In 2009 British entrepreneur and philanthropist Robert Epstone retired to Bali with wife Shelley after a fast paced career in the fashion and music business in London and latterly Shanghai. After settling down in their very own corner of paradise in Seminyak and sampling the various delights of retired life in Bali, Robert grew a bit itchy and bored and started looking for ‘something else to do beside lounging, vegging and loafing’. Due to his lifelong work with philanthropic organizations in Great Britain, Romania and the former Yugoslavia, he naturally gravitated towards the many charitable opportunities available in Bali. He joined Rotary Seminyak and was given a project to build twenty wells with accompanying fruit and vegetable gardens on the island of Sumba providing water and food to over two thousand villagers.
Robert, do tell, is this how it all began?
This project and a life-defining encounter with a British nurse named Sarah Chapman soon made me aware that there was a far less glamourous side to life in paradise. I saw firsthand that life can be a raw deal for the many disadvantaged people I encountered here. I wanted to help them and came up with a creative and quirky way to raise funds for the underprivileged by walking barefoot until the Solemen charity -which I founded with a few friends – could raise 1 million dollars. We started our ‘Barefoot Walks around Bali’ campaign as a means to draw awareness to the plight of the disadvantaged and do some fundraising for their benefit. Naturally we invited people to walk with us.
This became a well-known and well-attended event. How many walks did you actually accomplish?
We did 2 long walks in Bali and various shorter walks. Our first barefoot walk in July 2011 was 535 kilometers long and took 29 days. Our circuit started on Kuta beach, winding through Tabanan to Gilimanuk, along the north coast to Singaraja; from there we walked to Batur and back down through Bangli and Amlapura; across to Ubud, Renon and Benoa, ending at Uluwatu. Admittedly, this first attempt was grueling since none of us had serious trekking experience and don’t forget, we walked barefoot all the way, on all manner of inhospitable surfaces and in uncooperative weather. The physical demands extracted their toll in blisters, bleeding and infected feet, sore hamstrings and chronic fatigue. Hot pavement, gravelly or rocky surfaces were very challenging to walk on. We faced close encounters with cars and motorcycles and got grazed a few times by inattentive motorists. We walked in rain and scorching sun, in puddles and deep water not knowing what lurked at the bottom. In the end our feet got very calloused and provided a modicum of protection, although it still remained a painful, physically challenging and exhausting adventure.
Obviously it did not discourage you from continuing.
On the contrary, the first walk was an enlightening experience in many ways and provided the impetus to stick with our efforts. Underway we visited orphanages, schools and villages where we sponsored medical checkups performed by a doctor and two nurses from the Bali Kids foundation, one of our first partners and beneficiaries of the Solemen Foundation. These medical checkups were a standard feature of all the Bali walks, along with educational sessions about the dangers of drug addiction, AIDS, child safety and environmental awareness. The health checks were a serious eye opener revealing that many kids were suffering from a variety of ailments like infected ears, scabies and other skin diseases, under nutrition, etc.
So where did you go from there?
Around the time of the first walk I met Sarah Chapman, who had retired from a professional nursing career of 28 years in England. Sarah was spending three days a week riding on the back of a motorbike to care for a little abused and malnourished child called Ani who was only 6 kilos at 8 years old in a remote area of Karangasem. We clicked immediately and formed a roving, fast acting Outreach Team whichgradually expanded to include volunteer doctors, nurses, therapists and social workers. This team is now on the road daily to the remote areas of Bali to care for people with untreated diseases, disabilities, extreme poverty and destitution. We respond to referrals and find hidden poverty and untreated medical conditions rampant in all areas of Bali, among children and adults alike. We encounter severe malnutrition, mentally ill patients who are locked up or chained like animals, people with far advanced illnesses, with absolutely no access to medical care or who are living in acute poverty. Because of these experiences Yayasan Solemen has found its true direction: that of helping the hidden disadvantaged in Bali. Our focus is on searching out those who are not helped by the existing network of charitable organisations and government programmes. Our Outreach Team brings hope and healing to the many people we encounter, often in difficult to reach areas or where access to health care is poor or non-existent. Our fundraising efforts all are geared towards providing the funds to help pay for medical assessments, treatments and interventions.
How is Yayasan Solemen organised?
We actually have a fantastic core of dedicated professionals and volunteers. Our Outreach Team, superbly managed by Sarah, is backed up by a solid administration team and a coterie of volunteer staffers, various fundraising and PR services. Sarah has become the kingpin of the Outreach Team and her and Solemen’s small but dedicated and hardworking team’s efforts never flag to help those in need. Considering we have currently over 980 people under our care, Sarah and the team are overwhelmed.
Your caseload is huge..
Indeed. We call them ‘Solebuddies’ and their number is increasing every month. Last year it increased by 80%. The more Yayasan Solemen is known, the more referrals we get. We never turn down anyone needing help, even though we are severely stretched, both in professional resources and budget-wise. Over 75% of our monthly budget goes towards providing medical care and essential living support. We operate on a shoestring budget yet we book wonderful results because we focus on providing help where it is most needed and will have the most impact. We actually perform miracles of somesort as we have become experts in stretching the proverbial dollar. But we can only stretch it so far and since we want to do so much more, we spend a great deal of our time trying to raise funds to take on more cases.
What interesting situations have you come across?
