Team Name and Accepting Donations Now

Hi Everyone

Firstly congratulations to Loretta and Sheryl who have both contributed to our team name. Loretta's suggestion, Mountain Katts drew on a mountain theme with a feline edge, while also cleverly combining our surnames (Kingsley + Platt = Katts).

We also couldn't go past our resident Spanish speaker Sheryl's suggestion of Loco for Lombok! So we decided it would be:

Mountain Katts-Going Loco for Lombok

So Freddo Frogs are due to these two clever women! 

Now down to the serious stuff. As you all know we are fundraising for uniform packs for kids at a school in Lombok, Indonesia. We lived in Lombok in 2007 and 2008, where both of us did research for our PhDs.  Just to give you a bit of background, Lombok is one of the poorest areas in Indonesia. Even though its right next door to Bali (its about 20 mins flight between the two islands), its worlds away in terms of infrastructure, job prospects for the locals and standard of living. But it’s also a beautiful place with a totally different world view

A view from Gergerung to the mountains

While we were there we spent a lot of time in and around a village called Gergerung, where a local women’s group Annisa are working with locals on community projects. It is one of the more disadvantaged areas in West Lombok. To give you an idea, most people get by on around two dollars a day. This makes it difficult for parents to keep kids in school as the cost for their uniforms is too much for many families to manage. So our donations from the run will go towards uniforms packs for families.

A uniform pack includes:
- one hat and a tie (to wear with normal uniform)
- one pair of shoes
- 2 x normal uniform set
- 1 x Friday uniform
- 1 x Scouts uniform
- 3 x pair of socks
- a school bag
- set of pencils, ruler etc.

Maz with some kindergarten kids in Gergerung-this was taken in 2007 most of these kids will be in school this year.

We spent a lot of time in this area and have worked closely with Annisa, the NGO that will be distributing the packs, so we can verify that the money is needed and will be used wisely! Just so you know where your money will be going a pack costs about $60 (Rp 510,000). That price also allows for a little wriggle room in terms of exchange rates and the percentage that paypal charges for use of it’s site. You can find also more out about the village on this website made by our friend who has also done some fund raising for the area http://www.iced.org.au/gegerung-selatan-gegerung-puncak-villages.

TO DONATE: Click on the icon "Donate" in the "Donations" box on the side of this blog.  To follow the fundraising efforts see the thermometer in the "Fundraising" box.

We hope that you will all donate! Maybe a dollar for every drop of sweat!


Salam, M+J