nordicclubjakarta.org

The work of the Charity Committee of the Nordic Club (NC) from April 2011 to April 2012 has been carried out by a group consisting of three to five women. Focus of the work has been on education and scholarships to young students. The ages of the students the NC supports ranges from four year olds attending pre-school in Bekasi to 20 year olds finalising their last year in High School. The United Nations has declared education as a right, like the right to have proper food or a roof over your head. It also acknowledges that education is not only a right but a passport to human development and has declared that the ultimate aim of Education for All is sustainable development. We hope that we are contributing to the development of Indonesia by supporting young students who wants to study.

Long term projects 

The support to the TK Anglia pre-school in Bekasi started in 1990 and is continuing today. From July 2011 the NC only supports students there and are no longer paying teachers’ salaries. When TK Anglia started out it was supposed to take only children from underprivileged families who could not afford to send their children to pre-school themselves. Today the families of most of the students pay themselves for their children to go to TK Anglia School. With the shift in the profile of the majority of the students at the school the Charity Committee felt it was time to stop paying for teachers’ salaries and to only support the children who needed support in order to be able to attend the school.

Ibu Els, a long term associate of the NC in Bekasi who the NC co-operated with when building the pre-school TK Anglia in the early 1990s has fallen ill and is since the beginning of year 2012 not doing any work in Bekasi. The support to the TK Anglia School is now going directly through the headmaster at the school. The Charity Committee has been in touch with a family member of Ibu Els and have established contact in case it’s needed from either side in the future.

In June 2011 the Charity Committee stopped supporting one of our long term charity projects, Yayasan Griya Asih (GA). GA is a home for street children and the NC has supported them for many years by paying scholarships for students living at the home so they can study at different schools. The payments were until

January 2010 paid directly to the caretaker of GA but some of the money went missing and was never paid to the schools the children attended. From February till June 2011 the Charity Committee tried to re-establish ties with GA and the NC supported students in only one school and paid scholarships directly to the school to try to avoid problems. But due to lack of communication by the caretaker of GA with the NC the support had to stop permanently in June 2011.

Before the NC ended the support to GA two students that the NC had supported for many years finished the last year of high school at SMP ST. Fransiskus School with our support in June 2011.

New and future projects 

The Charity Committee has started supporting one new project during the last year, Yayasan Kampung Kids. Kampung Kids is an organisation in the Pejaten area in South Jakarta and the NC is supporting students from elementary school through high school through Kampung Kids. We have also supported two Danish volunteers teaching English at Kampung Kids and supported Kampung Kids with four new computers for their computer classes at their centre.

The Charity Committee has also established contact with Yayasan Goodwill this year, Yayasan Goodwill supports university students from underprivileged backgrounds, and the NC is likely to take up supporting this organisation in August 2012.

The Charity Committee has also established contact with the Red Cross society in order to be able to donate money quickly should there be another natural disaster in Indonesia in the future.

The Charity Committee 

There is always a need for more volunteers to help out with the work of the Charity Committee. The present members, Maria, Gunilla, Jessica, Monika and Octa, all from the Swedish section, sincerely hope that more people will take an interest in the work of the Charity Committee during next year.

President - Melissa Holck

Vice President- Isabelle Ulvenholm

Treasurer- Irene Knardal

Secretary- Torill Olufsen

Charity Rep- Jenny Ohlsson

Norwegian Country Rep- Ann May Røstøen

Swedish Country Rep- Monika Engstrøm

Danish Country Rep- Gitte Winberg

Finnish Country Rep- Carmella Lindell

Web Coordinator- Miriam Fjellaker

Events Coordinator- Open

Sponsorship Coordinator- Open

Trips & Tours Coordinator - Open

It’s hard to believe that a year has already come and gone.  It doesn’t seem that long ago that I stepped into the role of NC President.  I like to think that is because we have had amazingly positive year with a fantastic group of women to work with.  It’s truly been allot of fun for me to be a part of NC in this capacity.

Membership numbers have remained stable with many new families arrving and some leaving.  The current NC member deomographic is made up of 34 Danish families, 26 Norwegian families, 19 Swedish families and 3 Finnish families.  Giving NC a membership of 82 not including spouses and children.

In the last year we have gone back to having our coffee mornings on a montly basis the first Tuesday of every month except during summer and winter break.  Our coffee mornings have been well attended with an average of 25-30 members in attendance.  These monthly get togethers are always very much enjoyed by our members both new and old.  Our November coffee morning also included a mini bazzar which was well attended.

In September we held our first Family Trek in Sentul.  It was a great success with 19 families and nearly 60 people attending the half day event.  Many of whom have asked when we will do it again.

The month of December was host to our NC Christmas party.  This event brought all our members together for an eveninng to share in traditional Scandavian Christmas food and drink.  Attendance to this event was impressive as we were just under 60 members in attendance.