Quite a few, actually. Some are horror stories but most have a good ending. One of our most spectacular successes has been the rehabilitation of 2 families with 7 severely disabled children between them. We found a total of 29 people living with just one toilet in a small dilapidated house in Denpasar in unhygienic and below-standard living conditions. The seven children suffered from a severe form of muscular dystrophy, scoliosis and developmental delay. Two of the boys had been lying naked on the concrete floor without any medical care or adequate ministration for over ten years. We immediately organised a fundraiser concert at Hard Rock Hotel with Superman is Dead, Navicula and a number of other local bands. The proceeds from this concert and the welcome help from the Governor of Bali allowed us to secure government land in Renon and build two separate, wheelchair accessible houses, provide medical care, therapy and customised wheelchairs to the afflicted boys. We also started a state of the art organic permaculture garden where the families are able to grow their own food including the superfood Moringa which we sell to hotels, cafes and various outlets. This happy ending was made true in part by the Governor who was speechless when he learned from me that these families lived so close to his own neighborhood. Later he became the Solemen Foundation’s ‘Pelindung’, our official protector.
Another story is that of a 45-year old man who was caged by his family due to untreated mental health issues, a deplorable but often occurring method of dealing with such situations. After two years of ongoing treatment, holistic care and medical supervision, we freed Made from his cage and rebuilt his dilapidated home close by. He is now a semi-autonomous functioning adult and interacting normally within his community.
Wayan Dik is nineteen years old and suffers from Epidermolysis Bullosa, an extremely painful genetic skin condition also known as ‘butterfly skin’ due to the severe vulnerability of the skin that erupts in painful sores and blisters comparable to third-degree burns. There is no known cure for this condition and the only treatment to alleviate it is a strict regimen of frequent applications of Aquaphor cream to the sores. Since Aquaphor cream is not available in Bali Solemen produce their own.
This disease caused Wayan’s fingers and toes to fuse together until the Solemen team arranged plastic surgery to separate his webbed fingers. Despite this debilitating condition and his hand deformities Wayan was actively supported by Solemen in developing his talents as a craftsman and artist making imaginative lamps from lollipop sticks. After separating his fingers he surprised us all by starting to create beautiful drawings. He now earns a respectable living from his efforts and his artful sketches especially are coveted by collectors. Recently Singapore Airlines commissioned several of his designs. The most wonderful benefit has been Wayan’s decision to give back and share with other disadvantaged children 50% of all funds received from the sale of his work.
How do you go about fundraising? Are you still far from the 1 Million dollars?
Ah! That’s a good question. Our biggest problem is sustainable funding. We are not the recipients of any government funding or ongoing support from corporate sponsors so we rely on a stream –not always steady as it turns out- of individual donations and partnerships with small businesses. We have a wonderful core of loyal Solemen supporters we call ‘Solemates’. They are Bali businesses who display the Solemen stickers at their place of business and pay us a small stipend in return for PR exposure. Many individuals respond to our frequent appeals on Facebook for acute cases. We also have a number of hotel partners with a $per night or per stay ‘opt-out’ programme for their guests. And I should mention that we currently have 3 vehicles generously donated for our use. Our 4WD car was donated by an Australian family and their friends so we can reach the Solebuddies who live in unreachable areas at the end of virtually unpassable roads. Another car, used to transport Solebuddies to and from therapy appointments, is sponsored by The Bali Dynasty Resort. Along with some other hotels they also sponsor treatment and education for some of our Solebuddies. Our present office space was kindly donated by one of our Solemen supporters. Mainly we hustle shamelessly and tirelessly through charitable events, auctions, coin boxes at several stores and through the sale of merchandise on which we get a percentage earmarked for our Solebuddies. But the big sponsorships from big companies still elude us. We are still chasing the big bucks from Corporates.
What are the main challenges for Solemen at this point?
Besides finding the elusive partner(s) with deep pockets, we need to seriously expand the reach of the Outreach Team. Our dream is to eventually have 8 teams on the road, each for a well-defined area of Bali. Our one team is currently overstretched. We have need for more doctors and medical care personnel. Secondly, we need to maintain funding to run our recently established ‘SOLEMEN HOUSE’ in the Panjer area on Renon in close proximity to Sanglah hospital for our ‘Solebuddies’ and/or their families who are attending regular care or treatments there pre and post procedures. We also need more sustainable funding for our ‘Power of Nutrition’ programme which is one of the most effective tools in the Solemen arsenal. This programme distributes nutritional supplements like Pediasure, Ensure and Moringa to malnourished children and adults.
You have a catchy logo and a wacky tagline.
Yes, the logo is us: we go wherever help is needed. The #WHOGIVESABUCK? tag is edgy and eye-catching. It’s a campaign we hope will entice people to chip in a buck, a quid, a bob, a fiver or whatever loose change is rattling in their pocket. A bit of pocket change can be a lifeline for our ‘SoleBuddies’ who are destitute, ill, disabled and malnourished or have no easy access to medical care. Pocket change allows us to continue our quest to make a significant change in the lives of those in need through our Solemen Outreach programme. But our cutest ambassador is our mascot, the cuddly Soleteddy who represents a beacon of hope for our Solebuddies. Soleteddies are popularly sold in many places in Bali.
How can people help?
You can see more of what we do -and need – on our Solemen website, www.solemen.org or on Facebook. Donations, sponsorships, or providing some items on our Wish List will go a long way to help us create smiles, give hope and change lives forever.
We love it when the buck stops here.
Copyright © 2017 Bali Advertiser
You can read all past articles of
BA Feature Article at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz