The Community Centre is located in a remote area and the condition of people’s lives in the hamlet of Muhajirin are very complex, ranging from issues with poverty, unemployment, high levels of early marriage, the number of children who do not have access to proper education and educational services for very poor, as well as high numbers of people who are illiterate.

The centre has a total of 67 children in the play group, 137 villagers in literacy education and 158 villagers with equal education. However, PKBM Ceria has constraints related to facilities and infrastructure facilities that are less supportive, such as inadequate building space to meet the standards of eligibility, damaged classrooms, poor playground facilities, minimal computer facilities, and a lack of facilities to support the children and villagers to be able to learn optimally.

Earthquake Disaster

On the 5th of August, the beautiful Island of Lombok was hit by a 7.0 earthquake, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and major damage to people’s homes, local infrastructure and people’s lives.

Unfortunately due to the recent disaster, parts of the community centre itself had been damaged and some of the homes of the children who are part of the centre had been completely destroyed and many in the community are currently sleeping in outdoor temporary shacks or tents.

We had a lot of friends who have been badly affected by this disaster and we wanted to do something to try to support the community get back on its feet. Mango Tiger sent funds to help repair some of the damage done. This funding went directly to those in need and using our local in country teams, friends and partners we acted fast so that those in need could start to rebuild their lives. There is however still a lot of work to be done.

Mango Tiger Bike Challenge  to raise funds for Lombok Community Centre

In October 2018, one of the woefully unfit Mango Tiger founders and a friend undertook an epic cycling challenge covering over 1,000 Km’s in 10 days (with one day break half-way). The challenge was put together in a bit of a rush but managed to raise over 500 USD for Lombok Community Centre that had been damaged by earthquakes a few months earlier.

Starting in the central Vietnamese town of Hoi An and working south for 10 days we experienced serious heat, torrential rain, stunning coastal roads and some crazy steep mountains. There was some seriously tough times where we pushed the limits of what we thought we could achieve.

All in all it was an incredible life-changing experience and it was fantastic that we raised some money for a good cause. We plan to do similar challenges in the future (with better planning) for more good causes around Asia.