In the beginning of 2025 SEEDS started to partner with Inspire FC, a football club based in Bandung, Indonesia, but already spread into 5 cities across the country. I am grateful for the opportunity to work as a football coach and be part of several social programs this club is running beside the everyday academy.

One of these programs is the “Champions Program”. This program is designed for children who are living in difficult situations of poverty, where the parents struggle to pay for school fees, where money often isn’t enough to cover daily expenses, not to mention activities like joining a football club. Across the 5 cities there are now 11 “Champions”, boys and girls, who are part of this program – we are aiming for 50. These Champions will be helped financially with a scholarship not only for our academy but for their school as well; they will get financial help for school equipment like uniforms or shoes and football material, transportation money and fees to play tournaments. In every city one of the local coaches of Inspire is responsible for the Champions, visiting their home and their school. In addition to financial support all the Champions of one city will meet every two weeks with the coach/mentor for a time where they can openly share about their experiences and feelings. Every other week there are tutor classes, where the Champions can gain additional skills, like English classes, teaching about canva (online graphic design), social media, and other life skills (cultural awareness, gardening, etc.)

It is a joy working together with the local program manager to set up operational systems to improve the follow up on the Champions, for finances, as well as for communication between the city leaders of the program and supporters/donors. 

During the meetings with the “Champions” I feel we do not only invest by sharing, helping or teaching, but I am also learning a lot about their life and the challenges they face.

It is encouraging to see that the club can already see results from this program. Some of the “Champions” have already been able to finish their school with good grades that enables them to find a good job afterwards, to study, to become a coach in this club or even start their own social organization.

During my time at the University working in the English Department in the University in Padang, students not only learn about English language but also about culture and confidence especially when they speak in another language with a foreigner.

Through different activities in the semester, as well as meeting other foreigners, the students were encouraged to practice conversation to increase their confidence in speaking English. At the same time, they practiced what kind of questions to ask, since there are some questions in their culture that are not polite in a western or English-speaking country.

This is a kind of immersion in the culture and language, whilst in their own country, to prepare them for future encounters with foreigners or for when they have the opportunity to study or travel overseas.

The English Department prepares the student not only with language but also with building confidence and character for when they, one day, face the world using their degrees.

Hatyai, the biggest city in South Thailand, got hit by a devastating flood in November 2025. Many one-storey houses were flooded completely, up to the roof. A number of people with two-storey houses had to stay on the second floor for a few days until the water resided.

As the needs in the city were massive, relief efforts were limited and didn’t reach everyone. In many parts of the city, food packages were distributed. The chairperson of our foundation heard from local people in one area that they hadn’t received help yet. Some local people said that they needed electrical appliances as these had been damaged in the flood. Therefore, we gave out rice cookers and electrical fans to families in 3 communities. They really appreciated the help.

One lady cooked lunch for the foundation volunteers and invited us to visit her on Idil Fitri in March after the fast month of Ramadan. She lives in an area where many one-storey houses were completely flooded. As the foundation received a bigger donation from abroad, we could help more. This lady went to 100 households and asked them what they needed most – a rice cooker, electrical fan, or gas stove. She asked people to come and pick them up on a specific day when the foundation workers were there.

While people were waiting in a queue to get the appliance they had chosen, foundation workers chatted with them. Several people shared that they had to sit on the roof of their house and wait for about 3 days until they got rescued. They didn’t have any food and just drank rainwater. One lady with her daughter stood for 3 days and nights in the flood water, which had reached the second floor, until it resided. This was very sad to hear. This flood was a traumatic experience for many people in Hatyai. 

Even though we couldn’t help much, compared to the big loss that people had experienced, they were grateful. One of the ladies who came, invited a foundation worker to visit her house. Since then, she has visited her a few times already. On Idil Fitri, a few of us will visit the house of the lady who invited us. This flood relief opened doors to connect us with new local people.

Our health project operates frequently in the village / regional areas. 

A major challenge we often face is the residents’ aversion to accessing healthcare from hospitals. A few reasons include the cost of travel, cost of medical services, not being able to understand the hospital staff (as the staff do not speak the village dialect), confusion with the health insurance system, or believing they can resolve serious medical issues with traditional/alternative methods.

We have offered to bridge this gap by explaining the importance of getting timely diagnosis / treatment, providing lifts if needed, assisting with interpretation during consults, and teaching them how the health insurance application works.

Currently, we now have at least two village residents, Mrs I and Mrs S, who are getting confident with navigating around the health insurance application. They have been showing other residents how to set it up and use it. They are also assisting with interpretation during medical consults.

We are starting to see a trend where residents require less persuasion to make the trip to the hospital or clinic. They are beginning to access help earlier rather than delaying it until their condition(s) has worsened. This is a work in progress. There are still a few residents with strong evidence of bone fractures that still insist on continuing their regime as prescribed by the traditional medicine practitioner. There are a number of stroke patients who still do not see the need to undergo regular physiotherapy rehabilitation. 

One achievement this past year was the signing of the M.O.U. and sharing of resources with a community clinic. However, this clinic is only open until 2pm and is still far away from a number of villages. This means it is still difficult for some residents to access local health services. One of our long-time local nurses has started a small “clinic” to enable access to basic consults and common prescription medications (e.g. blood pressure, diabetes, antacids, Tuberculosis, etc). This has been approved by the regional health department and will be supported by a local doctor.

We hope to see a trend where more residents are empowered to seek out medical services, understand when it is appropriate to use traditional medicine, and when it’s imperative to access medical intervention. Our team will continue building trust in the communities.

Understanding a new culture and learning its language takes time and effort. Add to that
someone resettling in another country and getting used to new food and climate as well as
having to relearn how to do daily life routines – where to buy groceries, how to use public
transportation, how to fix broken things etc. away from the support of a grown network of
family and friends.

SEEDS is committed to see its consultants and their accompanying family members, who come
from all over the globe, settle well, take roots and thrive in the long haul within their new
culture.

Therefore, a consultant of SEEDS in Indonesia is assigned to support our newly arriving
consultants and their dependents in all aspects of adapting to a new place, language and
culture learning.

We believe that SEEDS projects have lasting impact when founded on trusting relationships that
SEEDS consultants establish with their local partners and communities.

To this end SEEDS considers it mandatory that our consultants become proficient in local
language and culture and spend significant time in formal language and culture study prior to
their project-assignment.

This will help them to communicate well in formal and informal situations, but also to better
understand unspoken meaning and underlying cultural values that influence behaviour and
decision making.

For example, one SEEDS consultant was happy to have papaya seedlings sprouting up in front of
the house. Neighbours started to comment on the papaya trees. The consultant assumed the
neighbours were happy, until one day the house-helper explained that the local people’s belief
is that ghosts live in papaya trees in front of houses. It takes knowledge of language, culture
and trust to get such insights. As a result, the consultant will be cautious offering papaya
seedlings to local people to plant in front of their house…