started by teaching them to use the right proportions of sand and concrete to make their rainwater tanks hold the rain as they were losing huge amounts of water through leaky tanks. then they built enormous shelters with huge rooves which collected the rain in enormous concrete tanks. Not only did they function as water collection which lasted a year, but the shelters provided a workspace for communities to develop profitable cottage industries . Each village was funded for 2-3 years to develop a high quality commercial product...of course it does help when you have a Board of Swiss bankers to fund you!!! So they produce cashews, baskets,hammocks etc. But the most fascinating project was they used the skills and knowledge of the women traversing the mountains to go begging and converted them into leaders of Trekking expeditions which tourists pay a lot of money for. So clever!!A brilliant example of how to change people's lives for the better with some careful analysis and through engagement of them in every aspect of the change.

I have been discussing mental health services and issues here with anyone I can and the news is bad I can tell you.

I have met with a friend of a friend David Meldrum who has moved to Ubud with his wife Charmaine for a year following retirement. He is very interested in seeing if there is anyway to help as he has been the CEO of the Mental Illness Fellowship in Australia and has held other mental health related senior positions, Between the two of us we have lots of contacts and w'eve been investigating any source of information about the current services in Bali.

I have chatted with lots of expats many of whom have lived here for many years and to a person, they tell the same story. There is always someone who lives in their village/street  and is considered 'gila' (crazy) who, at best, is managed by being restricted to the family compound and monitored by all of the family members and at worst, is locked away in a cage and never see. Either way they are considered to be outcasts in their communities. When things get bad the Police are called and they are admitted to Bangli , the only mental hospital in Bali. Once discharged they receive no community services and have no continuing access to medication.

So to sum it up you can't say mental health services are bad here, because there are simply no services to speak of.

The most substantial challenges include:
- Whilst the Hindu religion is heavily embedded into the culture and has a strong sense of community and personal strength it also provide a challenge for the concept of mental illness, It underpins all aspects of life as can be seen by the endless numbers of beautiful flower-filled offering baskets ouside every home , business, on cars in doorways etc. And everywhere there are temples of all shapes and sizes within family compounds, outside every business and in every banjar or community.

 Traditional belief systems seem to characterise 'gila' as karma for bad deeds,such as not going to temple, not making offerings etc. For example David spoke to someone who lived near a school where a couple of the students went into a trance -like state and investigations showed that there was a mix-up with the offerings and no one had been doing them daily as required. Offerings reinstated, problem fixed until the behaviour happened again, and this time the solution was to do some refurbishment of the temple next door as that would improve the karma. So far so good, But apparently if it continues to happen then they are considering moving the school as it is too close to the cremation grounds. Meanwhile no one is trying to work out whether there might be other causes of the behaviour
Clearly any attempts to change responses to mental illness will have to involve the traditional healers and religious leaders.
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David and I have started making contacts with anyone silly enough to talk to us to try to get our heads around the myriad of issues here. So that should keep us busy for a while!

your investigative correspondent

Dianne