Monday tennis group was establish for players of all levels.  Although, the venue has  recently changed to the tennis courts behind CITOS, this activitivy remains popular with regular attendance by NC members.

Pub Nights have been another well attended event.  Held on Friday nights at an outside venue, this events have been well liked by our members.

With the amount of new families arriving in Jakarta with young children there was a demand for a NC Playgroup.  This is a new activity that has only just been implemented with it’s first “play date” on March 22^nd.  It’s our hope that this will be on going as long as there is participation from members.

The most recent activity that has been arranged is NC Zumba classes.  These classes are set to begin on April 5^th.  There was 17 members who expressed interest in this activity.  We expect to have this has an ongoing activity as long there is interest and attendance amongst the members.

Crayfish Party planning has begun.  The event is scheduled to take place in November 2012.  This event has historically been our largest fundraiser, but we have not held the event since 2009 due to lack of event volunteers.  We have a full committee on board with planning well underway.

Golf group was attempted, but unfortunately there was not enough member interest to see this group materialize into an ongoing NC activity.

There were no trips and tours held this year, as the board position was vacant.  Anyone iterested in trips and tours should contact the Heritage Society.

NC Country Reps have also been busy the past year organizing country specific events such as Norwegian Christmas party, Lucia Party and Fastelavensfest.  These events were all well attended.

An E-Newsletter was sent out in December to inform members of upcoming events, news on past events, charity news and country specific news.  This will be an ongoing newsletter to be emailed quarterly to all NC members.

Facebook was implemented this year.  We use Facebook as a tool to update members about upcoming events and community information.  It was our intention to keep up with the times as well has decrease the amount of emails being sent to members.  We currently have 51 followers.

Thank you to all the board members for continually supporting NC charities and bringing new ideas and activities to our members.  Your hard work and positivity has rewarded NC with a truly successful year!

Melissa Holck

President 2011-2012

Dear All,

I am sending out an update on the Nordic Club charity work and hope to
discuss this further with anyone interested at the next Coffee Morning on 6
December. We are currently supporting two main projects; the T.K.J. Anglia
Pre-School in Bekasi where we support 20 students who started pre-school
this year and Yayasan Kampung Kids where we support six high school
students and five in elementary school. For more details, please see the
attached flyer.

Over the last couple of weeks we have had two requests from our two main
projects which I am forwarding to all the members.

The first one is from Ibu Els who together with the Nordic Club started the
pre-school in Bekasi where we are supporting some students today. Ibu Els
is involved in different charity projects in Bekasi and has a group of
older students living at her house. These are children from poor families
and Ibu Els helps them with their schooling. Over the years Ibu Els has
had a variety of children staying at her house but at the moment there are
mainly teenage boys staying there and she has asked for donations of*second
hand clothes for teenage boys*. If anyone has cleaned out a wardrobe with
suitable clothes or are about to do so, please get in touch with us in the
Charity Committee if you want to donate these clothes or bring them to the
next Coffee Morning scheduled for 6 December.

The second request is for *second hand computers* from Yayasan Kampung Kids.
They are running computer classes for their scholarship students at the
Kampung Kids’ centre. Kampung Kids have previously been running three
classes but have had to downscale to one class as the computers have gotten
too old and slow to work with. There are many scholarship students who
would like to attend these classes and Kampung Kids would like to expand
this activity again. The students attending don’t have a computer at home
and the classes focus on the computer skills they need to keep up with
their school work. If you have a second hand computer at home that you
would like to donate to Kampung Kids for their computer classes please get
in touch with the Charity Committee or bring it along to the next Coffee
Morning scheduled for 6 December.

If you have any further questions about these two requests please do not
hesitate to contact us in the Charity Committee.

Finally I would like to say that we as always are looking for more
volunteers to help us with the work in the Charity Committee. In order to
expand our work into new areas we would very much appreciate having native
Bahasa speakers join the committee, but we will welcome everyone who is
interested in joining us with open arms.

On behalf of the Charity Committee,

Maria Bäckström

Charity Representative

NC Charity Work

Dear Nordic Club members,

It’s with great pleasure that I have accepted the position of Nordic Club President for the 2011-2012 board term.  This position means allot to me, as I have always been passionate about volunteer work.

In the coming year, the new Board and I will endeavor to keep Nordic Club progressing and growing as you; the members would like to see.

I would like to thank Malin Boman, my predecessor and all the previous year’s board members Maria Backstrom, Torill Olufsen, Gunilla Allansson, Lisa Gunnarson, Lisette Moormann, Cris Madsen, Danuta Jonsson, Fiona Hay and Mai Britt Ljungbeck for their hard work last year.  Thank you for keeping Nordic Club going and for building a strong foundation for us to continue to build on.

Welcome to our new Board!

