Today 15th of October is Blog Action Day. Every year on Blog Action Day thousands of bloggers will write a post to raise awareness and try to help on a certain social topic. This year that topic is poverty.

All posts are in theme with the blog; quoting Blog Action Day guidelines: A Tech Blog might look at pro-poor technologies and projects like 1 Laptop Per Child, or A Personal Blog might document a personal activity of the blogger that is helping the disadvantaged.

I’d like to take this occasion to talk about a project that helps the people in Kampung Loco, a little village in the island of Lombok, Indonesia, just beside the famous and expensive Bali.

The Project Kampung Loco helps improving the development of the children and the people of the village. It is not an official charity; instead the two founders deliver all funds collected to few trusted people in the village, and make sure the money is properly used and documented. People find it reassuring to donate to someone they know and see how their money has been used rather than donating to a big official charity and then not knowing if how and when the money reached the people that needed it.

There are 4 main projects: Sending kids to School, Providing Medicines, Emergencies like hospitalization, and transportation to schools by Bemo, a little mini-van.

I was in Lombok and by pure coincidence I ended up in Kampung Loco. Immediately I became friends with the folks in the village, and got to know about the Project simply seeing things like a water tank and a laptop for children to study; both provided by the Project. Getting to know the situation a bit more I was almost enraged at how what many people consider a very small amount of money can make a huge difference for the people in the village. You can read all the information on the official website, but just to give you an idea: 25 Euros will send a kid to elementary school for one year!!

I would like to take the Blog Action Day chance to invite Flashpackers and Flashpackers aficionados to donate some amount (nothing is too little) through the Project Bank Account, or simply by Paypal or credit card clicking the button below.

Thank you kindly in advance, on behalf of me, the Project Kampung Loco and the children in the village.