Ain’t Too Proud To Beg

About Project 18

We love children, and we raise our children to love and respect the earth. I'm passionate about children and it pains me to see children suffering in any way. For those of you with children under 5, or even older, try this simple visualisation exercise for a moment:

Imagine taking your child into a crowded street at dusk, walking away from them and never going back. Imagine the fear in that child when they realise you're gone. Imagine them wandering scared and hungry through the streets... imagine their life now, day after day.

If you can do this exercise without tears, then you are stronger than me, but for 1.8 million children in Indonesia, this is reality. Every night 1.8 million children in Indonesia sleep homeless. For most of us that number is unfathomable.

Catherine (Cate) Bolt

President/Founder

Cate is a mother of 9 who has previously worked as a journalist, photographer, prison officer and company director. She is passionate about children's rights, conservation, music & the arts. She is married to Project 18 secretary/treasurer, Rick.

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Rick Bolt

Treasurer/Secretary

Rick is Dad to nine and husband to Project 18 president,Cate. For the past 10 years prior to moving to QLD Rick managed the development of numerous alternative energy projects throughout Australia. He is a nationally recognised expert in the field of alternate energy and bring to the project a wealth of business, technical and people management skills.

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Karen Morris

Media & Public Relations Manager

Karen is a mother of 3 active boys and owner of Inscriptions Media. She is enthusiastic, filled with ideas and schemes and, having worked in the industry for over 15 years, is passionate about communication and what you can achieve by being open, honest and a good listener. She also has a passion for rugby and proudly watches her sons compete each week, win, lose or draw.

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Erica Smith

Social Media Manager

Erica is a mum to 3 who most recently worked as a video producer/editor for a small production house. Her passions include child safety & education, animals and chocolate.

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Carol Barry

Management Committee Member

Carol resides in the Sth Eastern suburbs of Melbourne with her 2 children, and husband of 15yrs. Her work history has included Child Care, Medical Administration, Customer Service and she is now the proud owner of TAWC, a company Catherine Bolt started from scratch 10yrs ago. Carol has a great interest in metaphysics and learning from all the wonderful people that enter her life.

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Loki Ogilvie

Management Committee Member

Loki comes from a large family and is currently focused on his year twelve studies. He enjoys the company of others and enjoys listening to people talk about past experiences. He is willing to gain some experiences from this wide world and helping people is just second nature to him.

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Susan Wallis

Management Committee Member

Susan is a mother of 2 girls who has recently returned to the workforce with a great opportunity to work from home. Susan's background has involved employment in training, recruitment, sales, marketing and project management. A 5 year stint helping kids with disabilities find work proved to be a godsend when Susan's eldest daughter was born with special needs.

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Posted by on 30 August 2009 | 1 Comments

Tags: begging, donations, poverty, charity

I’ve discussed previously on the blog that over half of Indonesia’s population live on less than $2US per day. It’s kinda hard to put into perspective with exchange rates and differing scales of economy, you could be forgiven for thinking “well if 52% of the population can survive on it, it can’t be that bad!”

So let’s think about it. How bad would things have to be for you to send your five-year-old out into the crowded streets of Jakarta to beg for money? If you have a child in this age bracket, I challenge you to spend a few minutes looking at them and imagining them in that situation. I have a nearly-six-year-old daughter and I can tell you, I wouldn’t let her walk the 300m to our property gate on her own. The thought of being so hungry that I send her, also close to starvation, out onto the streets to beg for a few cents makes me want to cry.

It has been illegal to give money to beggars, buskers and hawkers in Jakarta since new legislation was passed in September 2007. Allegedly, this was supposed to “clean up the city” of unsightly poor people. Those giving money to beggars can face up to 6 months in jail, and those caught begging can spend 3 months in jail for repeated offences. It would be incredibly stupid of me to say anything in this blog to piss off the Indonesian government, given my intentions but … maybe I’m just not intelligent enough to understand the thought process.

I’m a very big fan of visualisation and applying situations to myself to see how I might cope with them and while I can’t ever comprehend the depths that one has to reach to send my children out to beg or, even worse to abandon them completely in order for them to have a better life – I do now find myself in the position where I myself need to beg in order to help them. This is certainly bringing visualisation to a whole new and very real dimension!

I wonder, perhaps arrogantly, if it comes harder to us in the Western world to commit ourselves to begging? Maybe if you’re born into a country of such great poverty you accept the need to beg as part of life. But at the same time, these are people, just like you and I, with the same emotional needs and fears. And I will admit, however painful the admission might be, that my pride is taking a huge beating coming to terms with the concept that I will need to start begging, not just for the charity but for my family’s survival also.

Maybe there is some honour that comes with begging when you’re doing so because you’ve committed yourself to a life less glamorous in order to help others. I’m not sure. To me begging is begging, and it takes a strength of conviction I’m still trying to achieve. I have no problem in begging for the charity! But when it comes to begging for me, so I can continue to do what I’m doing – that’s where I hit the wall. This is rapidly becoming one of the most interesting social experiments that I’ve ever been witness to.

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Recent Blog Posts
06/12/09
Project 18 Website Launch :
30/08/09
Ain’t Too Proud To Beg: How bad would things have to be for you to send your five-year-old out into the crowded streets of Jakarta to beg for money?
22/08/09
Frequently Asked Questions: These are the questions people are most frequently asking about the start-up of the association
22/08/09
Family Meeting!! (Project Update): The official name will be Project 18 (Inc). Eighteen has significance to our family as we have one girl and eight boys, and the village when we are finished will have 18 homes, each housing 8 children.
18/08/09
Help! – The Psychology of Altruism: What happened to helping just because it’s the right thing to do?