The 2011-2012 Nordic Club Board

President:          Melissa Holck

Vice President:   Vacant

Secretary:           Torill Olufsen

Treasurer:          Gunilla Allansson

Trips & Tours:   Vacant

Charity:              Maria Backstrom

Denmark:           Lisbeth Llyod

Finland:               Vacant

Norway:              Annelin Tufta

Sweden:              Monika Engstrom

Web Editor:       Vacant

I am looking forward to working with the dynamic group of women on the Board, as well as getting to know the NC members better.

Should you have any questions or suggestions for Nordic Club, feel free to contact any of the Board members.  We will be happy to hear from you and address your queries.

Warm regards,

Melissa Holck

NC President

2011-2012

Time flies and another year has gone by in Nordic Club Jakarta.

Last year we had around 90 members in Nordic Club Jakarta. Some people are leaving and new people are arriving!

As always, we held our monthly Coffee Mornings, sometimes lunches, and although attendance was variable they were always enjoyable events. We had some speakers with interesting subjects such as eye surgery and organic cleaners. Our Raffle was a good source to raise money for our charities.

Some members of the Board introduced 2 new regular social events in the evenings, particularly for our working members. These were the Girl’s Night Out and the Pub Night, which were both a success.

This year’s Crayfish Party at Borobudur Hotel was a huge success with over 300 people attending, and it brought in the biggest profit we have ever had for this event. People around Jakarta are still talking about how good it was.

There were no Trips and Tours this year, as it was noted that at the end of the last year only the Board members were attending the tours.

Nordic Club’s Charity work continued as previously to financially support Anglia Bekasi Kinder garden and the Griya Asih Orphanage. Our Charity Representative Anu Hirvela’s idea of Baby Boxes was introduced at the Midwife Clinic in Bekasi. The Nordic Club funded 25 Baby Boxes which included baby clothes and toiletries, and hygiene products for the mother. The boxes brought a lot of joy to the new mothers. All the children at both institutions were given school bags and pencil boxes for Christmas. We also brought rice and oil to the people living along the riverside of Bekasi.

I would like to thank my board for an interesting year and with bringing new ideas to the Nordic Club Jakarta.

Louise Munch Johannsen

22 ladies and a baby got together for the October-lunch. We met at a restaurant called “Potato Head” - and those of us who thought that they would only have jacket potatoes on the menu were proven very wrong. We all enjoyed lovely food and of course each other’s company! It is always nice to get together with the members of the club. A big thank you to all of you for your continuous support.   Lisa Naadland, Norwegian Country Rep.

On the very lucky date of 09.09.09, Nordic Club arranged the first “Girl’s night out” - an arrangement to try to get our working members more involved in the club and a great opportunity for us non-working members to get together.And it turned out to be a lucky evening - 23 happy girl’s came together in “Brassiere” at Kemang Raya - and enjoyed each other company, good food and good drinks.Needless to say, when that many girls get together, the volume around the table was nothing less than HIGH, but I guess that is the way it is supposed to be. We (the board) are very pleased to have such a great turnout on our first evening-get-together in a while - and we hope that this trend will continue throughout the year. Look out for Pub-nights and Girl’s Night Out - coming up soon! Lisa NådlandNorwegian Country Rep.

A new membership year has started, and it was really nice to see so many new and old faces at our first gathering of the “year”.

As we have done for the past few years, each country has to arrange one Coffee Morning each during the year, and first country out was Norway. So, 27 happy ladies came together in Fiona’s house, where we were welcomed by our new President, Louise Johannsen. She told us a little bit about upcoming and new events - and of course welcomed old and new members back.

Then our web-editors ( Fiona Hay, Mai-Britt Ljungbeck and Malin Boman) gave us a short but very informative talk about the web-site (www.nordicclubjakarta.org) and encouraged us all to use the web-site on a regular basis.

We were told that the Crayfish Party is happening in November, “Girls night out” and a Pub night is coming up. Many things to look forward to in this coming year - so please remember to pay your membership fee!!

Last, but not least, we got to eat all the lovely food that the Norwegian group had prepared for us.

A big thanks to Fiona, for lending us her house again, and to the whole Norwegian Group for all the lovely food - we could not have arranged this Coffee Morning without all your help and support.

Lisa Nådland
Norwegian Country Representative

On Tuesday 2 ^nd of June we had our monthly gathering at Tamnak Thai restaurant. This is a busy time for everyone - saying goodbye to old friends, end-of-year-party at schools, getting ready for that loooong summer holiday – and so on. So it was really nice to see as many as 15 members, and one brand new one, at the lunch – we even had 3 men, which is quite unique.

As usual when we all get together, the “noise-level” or should I say “talk-level” is quite high, and this lunch was no exception. So we enjoyed the nice food and company, and it was great to get a last meeting before the long summer holiday.

To all our members; “Have a great summer holiday – looking forward to seeing you all in the fall!!”

Lisa Nådland,
Norwegian Country-Rep